For quite a while I'd always told myself, "I'll just forego the usual advice, since I could just draw from unemployment if I ever found myself without a job." I'd had the usual advice drilled into me but, until recently, had completely ignored it. I'm pretty damn glad I pivoted when I did, because holy hell it's a nightmare to actually start getting benefits, even in my state.
As to why I posted this: if my experience can convince even one other person who was as naive as I was to save a little more, then I'd consider that worth any ass kicking that I get from others. More than anything, I wanted this to be a, "it could happen to you" style of post.