How to Cope with a Financial Crisis- Your Go to Guide to Deal With Personal Finance Emergencies

Written by Vidya Kumar

November 6, 2012

Financial crisis Professional Financial Planner  professional Financial Analyst

Financial crisis can break on you in any form – medical crisis, sudden home repair due to natural disasters, and loss of a job in your family or an added financial responsibility. Even with these problems at hand, you still have to continue to pay your utilities and bills. You cannot scrimp on food or the basic necessities. This is where a strong financial plan and an emergency detail within your financial plan will come to your rescue. 

Evaluation of the extent of the problem
Evaluate the cause of the problem to create an effective plan of attack. The outcome of each cause might be the same- a mounting financial crisis. However, the causes can differ from natural disasters, loss of income to increased expenses. So, take a second, compose yourself, and be calm because panicking might worsen an already bad situation. Once you have evaluated the situation and addressed what caused the crisis, you can then take note of your available solutions and find out a way to tackle the problem.

Priority list of immediate expenses
Start creating a priority of list of immediate expenses. Your top of the list should be food, shelter, and major utilities such as water and electricity. You can then start trimming the financial “fat” from your expenses. Maybe you can let go of some of your premium satellite channels and movie services for a couple of months. Eating out is fun but evaluate whether cutting back on a couple of such ‘fun’ expenses can get you out of your financial straits faster.

Negotiating an acceptable reprieve with the lenders
You would not believe this, but it is actually in your lenders best interests if you do pay, as opposed to bankrupting you. If you reach out to your credit card company, your mortgage company, or even your gas or electricity departments, they will help you with such services as extending the duration of payments. They might help you restructure the loan program or a more lenient program so you can keep the utilities on and still manage to make the payments. So, just pick up the phone and make the call in to your lenders to negotiate an acceptable reprieve.

Seeking out extra money within your financial budget
It is ideal that you put aside at least 10% of your income every month within an emergency fund. However, more often than not people fall back on this situation. So, during a financial crisis, look on to your complete financial budget to understand where you can find some extra money to get out of your immediate troubles. You can take out loans from your retirement account, this will be taxed and it is usually not a very good idea but if it can relieve your immediate crisis, you can re-evaluate and come up with a better plan for the future. Taking loans on credit card should be avoided as only the last resort, as this step actually means there will be an even greater monthly expense added on to your family expenses. You can also check whether your company allows for payday loans or temporary loans on your salary. This might be a good area to get in touch with a professional financial analyst to help evaluate your course of action.

Seeking out available advantages and assistance
Once you have handled the immediate crisis, it is time to seek out alternate ways to get out of the problem for the last time. Get in touch with a professional financial planner to evaluate your complete net worth, your immediate problem areas and some solutions, which might give you a long-term benefit. You need to come up with a proper financial budget and then follow it up religiously for the initial months to get back on the saddle. Seek out assistance and resources from your community and your business niche regarding any job loss. If you need to rebuild your resume with a new set of skills, get yourself enrolled in to the workshops that can help you with this.

Team Getting You Rich


0 Comments

INSIGHTS + MONEY STORIES

INSIGHTS + MONEY STORIES

Our Newsletter features money stories and useful insights on personal finance that can help you make informed decisions and stay up-to-date with the latest trends in personal finance. Sign up today!!!

You have Successfully Subscribed!