What Covid Taught us About Our Finances and Money

What covid taught us about our finances and money. Covid has taught us and reminded us that the wealthy can survive anything and the poorest among us will always suffer. Covid early on taught us the wealthy will purchase all of the toilet paper and all of the food while others on limited budgets are left with empty shelves. 

For many city residents when lockdowns started and they were forced to work from home many took up residence in other less congested areas. And those that did stay were able to shelter in place through the worst of it. Ordering food from local restaurants and having groceries delivered to their door. However, restaurant workers still went to work to make the food, grocery workers still went to work to stock the shelves and were called essential workers. But were never paid an essential salary or earned a liveable wage. What covid taught us about our finances and money should not come to a surprise but it still breaks our heart.   

Death comes to the poor

What covid taught us about our finances and money is that death and disease seems to always find the most vulnerable. For families living check to check and with little to no savings, when their jobs were temporarily shut down or permanently closed they were left without a pot to piss in. How do you avoid being one of the affected? It will take a lot of work. But you can do it. You can become one of the people to come out of a future pandemic in a better place financially. 

Start by budgeting

Know your numbers. Even if those numbers are very ugly – make sure you know them. Know how much comes in and how much goes out. After knowing your numbers lets work on establishing emergency funds. These funds will help you during future emergencies or future income interruptions. 

What covid has taught us about our finances and money is we need to have at least 12 months of emergency funds. Fortunately, my industry was not affected. I was working throughout the pandemic and earned record bonuses in 2020. However, if the economy was to take a turn for the worst 3-6 months might not be enough time to replace my income. 

Create a solid emergency fund

Some of my clients have been out of work since the beginning of the pandemic. However, most had at least 6 months of emergency savings to rely on before touching other investments. How solid is your emergency fund? Can you sustain yourself and pay your bills for at least 3-6 months due to an income disruption? If you can’t, you need to start building that immediately. 

In my opinion emergency funds are not for emergency car repairs or broken household items. I feel you should have a separate fund for home operations and emergency expenses. If you are a homeowner a HELOC works best for household emergencies in my opinion. However, use it only in case of emergency and don’t abuse it for frivolous things. 

What covid has taught us about our finances and money

Covid has taught us having multiple streams of income is not only important for building wealth but it is crucial for the times when one source of income is restricted or eliminated. 

How many streams of income do you have? Have you been hesitant to create a new stream of income? Do you know how to create a new stream of income? If you need help creating an additional stream of income click this link. At Budget Build Buy we share many tips and resources on how to create other streams of income. 

Covid has affected everyone. However, families and individuals struggling financially, living check to check or check to Tuesday really took it on the chin. Sadly, the pain isn’t only financial. Many of those affected financially were also the most affected physically. For survivors the recovery will be long and filled with uncertainty.   

Struggle for some, opportunity for others

What covid taught us about our finances and money is that despite covid relief bills totaling almost 4 trillion dollars many are still struggling. On the flip side those which had their finances in order before covid have benefited from the pandemic. 

Many individuals purchased second or third homes during the pandemic. I was one of those individuals. I was able to purchase a home because I was in position to benefit from historically low interest rates. 

We see many families which are struggling to keep their homes. The pandemic appears closer to an end but the financial damage inflicted on the poorest among us is only beginning.

What Covid Taught us About Our Finances and Money