Emergencies can be a nightmare when it comes to your finances. With so few people having access to emergency savings, struggling to cope when affected by the unexpected can be stressful and draining. From the loss of a job to home repairs, or even simple medical expenses, you need to ensure that you have the money that you need to keep up to date with your bills. Your landlord will still want their rent, and food will still have to be bought. If you’ve been hit with a recent emergency and you’re struggling to cope in terms of money, here are some of the essential steps that you need to take.
Calm Evaluation
The urge to panic is probably going to be overwhelming, but it’s important that you think clearly. Know what caused the emergency and address that issue first. This is particularly important if the emergency is due to health reasons or damage in your home. If you don’t address the root cause of the problem, then you may end up simply making matters worse.
Create Income
Ideally, you’re going to need to have some additional income coming in as quickly as possible to help you recover financially from your emergency. You do have options, no matter what kind of emergency you’re facing. It’s easy to sell non-essential belongings in the age of eBay and Craigslist! You might also consider using your car as security to take out a loan, as this will mean that you can still use your car while getting a quick cash boost. You can get a title loan here quickly and easily, and that could be all that you need to give yourself some additional breathing room.
Prioritize Payments
Not all of your bills will need to be paid, so create a list of all of your expenses and prioritize them. Food and shelter should be at the top of your list, while Spotify and Amazon Prime can go for now. If you have a mortgage, talk to your provider and see if they are willing to put an extension on your repayments. This may give you a little more breathing room. The goal here is to manage your spending in a more controlled way.
Negotiate Bills
It will always be in your best interest to let lenders know that there are financial issues that may affect payments. Credit card companies may give you more leeway than you think if you have a good reason for your inability to pay, and so might utility companies. In most cases, you will find that they are happy to accept reduced payments for a set period because they would much rather have some payments than none. Lenders might even surprise you by how flexible and accommodating they can be.
Conclusion
There’s nothing quite like a financial emergency to make you understand the value of having savings tucked safely away. Once you begin to recover from your financial mishap, it’s worth looking at the best ways to protect yourself from something similar happening again.
