Most of us do our best not to think about that financial rainy day, the event that could tank our savings and force us to do some serious recalibration. We make the occasional investment and we put a regularly scheduled amount into our savings account, and we hope for the best. Then March 2020 came along and showed us that we cannot just count on everything to be OK. The pandemic was an excellent example of why hoping for the best is not the best strategy if you want your savings to be working for you, and that sometimes you need to take decisive action to avoid significant losses.
However, it isn’t like there was any obvious solution for people facing a financial quandary. The marketplace was chaotic, housing prices were all over the place, and anything that would have been considered a bit of a gamble before the pandemic suddenly felt twice as risky.
What’s more, many of us were forced to dip into our rainy-day fund as the months went by, and we were forced to make a series of difficult decisions. Many of us lost our regular employment, many of us found ourselves caring for a family member or facing unexpected medical bills of our own. And, once you start dipping into those savings, it can be hard to put the brakes on and start to build them back up.
But the good news is that we are starting to see something approaching stability return. We are seeing more business offering new jobs, we are seeing the leisure and entertainment sector reopen, and people are heading back to the office as vaccines start to make their way to more and more people around the world. Now is a great time to take a look at your savings and investments, and to think about what you could be doing to improve your situation. If you are not sure where to start, here are a few tips to help.
Don’t Rush Into Anything With Your Property
When you are facing financial difficulties, one of the first things that anyone takes a long hard look at is their home. If you are a homeowner, you are sitting on a big chunk of potential capital that could give you a much-needed cash injection. On the other hand, there are many ways you can lose on a house sale. If you sell at the wrong time, you could find that you are much worse off than you were originally. Sure, you could sell while prices are high, but can you guarantee that you are going to find something that you want for a better cost? Do you know for sure that this is the market peak, or is this just the start of an incline that could leave you struggling to keep up?
If you need to make some extra money but you can’t commit to selling your property, consider renting out room to help make ends meet. You could also look at your mortgage to see if the provider would agree to a longer-term deal at a lower interest rate. The big pay-out from a house sale is obviously tempting but you should never commit to such a big decision without knowing that you are not going to leave yourself in the lurch.
Do Take A Look At Your Debts
Now, if you are doing better than you thought with your savings following the pandemic, chipping away at some of those outstanding debts could be an excellent choice. You know that your credit history is one of the first things that any loan provider will look at when you need to borrow money to make a big purchase or pay for an emergency, so the more that you can work on bringing those debts closer to zero, the better off you will be.
On the other hand, if you have been struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, this is obviously not going to be an option. Instead, you need to make a list of your debts in terms of their priorities. Are there any that you can postpone payments on, such as student loans? Are there repayments that you could restructure to help you spread them out? If you are someone who struggles to keep the loans organized, now is the time to take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves and get to grips with them. Don’t be afraid to talk to your bank or a financial advisor if you are struggling.
Do Think Creatively About Your Investments
As we mentioned at the start of this article, we all have those investments that we have made, sometimes on the spur of the moment, that we have essentially left to their own devices. We take a peek at their performance every now and again, but unless there’s fluctuation that’s big enough to make the news, we assume that they are getting on well enough without any input from us. Well, now is the time to take a look and see if you can start making those investments work a little harder.
For example, many of us have started investing in cryptocurrency and decentralized finance over the last few years. We have been there for the dizzying highs and the stomach-churning lows, and we have stuck with it as, slowly but surely, crypto has gone from being the controversial outsider to the mainstream option that it right now. But in the grand scheme of things, cryptocurrency is still relatively new and there are always emerging trends and opportunities that you can take advantage of. If you have built up a stash of crypto that is just sitting there doing nothing, then it’s time that you did some research into how yield farming and yield staking could give your savings a boost.
With so many platforms out there looking to bring in new users, not to mention crypto traders in need of a liquidity injection, your investment could be doing so much more. To help you manage your staking solution and retail yields, find a resource that keeps you on track. Unagii’s retail staking product Stake offers competitive commission fees and allows you to keep an eagle eye on your rewards.
Don’t Give Up
It can be incredibly exhausting looking for ways to boost your savings. It’s a time-consuming process as you check interest rates and compare prices, examine the market to see if it’s worth waiting a little longer or if jumping now is the best option, and look for every opportunity that you can. But the fact of the matter is that you do need to keep looking.
Everything is in such a state of flux right now, from the housing market to the job market, and sitting still just is not an option for a lot of us. While it is very important that you continue to be proactive and you keep looking for better deals, it is also important that you take care of yourself in the process. Remember that you can’t get anything done if you push yourself to the point of burnout, and that people can’t help you if you don’t tell them that there is a problem. Keep your family in the loop about your financial situation and always talk to someone if you need to.
Veeramachineni Lalitha
I am Finance Content Writer. I write Personal Finance, banking, investment, and insurance related content for top clients including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Edelweiss, ICICI BANK and IDFC FIRST Bank. My experience details : Linkedin