In these days of economic uncertainty and corporate bankruptcies, that ominous call to the human resources office can come to practically any of us at any time. In an instant, everything changes. And it takes a cool head and cautious action to keep a bad situation from becoming worse.

Take your time signing an exit agreement. Within moments of learning about the loss of your job, HR will likely ask you to sign a severance agreement. Your incentive for signing: a severance check. You’ll be encouraged to sign on the spot, “to make the transition easier” and reassured “Don’t worry, if you want to change anything you have time before it becomes official.” As tempting as taking the check may seem, it only benefits the company cutting you loose.

You short yourself by signing an exit agreement on the way out. The agreements are often riddled with mistakes. You may be owed compensation for unused vacations, holidays or comp days, for instance. In most companies, record keeping is spotty—and the HR department may not have the most accurate information about your time or attendance.

When you crunch the numbers yourself, you’ll often find things the company missed. But the process takes time. You can’t perform instant calculations in the heat of the moment with a termination slip in your hand. Take the proposed severance agreement home. Spend some time checking and digesting it. You may also want to have a union representative or attorney go over it, since they’re trained to find items you’re likely to overlook.

Make sure your health insurance is in order. A landmark 1986 law requires employers to provide continuation of group health coverage. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) provides certain former employees, as well as retirees, spouses, former spouses, and dependent children, the right to temporary continuation of health coverage at group rates. The cost, however, is not cheap. So if you have a working spouse, see if you can be added to the policy.

Carefully and calmly, put together a budget. One month of severance pay can be stretched to last two or three months, as long as you cut the obvious, like eating out, vacations and entertainment. So you may be able to extend three months of severance pay to six to nine months of survival to tide you over until you find your next job.

Take advantage of your unemployment benefits. As soon as you have collected everything your former employer owes you, file for unemployment benefits. Filing for unemployment used to be demoralizing, involving hours of waiting and questions from insensitive clerks. That’s no longer true. You can often file for benefits online. In addition, many states have special field offices with trained counselors who not only help you collect benefits but share computer access, allow you to print resumes and give you lots of encouragement.

Keep your savings and severance pay in an FDIC insured account. Don’t get sucked in on risky investments or business opportunities. Every time I see someone on an infomercial boasting that he made $50,000 in the first month of some sales system, I look at the fine print on the bottom of the screen. It usually says something like “paid actor” or “results vary and are not guaranteed.”

We once asked a get rich quick company to send us real consumers to validate its claims. One of the consumers it sent was a professional infomercial actor who was appearing in spots for credit repair and a weight loss product for two different companies. Between his claims of making a million bucks and losing a million pounds, I’m surprised he could keep any of it straight.

Forget about unemployment grants. You may have seen ads for companies promoting lists of alleged federal and corporate grants. These organizations are supposedly waiting to give you money because you’re out of a job. But it’s a myth. There are no government grants like this.

Focus on what matters. This year, we have an opportunity to understand what we’ve heard for years about the importance of the holiday spirit, because for many of us, that’s about all we have to share. I call this an opportunity because in my own quirky way, I’m finding that planning a budget Christmas is having a grounding affect on my psyche. It’s forcing me to look at holidays past and think about the truly memorable gifts I’ve given and received. In many cases, the best gifts were worth far more in sentiment than money.

My kids are now young adults, and struggle each holiday to find the right gift to give me. But through the years, the gifts that mattered most found their way on to a wall in our home: splattered kindergarten watercolors of our stick family standing in front of a boxy windowed or tiny ink stained handprints dabbed on construction paper. This art continue to delight me, fifteen years after it was created in elementary school.

This year, with money tight, I wonder if my children might consider a return to the spirit of those gifts. A framed, hand colored portrait, a poem or essay about our family life just might make it to the wall of fame in our house. They could even infuse it with a little hi-tech magic. There are websites that allow you to match a series of photos to the music of your choice to create an instant video or transform photos into collages.

There’s always food, the classic gift that means a lot but costs relatively little. Or handmade crafts. One of my favorite gifts came from a friend who took up woodworking as a hobby. He carved a circular Celtic knot symbolizing continuity and gave it to me one Christmas. Decades later, it continues to tie together a friendship I treasure, even after the too soon death of my friend.

Look beyond yourself. One of the best ways to lift your spirits is through some type of charity work. Go to a soup kitchen or collect and distribute coats for the homeless. A little contact with the truly needy will have you counting your blessings all the way home.

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