Have a side hustle? You need to pass the Real Survival test.

The survival test: savings equal to three pay checks.

Do you pass the test? A 2019 study by Charles Schwab suggests most people don’t. They live from pay check to pay check — anecdotally, two pay checks from the street.

But it’s not the only test you need to pass.

Dr Google can show you advice that surviving emergencies shows you have slack. And you can use that slack for other projects. Like your side hustle.

To me, surviving an emergency earns you a medal.

The emergency hit you hard and you came out on top. For a while it seemed like nothing would ever be the same. Then it passed and you moved on with your life — not unscathed but still…

Now consider the Real Survival test.

Think back to your last emergency. Did you need time off work? Did it destroy your side hustle?

Could you cope with two emergencies at once?

To survive that you need all kinds of buffers. Not just money and slack, but insurance, automation, queued output. Anything you need so that an emergency doesn’t stop you in your tracks.

So if you pass the survival test, consider the Real Survival test: buffers to cope with two emergencies.