In Bloomberg, Megan McArdle gives advice to the downwardly mobile. (By downwardly mobile, she means average middle class workers who are earning less than the past.) She was inspired by an article in the Wall Street journal about finding work after a period of unemployment. We’ve talked about this topic before on this blog, so let’s come back to this subject.

In the past ten years, our income has changed dramatically. At first, things were tight, as we recovered from graduate school. Then for about a year or two, things were great – a big bonus and double incomes. Then 2008 happened. A few years later, Steve was downsized and took a consultancy gig. Ups and downs. Everybody has ’em. Luckily, our downs weren’t terrible, and we learned some good lessons along the way.

Related: Read about Lance Armstrong selling off his stuff.

Megan’s lessons (budget, live within your means, save) are all excellent. Let me add a few of my own:

1. Live like a graduate student. Always. Even after you are doing well. If possible, socialize with graduate students, because you’ll always feel rich.

2. Assume that you’ll lose your job for a period of time and that your income will be cut in half. You don’t have to assume that you’ll have zero income, because you can always get a low paying job somewhere. You also don’t have to assume that the job loss will mean permanent unemployment. People lose their jobs every day, so it’s really important to think through the worse case scenario. I even know a professor with tenure who lost her job, because the school got rid of the whole department. Now, do you have a plan?  Do you have a plan that will mean the least disruption for the kids?

3. Never spend your whole paycheck, even when things are going well. If you earn a bonus, do NOT assume that it will happen every year. Do NOT spend your bonus on your mortgage. A bonus should go straight to savings.

4. Drive a crappy car. Live in a modest home. Try to keep the non-negotiable expenses to a minimum. In the flush years, spend your money on a trip to Mexico, not a house with granite countertops. A nice vacation is a one-time expense; a mortgage is every month.

5. Cook dinner six days a week.

6. Do not take out a second mortgage on the house for college.

7. Splurge on ONE thing that makes you happy — travel, food, clothes — but do not spend splurge on all of those things.

8. Have friends that bring you bottles of wine and bourbon, when the bad things happen.