In 2008 when the Great Recession began, Nathan and I were completely unprepared financially for any of what was to come. However, because of that event, we made permanent changes to our finances and were in a much better place in 2020 when Covid came along. While the financial impact has hit everyone differently, we were (thankfully) able to make some tweaks to our budget and keep moving forward with life. What would have been a major financial stress for us became a bump in the road.
This week, I’m going to share with you a few tips for navigating a time of crisis in regards to finances.
#1: Reassess your current situation. Take a look at what you really need in your life to survive. Make sure your four walls are secure: food, utilities, shelter and transportation. When you know you can eat, have a safe place to live and a way to get to work, it can remove some of the stress from the crisis. Work towards a stable income, whether that means staying at your current job (even if not perfect) or finding a new job if out of work.
#2: Revisit your monthly budget. At the beginning of quarantine when my whole family was home, I quickly realized that our grocery budget was grossly underfunded, while our eating out budget had money left in it each month. Make sure that you re-evaluate your numbers to meet your current financial needs. You get to choose what you want to keep in your budget and how much each category gets, so use this opportunity to make some changes to better impact your financial future.
#3: Get back on track with finances. During this time, you may have had to stop retirement or hold off on adding to kid’s college funds. If your employment is solid and looks to remain that way in the future, then now is the time to start adding to retirement and savings again. Make sure you have a solid savings of 3-6 months for emergencies also...we never know when the government could shut everything down again.