We’re currently living in tough times, but that doesn’t mean you have to lose against it. Find out how you can better manage your finances, especially during this health and financial crisis we’re faced with.
Assess your current financial status.
If you have a monthly household budget, you have to look for ways in which you can tweak it and make the necessary adjustments to survive the next few months while all this uncertainty still looms over us.
If you don’t have a monthly budget, it’s time for you to make one. You need to determine where you stand financially. List down how much your income is at the moment, expenses, assets, liabilities, and all your other regular dues.
When you’re assessing your monthly budget, you need to plan with different scenarios in mind — normal, best-case, and worst-case — and come up with appropriate action plans. Best-case scenarios are where the lockdown has sent you home with your income secure and more money in your pocket because of minimal societal movement while worst-case means you lost your job.
Cut down on your expenses.
From your list of expenses, go through each item and see how you can lower your monthly dues. Perhaps you can downgrade your internet or cable subscription plan. Consider doing away with unused and unnecessary memberships and subscriptions. After all, there’s no point paying monthly club and gym dues if you can’t use them at this time.
You might also want to talk to your family about how to lower your energy consumption to help keep your expenses to a minimum. Take this time to plan a grocery list that everybody can agree on.
Evaluate your liquidity.
Once you’re done with the above step, it’s time to see how much money you have. One of the most important things you need at this time is liquidity.
If you are a good financial manager and you have an emergency fund to draw from during this pandemic, good for you. An emergency fund is specifically designed for times such as these. If you don’t have an emergency fund in place, we suggest you immediately do whatever you can to start building it. Consider compromising in other areas temporarily such as channeling your commute and car money towards it.
Reach out to banks and other institutions for possible relief.
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We’re living under unprecedented times the likes of which the world has not seen in over a century. The government has urged banks, institutions, and other similar entities to provide temporary relief for the masses, especially those who are strapped for cash.
Get in touch with those you need to call and see how you can avail of some form of relief. Consult with a reputable collections attorney in Salt Lake City, Newark, or wherever you’re located in the U.S. if you have questions about your loans and payments. Most of these institutions are willing to extend help especially during this time of economic uncertainty.
The most important thing at this point is to secure your finances as much as you can for the next several months. Until a solution or vaccine has presented itself and keeps the novel coronavirus contained or eliminated, we need to be wiser in handling our financial affairs.