By Rick VanderKnyff, NerdWallet

Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, as a wide range of surveys confirm.

So when those paychecks suddenly stop coming, because of a layoff or other unforeseen event, the effect can be profound and immediate. How do you pay for the basics — food, shelter, child care and more — with no money coming in, especially if you haven’t been able to build an adequate emergency fund ?

Virtually all of the nation’s nearly 3 million federal workers are facing life without pay for the foreseeable future as the federal government shutdown (which began Oct. 1) slogs through its third week.

And it’s not just federal employees living with disruption and uncertainty: The livelihoods of an estimated 3 million contractors also depend on federal dollars. Although work con

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