One important thing to do with your finances during an emergency is to recalculate. Even if you have the recommended 3-6 months worth of living in your savings account. In our last piece, we showed you how to increase your income during an emergency, now it’s time to recalculate and plan for the long haul.
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Lets’s look at the three steps you should be taking to make it through an emergency. Remember, the steps you take today will determine what you have for the future.
- Evaluate. You should do this regularly, but make a list of all of your expenses for a month and then make a list of all of your guaranteed income from the month.
- Contact. Almost everyone is allowing their customers to delay payments for 30 to 60 days, or forgiving debts altogether. Even credit card companies, which never do this, have joined in by offering interest free differed payments. Nationally evictions and mortgage payments have been adjusted. These are generally not automatic. You need to make contact with providers to see what is available to you.
- Recalculate. Now that you have a true understanding of your financial situation, it’s time to look at what you need and what things you can temporarily let go of (like choosing between Netflix and Hulu, instead of paying for both).
NYPS 