If you’ve been in the job market for more than 5 minutes, you know that you sometimes have to accept a worse job than you previously had. Maybe you got fired and had to take a position that paid $10K less than before. If you are laid off and want to provide for yourself no matter what, you might score a gig washing dishes or Doordashing before you can get back in your field. There shouldn’t be any shame in taking a step back in your career, especially if you set yourself up to get back on track to where you want to be. After all, making less money than you used to is always better than making no money or relying on the government to pay your salary for a fickle amount of time. You can’t drain your savings indefinitely when you’re a qualified, working-age person with a family to support.