Excerpt from Thriving in Sex Work: Sex Work and Money, a personal finance guide for sex workers, available now, wherever paperbacks and ebooks are sold.

Exercise: Emergency Plan

Sit somewhere quiet with a piece of paper and a pen, and imagine you’ve dropped your phone, keys, purse, and/or wallet into the alligator exhibit at the zoo, never to be seen again. 

Write out:

• A list of all websites, user names, and passwords for your personal and business finances. 

• Instructions for a trusted friend or family member to access your bank accounts, safe or safety deposit box, and/or cash stash. 

• Steps on how to access spare keys to get into your home, your place of work, your car.

• Emergency contact phone numbers you don’t have memorized. 

This might take you about an hour. Put this plan someplace safe, preferably with someone you trust with your life. Hopefully you’ll never need this information, but believe me, you’ll be glad you took the time if you ever do.

Extra Credit: If you work in a dungeon, strip club, do massage or full service, or otherwise interact directly with clients, pay attention to your what’s on your keychain. Fobs, gym passes, supermarket club cards, and car keys can tell as much about you as your wallet or phone: what kind of car you drive, and where you live, shop, and work out. 

I recommend carrying a work set of keys with the barest minimum of what’s needed to get you to and from work and into your home. Keep them hidden as best you can. Think through everything that you’d need to do—including changing locks—if your keys ever went missing on the job, and plan accordingly.

 Key Takeaways: 

Somebody smart once said, “Treat money with respect—it’s hours of your life you’ll never get back.” Promise me that in order to be the very best sex worker you can be, you:

• Have a plan to keep cash safe at all times.

• Have strong passwords for all online accounts.

• Have an emergency plan written out and kept in a safe place.

• Have emergency numbers memorized.