Are you wondering what financial changes have been introduced in light of the health crisis?
A lot of people were forced into a new situation when the crisis hit last year. From layoffs to empty grocery shelves, and emergency rooms full of sick people. It was a challenging time for people and getting let go from work did not help. It made the challenging crisis a lot tougher to deal with. This put pushed most people’s back up against the wall.
But with anything, we strive and move forward. You will always find a way to get up the next day and try again. If not for you and your dreams, it could for your family. Whatever it is, you can always dig deep down and stand up to see what the day brings. Now that the economy is slowly picking up again and jobs are opening up, do not forget about all the financial lessons you learned.
You went through a lot of financial changes in the last few months. It was necessary to help you stay on top of your finances. You could have sacrificed a lot to help you make ends meet. You had to clearly prioritize and make sure that you are able to put food on the table and keep your house warm on cold nights.
Your journey forced you to make drastic changes in the way you manage your money. Here are some of them you could have done. Learn from them and find a way to apply them positively to your finances moving forward.
Better attention to your finances
One of the biggest financial changes you had to make in the past few months was paying much closer attention to your finances. This was due to the fact that money was tight and you had to make sure you get to provide for you or your family’s needs. It was a challenging thing to do when you consider how the health crisis affected the economy.
One of the most useful financial tools you could use is your household budget. It gives you the chance to have an overview of your income and expenses as a result, you are able to make well-informed financial decisions. This is helpful when you need to pivot around your current financial situation. Better attention to your finances also means being keeping tabs on your long term goals.
It would be difficult to continue saving the way you did before the health crisis. But the idea is not to stop. Change the amount you set aside or skip some months but always find a way to get back to it. You do not want to break the habit of saving for your future goals. This takes a long time to build up. Simply put, the pandemic made a lot of people more mindful in the way they manage their finances on a daily basis.
Financial changes mean more online transactions
The world was forced to keep still in a bid to stop the virus from spreading. A lot of people practically had to stay indoors to help lower the infection rate. But while at home, life has to go on. You have bills to pay and purchases to make. You could have been doing this in the middle of your lunch break or before you went home before the pandemic. But now that you are at home, online transactions are fast becoming your go-to option.
Technology has been constantly changing and evolving leaving its mark on several industries including the financial sector. A lot of lenders and financial institutions have an online presence to help you get as much information as you need. Online banking also allows you to perform almost all types of transactions that you would in a physical bank except of course withdrawing actual money.
More than banking, most purchases can also be done online. From food delivery to your weekly groceries. Apart from the convenience and ease of use, online purchases are much safer compared to heading out to buy what you need. You are not at risk of getting infected or even infecting other people with the virus.
Online safety
One thing you do have to remember is safety when using online transactions. Financial changes should help you make things better. To help you do that, here are a few things you need to keep an eye out for to help keep you safe online.
- Make sure that the website you are on has an SSL certificate. This is important when making online transactions. To check, the URL of the website should read as “HTTPS” and not “HTTP”
- Never save your username and passwords on your devices. This is one of the first things hackers take hold of when they gain access to your devices
- Think before you click. Just because you are promised a special offer or a huge discount does not mean you will click a link. You could unknowingly be downloading harmful malware onto your computer.
- Be careful in opening links from emails you receive. They could be phishing for your personal information. You might think you are getting an email from your bank and click the link. The websites will look legitimate until you login with your username and password as explained by the FTC. From that point on, scammers already have control over your account.
Savings should be a priority
One of the biggest financial changes you could have seen is the proactive way people save money. A big part of this is realizing how important an emergency fund is. Many Americans started to take account of their reserve funds as soon as the economy was hit. This is important as CNN shares that only about 39% of people can cover a $1,000 emergency. Much more when people were asked to stay at home.
As the economy is starting to slowly pull back up, a lot of people are prioritizing their savings. One driving factor for this change in behavior is fear. You never know when another pandemic will come. In a bid to try and prepare for them as much as you can, you save money. This is to make sure that you can cover all your basic needs while going through a crisis.
Investing in your health
In the past, you may not pay close attention to your health and well-being. You did not really monitor your food and did not care to exercise at all. Now that the health crisis put the most vulnerable on ventilators, you might just have had a change of heart. You might find yourself watching what you eat and trying to squeeze in an exercise routine in your day.
Monitoring your food intake and exercising could impact your finances. It may not be severe but you still need to stay on top of it. The change in your food preference and even buying items for your exercise could add up to your expenses. But you can be creative and find less expensive ways of keeping your body healthy.
When it comes to food, you can buy ingredients in bulk and prepare your meals in advance. This helps you save costs in the grocery. Preparing your meals in advance can lower down your dependency on ordering take-out as well. You can also exercise by taking brisk walks or jogging around your block. If that is not possible, you can look at-home exercises you can do for as little as 10 minutes a day.
There are a lot of financial changes you have gone through in the past few months and you need to use that to your advantage. Take a look at them and identify which ones helped you and what you can use in your current financial situation.