Self-isolation may mean be a huge attraction for a person who has a hectic schedule and spends hours outside the home. However, the excitement reduces once you’re compelled to live alone at home. The condition may worsen when you’re living all alone due to social distancing. Looking beyond the negative, this is an opportunity to improve your finances during social isolation.
First of all, even if you’re living alone, don’t think of yourself alone. Someone is just a phone call away.
Since you’re living alone, you may be worried about your family or dependents whom you can’t meet, or who’s leading the same lifestyle. A quick suggestion is to engage yourself in various activities.
The experts are predicting that it may take almost 6 months to return to your normal lifestyle. Therefore, you need to be mentally prepared.
If you can’t decide how to get relief from boredom, take up a hobby. Also, why don’t you use this opportunity to manage your finances and improve your financial condition?
Establish a routine
When you’re staying at home, it is quite important to establish a routine irrespective of whether or not you’re working from home. Even if you’re not, you need to have a separate routine for the weekdays. You can have a different routine for the weekend.
Likewise, you need to have a financial routine too. You need to have a budget that you can follow and save as much as you can.
Many people fear becoming jobless as an outcome of this pandemic. So, guard your finances. Try to save as much as you can so that you can sustain for a couple of months even if you lose your job.
Have an emergency fund
You need to have at least £1000 in your emergency fund. It is always better to have a fund with which you can sustain for about 6 months without a paycheck.
So, if you have an emergency fund, try to reach at least this figure. And, if you don’t have such a fund, start one. Plan a budget and deposit a significant sum to this account and plan your necessities with the remaining one.
Plan a budget
I always say to modify your budget from time to time to meet the requirements of your changing status and financial condition. This is the time. Review your budget and make room for more savings. This is the need of time.
Even if the online shopping sites are working, resist yourself from buying to satisfy your wants. Focus only on your needs at this time. I know, when you’re bored at home, you’ll feel like browsing through the shopping webistes . But, my friend, this is not the time to do so. Instead, engage yourself to learn something new or do an extra online job if you have time. It will also help you to manage your finances if you’re self-employed and your earning has reduced.
We will be discussing online job opportunities later in this article.
Organise your finances
Are your bills and statements all sorted out and well documented? Use this time to do so. Double-check before paying a bill, sort your bills and categorise them properly.
Going through your statements and bills, you may find out where you can save more.
For example, you can cancel your gym membership or opt for bundle offers (tv and broadband) and save pounds.
Simply organising your finances also gives you a clear idea about your financial life.
Shop carefully
It goes without saying that you need to shop alone. Avoid crowds.
It the time to buy only essential commodities. Do not stock up supplies and stop panic buying. If you do so, you’ll feel the scarcity of things in the markets and many things will perish too.
There are already reports of stockpiling of perishable grocery items that people couldn’t consume within time.
If everyone buys only what they need, there will be sufficient supplies for everyone. Doing so, you can also avoid wasting your hard-earned money.
Just a thought; you can opt for delivery services to avoid going out.
Do not overlook your pension planning
You need to plan for your retirement from the time you start earning. If you can make the payment, do not stop paying towards your retirement savings fund. Private pension schemes are more exposed to the stock markets. Shares have fallen by about 11% in London in the last month, thereby making the British pension funds worth about 5% less.
By contributing to your pension, you can make your retired life financially secure.
Look for an extra online income opportunity
An extra pound always helps when you’re worried about your financial future. Irrespective of your income, most people are worried about what the financial future will be like.
So, grab an online earning opportunity.
You can use the money to solve your debt worries like settling payday loan debts, making credit card payments or making monthly loan payments. Though the banks are allowing customers to defer mortgage and other unsecured loan payments like credit cards and personal loans, it is better if you make the payments if you can.
You can start blogging, do an online survey, sign up for an affiliate marketing program, give online tuitions and so on. Select your area of expertise or what you’d like to do, and start with one or multiple strategies. You may expect to get about £5 for an online survey or website review.
If anytime you feel alone and can’t manage your finances on your own, you can take professional help. For example, you can take the help of consolidation or IVA for settling payday loan debts. You can take help online without stepping out of your home. You can also take the help of online forums to discuss your situation with other fellow members to find out a solution.
Staying in isolation and all alone can cause mental issues. So, try to stay busy with work. Stay away from negative thoughts and be positive.
Together we can overcome this global pandemic and rejoice on our victory.
Author’s Bio: Good Nelly loves to analyse the day-to-day financial happenings along with critically analysing the changing rules of credit, debt, insurance, mortgage, etc. related matters. She loves to share her analysis with others thus helping people to understand the exact scenario. She also maintains a blog My Way Of Viewing where she writes about her experiences.
