The choice for this week's cover became necessary as a result of popular demand. Many readers of this pullout have had cause to write and commend the personal finance team for its highly informative and researched articles published in this pull-out, especially those bordering on stocks and bonds investment.

Some of the readers have always expressed regrets over their inability to put the information gained to maximum benefits, owing to their low income base, loss of job or inability to secure gainful employment that would have given them the needed financial muscle to make investments or play the financial markets.

For an individual that had taken due advantage of available information to invest in the past, to now sit and watch such opportunities come again and go, unable to harness them, the experience could be very frustrating.

According to experts, many investors have lost their investments and fortune within the time of their being frictionally unemployed. Frictional unemployment is a type of unemployment that occurs when one moves from one job to another. The individual is frictionally unemployed at the time he resigned from a particular job or lost his job and has to scout for another. As income is lost when employment is severed or terminated, hasty decisions can be taken that will be detrimental to the individual's long accumulated investments.

A stock broker and someone that can be tagged a personal finance advisor by virtue of his vocation that is chiefly financial counselling, Benjamin Abdul-Rahman, said "you don't make any hasty financial decisions after losing your job. In times of such stress, it's easy to make hasty financial decisions that can turn out poorly. So, in the immediate wake of your job loss, don't cash in your retirement plan, sell off long-term investments or take further dangerous steps until you've worked out a realistic plan for dealing with the present and for charting the way forward."

He counselled: "Losing a job may actually turn out to be an opportunity to land a better job or a new career. First, don't panic. Job loss is a fact of working life in Nigeria. Take a deep breath. You'll get through this, though it may appear pretty gloomy at the beginning."

Rahman offered some advice to victims of frictional unemployment on how they can get back to their normal conditions without delay.

"One of the first things to do is put a plan in place. Early key moves and decisions can make the difference by being able to survive financially until the person is successfully employed again - perhaps even survive comfortably.

According to the expert, many newly unemployed persons assume they will find a job quickly and decide to take a little vacation before initiating their job search. As appealing as it sounds, this is probably a bad idea. You may be misjudging the job market and your ability to secure a comparable position, especially in Nigeria where unemployment is high and the economy is struggling to recover from a downturn.

Experience has also shown that it is better to always consider pounding the pavement instead of hitting the beach the moment one is unemployed. Most employers of labour are not impressed with a six-month gap in one's employment history.

The other important point to note is that, where the individual was unable to meet his financial goals while working, for reasons due to lack of opportunities in a given career, a change to another career may make the difference. But Rahman said before launching into a new career during frictional or other types of unemployment, one has to put certain things in perspective.

His posers: "Is it realistic to make a change? Are you qualified for this new career? Are your job skills and education up-to-date? Can you afford to invest the time and money to upgrade or learn new skills? Do you have the money to live on while you make the transition?"

It can be costly to abandon a career in which one has years of experience in order to tackle a career for which one may have little or no experience. Some financial planners recommend having at least two year's worth of living expenses available if one plans to start one's own business and that should not include any investment needed to start the business.

The personal finance counsellor advised that individuals that found themselves in the labour market should always seek financial advice.

"It is advisable at this stage for the job seeker to make consultations. Going back to the financial advisor, broker or any other professional can help the individual tackle his unemployment situation. The advisor is expected to come up with strategies for conserving the individual's financial resources, and perhaps most importantly, help him avoid costly mistakes that could harm his personal finances and ability to find a new and good job," he added.

On what should be the approach of the man with temporary loss of job to investments, Rahman advised against short term investments but favoured the long term.

He said: "The temptation for the frictionally unemployed is to become more conservative with investments. Some movement into more liquid assets and cash may be called for. This certainly isn't the time to take fliers on some hot stock in hopes of generating a quick profit to help make up for lost income.

Investing should be for the long term, while the individual's unemployed condition, hopefully, will be only short term. Consequently, the investor should avoid selling stock in a panic. Often, this results in selling during a down market at a loss, and perhaps incurring taxes on capital gains that you can't afford to pay or that eat away at spendable cash."

The other thorny issue is how to deal with debts, most of them accumulated while the individual had a job.

If one is out of work for a long time, one may find debts accumulating faster than one can pay them off. Rahman gave some useful tips to that effect. He said one should aim to reduce expenses and avoid incurring further debts.

According to the financial expert, the unemployed should without hesitation tell friends and relatives about his desire for a job, so that he can benefit from job referrals. There are also good job sources which, of course, include daily newspapers, online sites, professional job search services, government employment agencies, and job-hunting services among others.