5 Ways To Prepare Your Finances For A Recession
A recession is coming. Don’t let this recession wipe out your finances and devastate your family. Today, I’m sharing 5 Ways To Prepare Your Finances For A Recession.
One Month Emergency Fund
Build up an emergency fund of at least one month’s worth of expenses.
Life and unexpected expenses are bound to happen and it’s important to have savings set aside when it does. Using credit cards for an emergency is just going to put you further behind with paying interest.
Keep your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account so you can earn a little bit of interest on it and it’s easily accessible when you need it.
> Check out: 5 Reasons Why $1,000 Isn’t Enough in your Starter Emergency Fund
> Best High-Yield Savings Account: CIT Bank
> Visual Motivation: One Month Ahead Savings Printable
Re-Evaluate Your Budget
First, if you are not on a written budget… get on a written budget!
Remember, budgets are NOT constricting but instead give you FREEDOM to be in control of your money, rather than your money in CONTROL OF YOU!
Whether you are an excel nerd (like myself) or prefer pen and paper, I’ve got you covered.
Next, re-evaluate your budget.
Right now, inflation is through the roof. Groceries and gas prices alone have sky-rocketed.
If you don’t re-evaluate your budget and keep it the same as it was last year, you will quickly be in the red.
Complete a spending analysis to see how much you are spending right now in each category for the last 3-6 months.
Pick Up A Side Hustle
When money gets really tight we can only cut so much from the budget.
When that happens, it’s time to increase your income.
Side hustles are the best way to bring in extra income, and now there are countless ones that you can do from home, from becoming a virtual assistant to transcriber to phone customer service to freelance writing.
Pay Down Debt
There is big debate on Debt Snowball vs Debt Avalanche and which is better.
I have two thoughts on this.
First, the best one is the one that you stick to!
Some people’s brains work better with the debt snowball because it gives them the quick win of paying off a low balance debt.
Other’s have more of a mathematical brain and see that they are paying a lot in interest and that is motivating to pay off the high interest debt first.
Do whichever one works for YOU!
Second, when in a recession and money is TIGHT. It may be smarter to do the debt avalanche.
I predict that we are going to see credit card interest rates go even higher than they currently are.
If you are not able to pay your credit cards in full every single month. Stop using them now.
Either way, decide which plan works for you and stick to it!
> Debt Snowball vs Debt Avalanche: The Two Best Ways To Pay Off Debt
Max Out Your Retirement Contributions
When the market is down it can look scary but as long as you aren’t close to retirement this is a good thing for us.
If you have extra room in your budget, take advantage of the market being down and invest.
If you haven’t started investing and are intimated by it.. I get it.
I was there too, the best advice I can give you is to just start watching videos and educating yourself. Soon the terms will become more and more familiar.
I documented my journey to learning about investing and shared what I was learning as I went… in really simple terms and analogies.
Here are some of my videos:
> 5 Things To Do BEFORE You Start INVESTING
> How To Overcome The FEAR Of INVESTING
> Dividend Investing for Beginners 2022
I also REALLY recommend the course How To Build Wealth With Index Funds by Jeremy from Personal Finance Club.
I wish I took this course 4 years ago when I was just started learning how to invest, he breaks it down in such simple terms and has great visuals.
More ways to save!
- Bestow: Get a quick, free quote on term life insurance, affordable, online term life insurance. No exam! No waiting! No hassles!
- GetUpside: Earn 35 cents per gallon on gas cash back when you download the app and use code FIAB20.
- Fetch Rewards is a free grocery savings app that rewards you just for snapping pictures of your receipts. That’s it. Really. Free gift cards on groceries on thousands of products every day, no matter where you get your groceries. Just scan your receipts and get gift cards from retailers like Amazon, Target, Ulta, Applebees. Use code QHKBH to earn 2,000 points ($2)!
- GoodRx: Free app that provides you savings of up to 80% on your prescriptions (even if you don’t have insurance). $5 sign up bonus!
- Rakuten: Get cash back on online purchases and automatic coupons and savings with their browser plugin… and remember, you have to make a $20 purchase to get your $20 for free!
- Blooom: FREE 401(k) or IRA analyzer, Let the experts take a peek at your retirement account. Get real advice on how it’s doing and how it could be performing better.
- Lively: A modern health savings account. Prepare for tomorrow by making smart decisions about finances and healthcare today. Lively HSAs are free for individuals and families, so you never have to worry about hidden costs.
- CIT Bank: BEST High-yield savings account, your bank shouldn’t be charging you money, instead, YOU should be making money off your money!
- Build Wealth by Investing in Index Funds Course: I’ve teamed up with my friend Jeremy from Personal Finance Club to teach you everything you need to know to invest in index funds! How to open an account, how much to invest, and how to choose an index fund. You’ll gain the knowledge and confidence to optimally invest and build wealth for decades.
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