Goal Setting, Motivational

5 important ways of managing the financial crisis

The fear of being hit with a miserable incident that could change your financial condition, like losing your job, impoverishment, or a sudden medical emergency, can be a nightmare for anyone. Such miserable events require you to make major changes in your life and the revitalization period is incredibly stressful. Often, it is the result of a lot of trifling constant worries building up to one huge breaking point, and then all of a sudden everything rushes through, constructing a tidal wave of anxiety and fear and stress.
However, your financial crisis can be remedied by regaining your self-control and taking solid actions. The financial benefits of dealing with the financial crisis—saving more, paying down debt—will improve not just your self-confidence, but your overall mood as well. The less you worry about dealing with finances issues, the more you can enjoy life. You may consider your circumstances as unique, but many people around the world have walked this path before you. The road to financial revival is shabby but the steps to return after the financial disaster are well-proven.

So let’s get started with some useful tips that will help you to get motivated to take control of your finances:

  • Identify the Problems
  • The first step to overcoming the financial crisis is to identify the primary problem that is causing difficulties. Financial problems are generally an indication of a larger issue and to come up with long-run solutions, you have to identify the actual cause of your financial troubles. The idea behind the importance of uncovering a specific problem is to come up with a permanent solution. Just like a leaky tap in your house; placing a bucket below it is a temporary solution. Fix the tap and the leak will stop permanently. Rather than dwelling on your stress, focus on resolving the problem that’s causing your financial problems.

  • Create a Budget
  • One of the best ways to deal with financial problems is by creating a budget plan. A budget is a weekly, monthly, or yearly spending plan for your money that guides your spending decisions on the important stuff for you. As you create your budget, it’s important to track your expenses for at least a couple of weeks (a month is best) to objectively see where and how much you are spending.
    Once you are able to get realistic numbers from your budget, you can review your budget critically and seek out areas where you can save. Things like spending less on eating outside, spending less on entertainment or hobbies, taking lunch from home to work rather buying it are things that don’t make you miserly or restrict your budget. They just allow you to go after bigger things with less stress, like paying off your mortgage.

  • Set Financial Priorities
  • Determining your financial priorities is essential to overcome any financial crisis. These priorities help you to make tough financial decisions such as paying off your credit card bill, paying your mortgage, or saving up for house repairs for your family; setting priorities will help you solve your money troubles and get back on track. Your financial priorities should include looking into new ways to have money coming in too, like a second job, downsizing your home, or even using assets you have like a mortgage to leverage financial flexibility for yourself.

  • Address the Problem
  • For most people, financial problems can be addressed by reducing expenses and increasing income, or a little combination of both, but it might not be the ideal option for everyone. For humans, changing lifestyles is the most difficult task, but given the money crisis situation, we are forced to make changes.
    So to deal with it, take small steps to accomplish your goals because big changes are always much harder. For instance; if you’re running $50 short every month, then perhaps you should first pay off a small credit card debt that requires a $50 minimum payment each month. By taking small steps to get the card paid off, and then permanently have $50 extra to use in your budget every month or use it for the payment of another debt, and get all of your debts paid off more quickly.
    This methodology is called the “snowball effect”; putting all extra money towards one debt to pay it off faster and then use the extra amount towards eliminating the next debt. It is a very useful method for paying debts off faster.

  • Develop a Plan and Track Progress

  • Once you have ideas to tackle your financial difficulties, come up with a realistic plan to accomplish your financial goals with a timeline of weeks, months, or years by implementing goal tracking and track your progress continuously. For example, if your goal is to pay off a $2,000 debt, make a plan and create a timeline with the amount of money you will pay every month so that you can pay it off within your desired time frame. Once you are on the road to achieving it, take a few minutes to review the progress. Evaluate and assess your plan, see if you are making progress toward your goals, and be open to the possibility of fine-tuning the plan.

    Unforeseen financial challenges are like uninvited guests and can strike at the most unfortunate times. For example, recent findings show that 6 in 10 Canadians will face some major life events that will change their prior financial plans. The key to overcoming these financial challenges is to be flexible. Make and review your budget and make the necessary changes.

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