In 1990, I was made redundant and I ended up with a job paying one-third of what I'd been earning previously.
So I didn't leave what was then my current life with "nothing" but it wasn't too far off. We had six kids, two of them at third level and a hefty mortgage to finance.
Obviously, my family and I survived and I learned that you can live - for a period - on faith and fresh air.
That difficult patch lasted for a number of years, by the way.
I didn't enjoy it one bit and don't look back on it with any vestige of sentimentality. What I hated most of all was putting my family through it. I ended up with quite severe depression - thankfully, that's now behind me.