The Coronavirus pandemic has altered life as we know it and has had a significant financial impact on millions of people across the United States. A record 22 million jobs were lost, and even though 42% of them have been recovered so far, a majority of people are still running short on finances. According to economists, the US is still very far from going back to business as usual.
Regardless of where you stand, this makes it imperative for you to know every financial wellness tip that could help you through these trying times. If you’re scared about the state of your finances, you’re not alone because 35% of Americans are losing sleep over their finances. An additional 44% are concerned about being unable to afford essentials like groceries.
What you need is financial wellness, and in this post, we’ll guide you through every financial wellness tip that will help you get through this.
What Is Financial Wellness
Financial wellness is essentially your relationship with money. It includes everything that involves your plans to deal with all variables that impact your financial situation. Improving your financial wellness with every financial wellness tip, we are going to discuss in this article means improving your relationship with money to help deal with the situation the pandemic has put us in.
It could be anything from learning how to budget what you already have, working on your self-discipline when it comes to money management, laying off some financial goals for the moment, saving money, etc. When managing your financial wellness, you need to ask yourself several questions. For starters, are you prepared for an emergency?
Do you have any plans in place to meet any short-term or long-term financial goals? Do you currently have a budget that you stick to? What attitude do you have towards money?
These questions are not intended to make you feel bad. On the contrary, they’re intended to help you devise a starting point so you can start improving your financial wellness from henceforth.
The Best Financial Wellness Tips for These Hard Times
Finances are a significant concern for a lot of people, especially when facing uncertainty. To help you ease some of your burdens, we’ll discuss every financial wellness tip in detail so you can help organize your finances accordingly.
Cut Back and Focus on the Essentials Only
When there is financial uncertainty, one of the best things you can do is downsize your expenses and only focus on the essentials. In a difficult situation such as a pandemic, the best course of action is to prioritize being safe and stretch every dollar as far as it can go. Technically, this means that you should only focus on essentials like food, housing, transport, core utilities, and medications.
Sit down and list all the non-essential things you purchase and cut them short for now. This includes everything you can do without or what you don’t need even though you may want it. If possible, you can also downsize your housing, your car, and anything you can until you get through this challenging period.
Pause or Reduce Investments and Save Instead
It’s possible that you have been investing in different markets, and if so, it’s advisable to reduce or pause those investment contributions entirely for the time being. The best thing you can do right now saves whatever you can that will help you weather through the storm.
The last thing you need is having money tied up in an investment that you can’t get to in times of need. It may be incredibly hard for you to sell whatever you’ve invested in at the moment, but saving money puts you in a comfortable place. Once things are back to normal, you can go back to reinvesting.
Find a Way to Get More Money
Now that you have cut back and reduced any expenses you don’t need, it’s advisable to find a way to bring in more money. You may have lost your job, had your income reduced, or you’re simply worried about job insecurity right now, so you need to have other streams of income.
To gain financial security during a pandemic, it would be okay for you to accept a job below your skill sets. You can look for online jobs like blogging and writing, or look into customer service jobs and anything that allows you to work from home. If you have extra skills that you can monetize, such as tutoring, take advantage and offer that.
If possible, put up a side hustle that will help you rake in a few extra dollars. In this area, it’s all about being creative and figuring out what best way to earn extra income, depending on your situation.
Ask for Help If You Need It
Sometimes it’s okay to ask for financial help if you need to. If you have a loan or several people you owe, it’s okay to let your lenders and service providers know what kind of situation you’re in. You’d be surprised to find that most lenders have programs in place for people facing financial difficulties.
The worst thing you can do is go silent or hide from them. However, if you do talk to them, you will come to an understanding of how you can minimize the interest rates or pay a lower amount that you can afford.
Work on Improving Your Finances
This is a good time for you to take a look at your finances and reflect on how you can better yourself at money management. Learn how to budget better, read books if you must, and go through online finance courses and financial wellness programs that will help you start over. This can be the starting point for better money management even after things get back on track.
Every Financial Wellness Tip You Must Know
There you have it! These are some of the vital financial security tips that you need to understand. We have covered every financial wellness tip in a way that will help you figure out how to manage what little you have at the moment.
By taking action and working on these tips, you will improve your financial wellness and minimize your stress or any financial difficulty you’re going through.
Focus on doing everything you can to make things better until we all get through this. For more information and valuable posts, please check out our blog section. We have so much more on personal finances, technology, marketing, and general business advice.
