Keep your personal burn rate low. Avoid debt. Maintain high savings and eventually financial independence to mitigate the downside of professional failure (ensu

Keep your personal burn rate low. Avoid debt. Maintain high savings and eventually financial independence to mitigate the downside of professional failure (ensure you won't starve or be homeless). Maintain good relationships with your family if you can if they would be willing to support you if necessary. Figure out what failure would look like and plan for it. Does it mean losing your job? Ok, how long would it take you to find another one? Could you support yourself in the meantime? Does it mean declaring bankruptcy? What would you do to support yourself if you had to do that? Could you move somewhere cheaper? Take a lower paying job? In a professional sense there aren't a lot of truly catastrophic failures unless you're doing something illegal.