In fact, said Joshua Persky, society has evolved from a single breadwinner to 2 breadwinners to 2 multiple breadwinners.

“It’s the only way to ride the roller coaster,” he said.

Persky, who now blogs at oracleofny.com, is the guy who leapt to worldwide fame after strapping a sandwich board to his chest and walking up and down Park Avenue handing out resumes. Still, he credits the career coach who reached out to him with helping him land his current job, as senior manager of valuation and corporate finance for Weiser LLP. The coach helped him revise his resume and hone the positioning of his brand.

Don’t underestimate the support of family. Melissa Bushell, who was laid off as a media planner from Deutsch just one year ago -- and became a cupcake entrepreneur the very next day -- told the story of how her unique tie-dyed cupcakes spawned the business Baked By Melissa. Her partner is her older brother and lifelong mentor, who also runs an Internet business and helped her by building a website to create the illusion she had more of a business than really existed at the start.

Financial planner Kathy Boyle, president of Chapin Hill Advisors, acknowledged not everyone has the high risk tolerance necessary for an entrepreneur. But don’t let that limit your money-earning capacity, she said.

Sell your possessions on eBay (EBAY). Go into business selling stuff for your neighbors. Sell your second car. Walk instead of taking a taxi. Most importantly, be prepared to make this a permanent life change, because we’re all in it for the long haul.

“We are still in a big economic crisis and it will go on for a long time,” Boyle said. “We’re looking at 6 to 10 years of difficult times. Examine your whole life. Right now, it’s cool to be cheap.”

Indeed, no one is immune to the tightening of bank lending. Chatzky said she just refinanced her home, but before she could close on the new terms, she had to turn in her home equity line of credit -- a move many banks, from Wells Fargo (WFC) to Citigroup (C) to Bank of America (BAC), are making nowadays.

I could relate to Chatzky’s story. Even with a stellar credit score of 804, my bank just gave me the same ultimatum. I’ll be slicing $300 off my monthly mortgage payment when my refinancing closes this month. But I also have to give back the peace of mind a HELOC provides. The appraisal on my home dropped $100,000 in 8 months.

These are no ordinary times.