Financial emergencies can happen at any time to anyone, but now more so than ever you may be worried about the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on your finances. Whatever the source, these emergencies can be stressful and cause hardship for you and your family at this time.
There are some ways to help protect and save your finances:
Avoiding more debt
During this uncertain period, try to avoid borrowing additional money as much as possible. Research shows those who often use credit cards to pay for daily expenses because they have run short of money have lower levels of financial health.
Emergency Savings
Easy-to-access savings of three to six months of your take-home pay is valuable. Lots of us are not there yet, but now is the time to plan.
If your income takes a hit because of COVID-19, you’ll need to cut back on non-critical spending until you can fully get back to work. You might want to think about cutting back on any extra expenses.
Think about refinancing your mortgage loan
Interests rates have been at an all-time low. When interest rates go down, it’s a great opportunity to consider refinancing your debt to a lower interest rate, to save money.