 TITLE: How to Improve Your Credit Score During a Recession CONTENT: Make Sure You Have an Emergency Fund\n------------------------------------\nA recession can make your job and income uncertain. You may get laid off, have your hours reduced or have to take a pay cut. If you're self-employed, you may lose customers or have clients go out of business. Building an emergency fund can help ensure you can cover any monthly payments if the recession does affect your income.\nIdeally, you should begin saving toward your emergency fund before any signs of a recession appear and continue saving throughout the downturn. But even if you don't have an emergency fund, it's never too late to start one.\nAs a general rule, experts suggest building an emergency fund that can cover three to six months of essential expenses. If your industry is particularly at risk or if you're self-employed, you may want to save even more. If that's not possible, don't give up—just start setting aside what you can afford each month.\nPutting your emergency fund in a dedicated account—ideally, one that earns interest—will help reduce the temptation to pull from it on a whim. (Just make sure you can quickly access the money if needed without incurring a penalty.) To make saving money easy, set up an automated transfer from your checking account to your savings account every paycheck. Also put any \"extra\" money that comes your way, such as bonuses, tax refunds or cash gifts, into your emergency fund.\nAre you having trouble squeezing extra money out of your current income? Perhaps you're already feeling a financial crunch from the recession. If your budget has no room to spare, see if you can get a side job or sell unwanted items, such as clothing, electronics or furniture, to generate some cash for your emergency fund. END