We all deal with money, yet there is no mandatory education in its creation, use, management, or movements.

Learning about, and getting to know this classroom stranger is a useful life exercise, because Finance is a stranger that lives around us in some form and really should be a friend whose nuances we are accustomed to.

As in health, we know what we should eat, yet may not. So in finance. Schools teach many subjects, but many are not taught with practical application. Financial health is poor, and our bank balance may appear undernourished.

We know the importance of looking after our finances when we try to exist on a lack of it. Surviving on £20 a week is an instructive life lesson.

It is pennies that make pounds, and taking the time to plan and exercise a strategy for looking after those pennies is time well spent. Increased financial fitness will be the result.

Ultimately you decide whether it's raining debt, or raining credit.

“You don’t need a job to survive the recession?…Yeah, right!” some may serve up as a retort – along with a generous side portion of sarcasm. Others may envisage that I’m about to expunge the joys of financial prudence like a nan.

“You don’t need a job to survive the recession”. Honestly I really mean it, and truly believe it. Here’s why…

A job, unless you’re self-employed, means someone else giving you a ‘handout’ (salary) according to the value your services have to them.

Think about why you supposedly need such a job?

To make ends meet. To keep the baliffs out. To put bread on the table. To keep a roof over your head. It’s all about making money.

You don’t really need a job, what you need is to make money. A job just provides you with one way of doing that.

Freeing up your thought process to see the wider picture allows you to be more creative in the solutions to making money that you come up with.

For example,  de-clutter the house by selling unused possessions. (Many people are currently looking to buy cheap goods to ‘make do’ and help them through a financial rough spot).

Or perhaps, start a local leaflet around your neighbourhood with money saving tips. See if local businesses would be interested in offering a modest discount to customers holding your leaflet, which has an advert for their business on it.

Or even, join ailing businesses together into a ‘service chain’. Help an accessories store to cross-advertise with a hairdresser and nail bar – helping ladies to get glammed up for a night-out without breaking the bank to do so.

You don’t really need a job, what you need is to make money. So if the Recession, like Life, doesn’t give you an opportunity – then feel free to make one!