CNBC's Sharon Epperson reports on managing finances during a government shutdown.

Many American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, making financial disruptions like a government shutdown particularly challenging. CNBC's senior personal finance correspondent, Sharon Epperson, advises individuals to start by calculating their cash flow, identifying fixed and discretionary expenses, and considering alternative income sources. 

Epperson also highlights the importance of understanding severance packages, health insurance options such as COBRA or TCC, and filing for unemployment benefits if necessary. She stresses the need to review out-of-pocket expenses and manage the emotional impact of financial uncertainty without resorting to overspending.

How to manage your finances during a government shutdown

Meantime, a majority of American workers say they are living paycheck to paycheck. So what happens if, like, you know, a government shutdown, the paycheck just stops? Joining us now is CNBC's senior personal finance correspondent, Sharon Epperson. Sharon, it's a good, listen, it's outside of government workers. This is an ongoing problem for millions of American families. Millions of American families, so many corporations laying off people too. So it's very important to really figure out what you can do about it as early as possible, starting with calculating your cash flow, making sure you understand what the fixed costs are and what discretionary spending you have or how much you're going to really need to cut back there. Figuring out other income sources that you could potentially tap is also important and giving yourself some grace, understanding that there are a lot of emotions tied up to this period and figure out how you're going to deal with that without overspending or overusing money to kind of make you feel better. Yeah. So other major companies, if they, if government workers aside, other major companies, if you think that you might lose your job and you're worried about, is there any strategy you can take to sort of help or is there, I don't know, how do you save money? I don't. Well, the first thing you need to know is what the severance is going to be. Is there going to be a severance package? What the severance package is going to look like? That's very important to understand what that is. Also understanding what your potential resources are in terms of health insurance, understanding whether or not you're going to have COBRA for 18 months that will extend your health insurance coverage if you're a private sector worker or if you're going to have TCC, which is the federal component of that, similar to COBRA that will allow you to have it for 18 months. Also filing for unemployment benefits, very important. And then reviewing what you're going to have to pay out of pocket, whether it's insurance or other things that you're going to need.

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