Resilience and Recovery During COVID-19

While COVID continues to bring disruption and challenges, having the right financial knowledge can help you chart your course through the pandemic. This is our opportunity to look ahead, to row towards safety. Let us show you how to improve upon your financial resilience with financial advice, mortgage deferrals, and even loans and debt consolidation. We have worked with our financial advisors to put together the top recommendations for our members based on the type of boat you are currently in.

 

Boat 1: Been Better: Struggling during COVID-19

If you find yourself struggling right now, here are our top recommendations to help you manage your finances in a time of crisis. 

Create an Emergency Fund

  • Building an emergency fund can take time. Ideally, you should save the equivalent of three to six months’ worth of income. But every little bit will help. If you are still paying off debt or don’t have much wiggle room in your budget, set aside whatever you can in a “surprise expenses” category.
  • Have your emergency fund in a separate account, outside of daily spending/ATM/debit card access.
  • With the low cost of borrowing on personal loans right now, invest in a liquid asset and have the money before you need it.
  • Visit this blog for more in-depth ways of why and how to create an emergency fund.

Learn to budget

  • Reduce your spending
  • Understand where your money is going
  • Identify bad financial habits
  • Pay off debt
  • Avoid creating new debt
  • Prioritize spending on things that are important to you
  • Save for the future
  • Learn more about the 6 budgeting basics here

Get Out of Debt

  • Pay only the minimum payment on all your debts except the smallest one.
  • Put whatever extra money you have toward paying off the smallest debt.
  • Once it’s paid off, move onto the next smallest.
  • Dive into the dos and don’ts of debt repayment on this blog post.

There has never been a better time, or reason, to take action on improving financial resilience. Contact our Investment Solutions Centre today. Talk to us so we can help!

 

Boat 2: Doing OK: a little bit ahead or about the same during COVID-19 due to possible reduced expenses

While COVID continues to bring disruption and challenges, having the right financial knowledge can help you navigate through the pandemic. If you find yourself doing OK right now, you may want to look at our top recommendations to help take you from OK to even better.

Create an Emergency Fund

  • Building an emergency fund can take time. Ideally, you should save the equivalent of three to six months’ worth of income. But every little bit will help. If you are still paying off debt or don’t have much wiggle room in your budget, set aside whatever you can in a “surprise expenses” category.
  • Have your emergency fund in a separate account, outside of daily spending/ATM/debit card access.
  • We’ve put together helpful tips to create your own emergency fund.

Learn to budget

  • Reduce your spending
  • Understand where your money is going
  • Identify bad financial habits
  • Pay off debt
  • Avoid creating new debt
  • Prioritize spending on things that are important to you
  • Save for the future
  • Learn more about the 6 budgeting basics here.

Work with a Financial Advisor or with a Robo-advisor

Paying yourself first

  • Simply means putting money into your savings account first – as soon as you get paid and before you spend money on anything else.
  • When you pay yourself first, you are mentally establishing saving as a priority. You are telling yourself that your future is important too.
  • Paying yourself first creates sound financial habits. Most people prioritize their spending in this order: bills, fun, saving. In most cases, there is little left over to put in the bank. If you pay yourself first – saving, bills, fun, in that order – you set the money aside before you find other reasons to spend it.
  • Click here to see how setting aside a percentage of your income can add up over time.
  • Or check out our easy-to-use calculators that can help you stay on track while having fun too.

There has never been a better time, or reason, to take action on improving financial resilience. Contact our Investment Solutions Centre today. Talk to us so we can help!

 

Boat 3: Doing better than before: Financial position improved somewhat or significantly during COVID-19

While COVID continues to bring disruption and challenges, having the right financial knowledge can help you navigate through the pandemic and help improve financial resilience. You may be doing better than you were when this pandemic started so let’s keep it that way and let’s have your money work smarter for you.

Create an Emergency Fund

  • Building an emergency fund can take time. Ideally, you should save the equivalent of three to six months’ worth of income. But every little bit will help. If you are still paying off debt or don’t have much wiggle room in your budget, set aside whatever you can in a “surprise expenses” category.
  • Have your emergency fund in a separate account, outside of daily spending/ATM/debit card access.
  • Visit this blog for more in-depth ways of why and how to create an emergency fund.

Work with a Financial Advisor or with a Robo-advisor

Paying yourself first

  • Simply means putting money into your savings account first – as soon as you get paid and before you spend money on anything else.
  • When you pay yourself first, you are mentally establishing saving as a priority. You are telling yourself that your future is important too.
  • Paying yourself first creates sound financial habits. Most people prioritize their spending in this order: bills, fun, saving. In most cases, there is little left over to put in the bank. If you pay yourself first – saving, bills, fun, in that order – you set the money aside before you find other reasons to spend it.
  • Click here to see how your investment timeframe impacts your likelihood of achieving your target rate of return.
  • Or check out our easy-to-use calculators that can help you stay on track while having fun too.

There has never been a better time, or reason, to take action on improving financial resilience. Contact our Investment Solutions Centre today. Talk to us so we can help!

No matter which boat you find yourself in during this pandemic, you are not alone. We are here to help.

 

*Mutual funds are offered through Credential Asset Management Inc. Mutual funds and other securities are offered through Credential Securities, a division of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc. Credential Securities is a registered mark owned by Aviso Wealth Inc. VirtualWealth® is a trade name of Credential Qtrade Securities Inc.

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