Melody Wright Ph. D., CFEI the Director of Financial Education with Bekinly joins Gayle Guyardo the host of the nationally syndicated health and wellness show Bloom with tips to navigate a recession.
1. Re-evaluate your financial plan: One thing you want to be sure of is that you’re not wasting any of the income you have coming in. Review your essential expenses and non-essential expenses. For the essential expenses look for ways you can negotiate lower payments or save money while still using the needed service. For the non-essential expenses look for things that you can cut back on or can temporarily cut out.
2. Decrease Your Debt – Pay off any small debts to free up extra money to put towards your spending plan or savings. For larger debts with higher interest rates consider taking advantage of balance transfers with promotional rates of 0% to help you save money on interest but also be able to potentially make lower minimum monthly payments.
3. Beef up your savings: If you don’t have one it’s time to put money aside in an emergency fund. It’s recommended that you should have between 3-6 months of living expenses saved up, however, while good advice it’s not a hard and fast rule. Start saving what you can and when you’re able to pay down debt or earn more money pivot that income to your savings. This is also a great time to start putting money away for any other upcoming expenses like Christmas, Birthdays, Car Repairs, or even subscription renewals in designated savings accounts called sinking funds.
Bloom airs in 40 markets across the country, with a reach of approximately 36 million households, and in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Madison, WI.
You can watch Bloom in the Tampa Bay Market weekdays at Noon on WTTA: Spectrum 1006; Frontier 514; DirecTV 38; Dish 38; Comcast 43, and look for Bloom early mornings on WFLA News Channel 8.