By: Catherine Burke
You do not know what lies in the future for you, and nobody knows the after-effect of the corona pandemic will last for how much time. Your office may offer you a salary-cut, hour-cut from office duty, and God forbid you may face a job loss too.
If you adopt these five financial decisions, then you can get the mental strength to survive the after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Negotiate with your credit card firm/firms
First, it will be better for you to negotiate with your credit card firm/firms when the corona pandemic is over. Like, you say, if you have a considerable credit card debt, you can opt for a Balance Transfer Card. In a Balance Transfer Card, you will get the offer of repaying your credit card debt with 0% interest rate. One point must be clear in your mind that you will get the suggestion of paying off your outstanding balance only in the promotional period. It means you have to repay the balance within a promotional period of 6 to 14 months. But you need a good credit score (670 or higher according to Experian) to apply for a Balance Transfer Card.
So, try to obtain a balance transfer card by negotiating with a credit card firm.
What if you do not have an impressive Credit Score?
If your credit score is not that good to be eligible for the balance transfer card, then you straightway negotiate with your credit card company. State to the firm that you are sensing something terrible is going to happen with you in the job sector, and you want to negotiate your debt amount with them.
You may take professional help to negotiate with your credit card company or companies. You can opt for a debt consolidation program or debt settlement program.
Debt consolidation program:
Generally, credit counseling companies offer a debt consolidation program. Under the debt consolidation program, all your multiple debts will be combined into a single debt. You have to pay a single monthly payment to your credit counseling agency, and the agency will distribute the amount among your multiple creditors. Alongside this, they will waive off any kind of financial penalty imposed on you. You will get 3 to 5 years to repay the debt.
There are two benefits if you opt for a debt consolidation program:
-
Your monthly payment will be lower than before.
-
Your interest rate will also be lower than before.
Debt settlement program:
You can opt for debt settlement too. It means you are paying a lump sum to your creditors to resolve your debt. The lump sum will be less than the amount they owe from you. The service is usually offered by debt settlement firms who negotiate the debt amount after having an official meeting with your creditors.
2. Revise your budget and make it appropriate for the post-pandemic time
The first thing you should do is ruthlessly eliminate your luxury expenses. Genuinely speaking, everyone is now busy with the health of US citizens. No one is making any deep thought about the economic condition of our country. When the pandemic period is over, the economists will start calculating the actual damage coronavirus has done to our country’s economy.
The situation may look far worse then. So, better you should prepare about budget and expense curtailing from beforehand. Prioritize only the costs that are required to run your family. Take the help of a professional budgeting worksheet that will help you in budget revision.
3. It is time to be serious about life insurance coverage
The coronavirus has helped us to learn a lesson. Never ignore your life insurance anymore. If you already have life insurance coverage, you should better ask your insurance representative about what is included in the life insurance coverage.
If you still do not have life insurance (Policygenius says only 57% of American adults have life insurance) after the post-pandemic period, you first go to an insurance company and buy life insurance coverage.
4. Start preparing for opening an emergency fund
More than the rest of the world, the need for an emergency fund maybe a little bit more for the US citizens. We have witnessed two consecutive recessions. One that has happened in 2008 and the next one is in 2020, the after-effect of coronavirus-pandemic.
The marketwatch.com report says the USA has lost 701,000 jobs officially in March 2020. Nobody knows whether the figure will be worse or not. That is why, if you have a pre-set emergency fund in a bank account, then for at least 3 to 6 months, you will get the mental confidence to fight any kind of sudden financial emergency.
So, in the post-pandemic era, opening an emergency fund is a must for you.
5. Check out where you can save more money to get a lucrative interest rate
Gone are these days when people consider that there is nothing better than brick-and-mortar banks. Nowadays, if you keep your money in an online Certificate of Deposit account, then you may earn more money compared with the brick-and-mortar banks.
With the online certificate of deposits, if you compare a brick-and-mortar bank, you will realize the significant difference all by yourself.
That is why, in the post-COVID-19 period, one of the financial moves that you can consider is saving a considerable amount in the online certificate of deposits in risk-free and inflation-free states.
You may wonder why there is so much urgency to think about financial strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic. Look, friend, we are proceeding towards an uncertain future. Indeed, the federal government has helped us up to a certain point with the $1200 stimulus check. But you cannot depend on your government that it will bail you out for your entire life. That is why, if we consider taking some cautious financial decisions from beforehand, then our future may not look so bleak. Our solid decisions will give us the mental strength to fight the uncertainty.
Catherine Burke is a financial writer for online payday loan consolidation. She provides information on successful cash loans and payday loan consolidation to help people get over a difficult patch. She lives in Kansas and has earned a frame in the matter of payday loans.
