Build the runway before you need it
I told you my wife lost her job while she was on maternity leave, and that we didn’t panic. Here is the part I left out.
She was the breadwinner.
Not a second income. The main one. New baby in the house, and the paycheck we leaned on the most just stopped. The company folded. Late 2024. One week there was a salary, the next there was a quiet kitchen and a decision to make.
That is the version of this story where a lot of families come apart. Ours didn’t. And I want to be honest about why, because it had nothing to do with being naturally calm people.
We had spent 9 years getting ready for exactly that week.
Here is what that actually looked like, and none of it is glamorous. We saved close to half of what we earned. Half. When Apple was paying me well, we lived like it wasn’t. Same cars. We didn’t upgrade the house every time the number went up. People thought we were strange about money. We were. On purpose.
We built more than one stream of income, so no single one could take us down. And we kept a rainy day fund that could cover a rainy year, not a rainy week. A month of expenses in the bank is not a plan. It is a countdown.
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So when the paycheck disappeared, nothing in our life had to change that day. No fire sale. No panic call to family. No 3am math. The cushion was already under us, because we poured it back when we didn’t need it. That is the whole trick. You cannot build a runway while the plane is already going down.
Now here is the part that still gets me.
My wife did not spend that time waiting for the next job to come rescue her. She started building something of her own. She found a commercial lot in our town and started a food truck business on it. Trucks first. The plan is a permanent building after that, 12 units of housing on the same piece of land. Phase one is parked and serving now. Phase two is on paper.
She lost a job and turned it into the first brick of something she owns. I married up. I say that a lot, and I mean it more every year.
People hear “resilience” and think it is a personality. Some people are just born tougher. I don’t buy that. Resilience is not a mood you summon on the bad day. It is a structure you pour on the good days, when everything is fine and building a cushion feels boring and unnecessary. The boring day is when the work gets done.
That same instinct is exactly how I lend. Short duration, so my money is never trapped when the world turns. Real collateral, so there is a floor under the downside. Margin of safety, so I never reach for a yield that would keep me up at night. I don’t lend that way because I read it somewhere. I lend that way because I have lived what a real cushion buys you. It buys you the ability to keep your head. That is worth more than any rate.
The night my wife’s job ended, I slept fine. Not because I am cold. Because 9 years earlier, we decided the future was going to happen whether we prepared for it or not.
Build the runway before you need it. Then, when the bad year shows up, you get to stay calm, and maybe even start something new on the same lot where the old thing ended.
That is the discipline behind Blue Eyed Private Debt Fund I too. Same rules, someone else’s money. Link in profile if you want to see how it is built.
Eyes Open,
Jon