Financial Emergency: Are You Prepared?

Life has a funny way of catching us off guard.

One minute things can be going great, and the next, it’s a dire emergency.

When it comes to your finances, this could be losing your job or being unable to work, being sued and accumulating lots of court costs or even getting ill and racking up lots of medical debt.

While it’s never nice planning for worst case scenarios, as a responsible adult it’s well worth be prepared just in case. Here are some of the ways you can protect yourself against a financial emergency.

Have savings

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Having access to some cold hard cash is always going to be helpful when a financial emergency hits.

Whether it’s to buy a new appliance, pay for repair costs, cover an unexpected bill or pay your rent for a few months while you’re out of work, it’s always going to be useful.

Create a savings account that you only ever use for emergencies- keep it squirreled away and you have peace of mind knowing that you can get yourself out of many emergency situations.

Stockpile

As well as save money, another thing you can do is stockpile groceries and supplies.

Fill your pantry with grains such as rice and pasta, and long life items like tins, jars and packets of food. Stock up on cleaning supplies and toiletries when they’re on offer and put them away somewhere safe.

That way, if you come up against a financial emergency, you can feed yourself and have everything you need to at least last you for a few weeks.

Since most families spend a good few hundred dollars a month on these things, it could save you money when you need it most.

You don’t need to go overboard, but accumulate long life items even just one or two a week.

Build alternative income streams

Most people experience financial emergency after losing their job.

This can be devastating, not only on a personal level but for your cash flow.

One way around this is to build up some alternative streams of income.

Not only will these boost your budget, but if you do happen to lose your job, you have some other methods to earn some cash.

You could start a business in your spare time, programs like best content marketing software and other types of business software can automate things and make them much quicker and easier. Perfect for a side hustle when you’re running things around a full time job.

You could start a blog, or join a freelancing site and build up your reputation on there.

That way, you’ll always be accepted for the jobs you apply to do.

There are plenty of ways to earn money in your spare time, it’s worth always having one or two that you can fall back on if needed.

Get Insured

In some cases, financial emergencies could require more money than you’re probably ever going to be able to save.

In this case, it’s worth getting insured.

Medical, dental, contents and buildings insurance are all examples.

In a worst case scenario situation, you’re covered and won’t end up out of pocket.