Six positive money actions you can make during this strange Covid time

Emotional Money Path

We are all feeling the effect of not going out, waiting for the Coronavirus to lessen its hold on our society. But my work has continued, as my clients (who I now see online) continue to work on their relationship to money. Some have reduced incomes, some are struggling with increased online spending, and others have old money stories arising from childhood. Now is definitely a good time to continue working on one’s relationship to money. In fact, never has there been a better time to learn how to manage one’s cash flow in a healthy way. 

And yet everything is so incredibly strange, isn’t it? Has everything stopped? Are we in limbo waiting for life to resume on the other side? I know everyone reading this has something that has been deeply impacted. 

So I want to share six positive money moves you could make as a result of this strange time. It IS possible to come out of this Covid-haze with your finances in BETTER shape than when you went in. You can resolve to have healthier, saner, easier finances, for the next time life throws you a curve ball. Because while this is a curve ball that our entire society has been thrown, we will all have individual curve balls in the future. 

Make the most of this strange time by taking one or more of the following actions.  Then you can feel that there was something positive to come out of this bizarre quarantine time.

  • House clean online monthly subscriptions. Now could be a great time to look at your statements and list all the monthly entertainment and other on-line subscriptions you have. From Netflix and Hulu to monthly online membership groups, many of us buy these and then eventually stop using them, but don’t cancel them. Schedule a couple of hours to call and email those you don’t want or use anymore. Stop the slow leak
  • Consolidate your accounts. I’m a huge believer in having simple elegant finances. One checking account, one credit card account, and two savings accounts (one for periodic expenses and a safety net.) So now could be a good time to get the automatic deductions off of the miscellaneous credit cards you have and move everything on to one credit card. This way you can see what you spend, far easier. The more accounts you use, the more money fog you are in. Here’s a two minute video I recorded on this.
  • Clean up the mail box and your paper files at home. Time to let go of some paper? Empty those files. And the next time your accounts and bills give you the options for eBills and eStatements, consider it. Especially if you have some bills on auto pay, such as utility bills. You likely have an account on line, so why have a hard copy bill mailed also? This is a great time to do some house cleaning. 
  • Start a safety net. Open a new saving account at your bank and nick name it in the online banking interface, “Safety Net”. Set up an automatic transfer each month of $100 (or more). This is the account that you will eventually have three months expenses in, so the next time you encounter a curve ball, you will feel more secure. 
  • Increase or start retirement investing. There is never a bad time to work on your retirement funding, though often we put this off. Call your company and increase your 401(k) by 1%. Or increase your IRA funding if you are self-employed. Or start an IRA if you have no retirement funding started. (Consider a target retirement fund at Vanguard if you do not have a financial planner. The diversification is handled for you.) And here is my post on taming the fear of retirement planning.

There can be positives that come out of this time when we are all cocooning. Schedule some time for yourself to do one of these actions, and you will feel like you made the most of this time. Because it IS possible to come out of this Covid-haze with your finances in BETTER shape than when you went in. And no doubt you’ve discovered some new shows on Netflix as well.

My best to you,

Mikelann