Take Immediate Actions During This Pandemic
- Travis Kohnke
- Mar 22, 2020
- 3 min read
Your place of work says don't come in and by the way, you are not being paid until this thing is all over. What do you do? How are you going to pay all of your bills? If you are like the other 70% plus Americans, you really can't afford to lose one single pay check, can you? The following are the immediate actions you must take if you are in this situation.
1) Figure out how much money you have and get on a zero based budget immediately if you are not already on one. You need to figure out how much money you are working with. Do you have $5,000 in the bank or $50? Don't forget about your emergency fund if you have one. This is a potential emergency and you may have to dip into it. You need to know how much money you have to work with as that determines just what you will do.
2) Now that you have figured out your starting point, you have to figure out how much income you are going to have coming in and budget around that. Does one person in the household still have income coming in? Do you have non-traditional income sources? If you have no income coming in, start looking to the grocery stores, fast food deliveries, or any side job you can think of to make money. Right now every grocery store, fast food joint, and delivery service is screaming for temporary help. Go get yourself a job.
3) Now you figure out, bare bones, what does it take to look after the basics. You want to allot money for the following items, and in this order:
a. Food
b. Utilities
c. Housing
d. Transportation
You need to pay for food first. It is impossible to do anything with an empty stomach. Next, you keep your power and lights on. If you have to, talk to the companies and explain that you have no income due to being out of work because of COVID-19; they will be able to work something out with you. take care of your housing. Talk to your mortgage company or landlord and tell them what you are going through. Be kind and humble and they will work with you. Finally, keep your transportation in order. You will need it to get to work.
4) Everything else, you will press pause on for now. If you do any investing outside of work, stop for the time being. Student loans? Hit pause. They are not accumulating any interest right now anyways due to government action. If you have credit cards, don't worry about them for the moment; just don't spend more on them. Consider suspending streaming services or downgrading them, same with your phone. Do anything you can to reduce the amount of cash outflow.
5) Sell, sell, sell. If you have stuff laying around, sell it. Turn it into cash. Anything you can do to generate income, do it. Like I mentioned earlier, there is a high demand for delivery people, fast food workers, and grocery store employees. Some of these places are even offering signing bonuses at the moment.
It is going to be tough for everyone over the next few months as we fully realize the complete economic fall out from this event. If you focus on the basics, Food, Utilities, Housing, and Transportation, you will be okay and ready to get your finances in order on the other side of this thing.
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