Yes, COVID is upon us and appears to be here to stay for a while. Unfortunately, that means we are spending more time in the house, we have become professors to our little ones, and we have transformed into caregivers to our elderly. Our lives as busy working adults with packed schedules, heavy business travel, and various meetings and events have been replaced with virtual birthday party planning, homeschooling preparation, and restructuring our budgets in response to a not so great economy. Subsequently, if we never thought about planning for uncertain times before, 2020 has proven NOT to be one of those times.

The Coronavirus is real and is killing populations as large as small towns within the US and abroad. Consequently, trying to resume life as we knew it before 2020 is not only a dream, it may be dangerous. Therefore, we as adults have to take the unordinary steps of preparing for a new world with uncertain conditions and unknown futures. Basically, we have got to get our stuff together and take control of our destinies because as we have seen, we may not be able to rely on our leaders when the resources start to dry up!

HOW TO START PLANNING FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES:

1) GET LIFE INSURANCE
There are many forms of life insurance that you can secure for your family. There is term life, which insures you for a certain period of time and is usually lower priced. Or, whole or permanent life, which protects you forever and can be quite costly. Nevertheless, if something were to suddenly happen to any member of your family you want to be protected to stop a financial catastrophe compounded with a death. Read more here: At Nerd Wallet.
 
2) UPDATE YOUR HOUSEHOLD BUDGET 
In business it is prudent to complete an annual budget, and use that budget throughout the year to stay on course financially. Nevertheless, as we have seen with the coronavirus your plans and finances can change rather quickly. With over 40 million unemployed in the US many of us have seen our incomes go from 60 – 70k to 10 or 20k overnight.
 
Therefore, we must change our spending patterns to weather these storms. Maybe you don’t need cable now for $200 per month and can deal with just Netflix for may around $25 or less. Instead of eating out 2-3 times per week, maybe try just on Sunday. No one is saying that changing your lifestyle will be easy, but during this time it may just save your life.
 
3) ADD ANOTHER STREAM OF INCOME 
I hear you. You lost your job or they reduced your pay by 50%. They stopped the increased unemployment benefit. You are deciding weather to pay your rent or buy food for your family. You are stressed because your car is about to be repossessed. Your savings….what savings! Sometimes there is just nothing you can do with what you have. So what is the answer you ask, get MORE! Let’s face it, in America WE NEED MONEY. There is just no getting around that.
 
Subsequently, navigating this new America means increasing our streams of income to supplement a less than stellar job market. For example, do you have time to help someone grow their business online? Maybe you can work a few hours per day as a virtual assistant. Do you like social media? Maybe there are freelance blogger positions. Do you have a car or do you have free time? Drive or be a shopper for Instacart. Do your research and go forth and produce!
 
4) DEDICATE 2 HOURS OF “SOCIAL MEDIA FREE” TIME PER DAY 
About 4 months ago while vigorously typing an infuriating response to someone on Facebook about why some entrepreneurs are wildly successful and others are not, I found myself remarking that, “rich people are not fussing on FB because they are out making money”. At that time to my dismay, I immediately identified with the less successful people that spend hours and hours on social media trying to explain their fruitless points to other less successful people. I would literally spend 2-3 hours on social media; 2-3 HOURS!
 
I surmised that I could have written at least 2 blog posts, called over 10-15 potential cleaning customers, or just took another certification for my business in the time I opted to chat. All the time I spent on social media was counter productive to my development as a successful Janitorial entrepreneur. Consequently, I took Facebook and my other favorite social media platforms off my phone. I dedicated time to reading value added stories and searching for topics that helped grow my business during my free time. The change helped increase my productivity in my business which ultimately led to an increase in revenue.
 
5) HAVE A FAMILY MEETING AND PLAN YOUR FUTURE 
And I am not just talking about the adults. Your children are important and vital members of your family. Not only that, they are your legacy and may one day have to assume responsibility for the family. Furthermore, children have the same feelings, desires, wants, needs, etc. as adults. Although they are not adults yet, they are working towards it. By having a family meeting to discuss everyone’s goal and objectives you are aligning your family for success and providing each member the support, guidance and protection they need to thrive! 

So there you have it. My tips for planning in uncertain times. Now give me yours!
 
 

Recently, I was reading an article in BetterHousekeeper.com that discussed “Taking Better Care of Your Home in 2020”. The article focused on renovating, increasing safety measures like waterproofing areas, and even getting a survey completed on your home, which are all good ideas. However, I contend that there are smaller steps one can take to take better care of their home. Subsequently, there are very basic measures you can take to both protect and increase the value of your home or rental. Consequently, ASAC Jani recommends that you should first invest in some type of renter’s insurance if you are renting a unit, or additional MPI insurance if you own your home.

​RENTERS INSURANCE
When renting an apartment or other type unit for a prolonged period you are paying the owner to live in their unit. Subsequently, if the building is burned in a fire or affected by some other nature disaster the owner’s asset, the building, is protected through their insurance policy. However, as a renter your personal items are your responsibility. That means if you lose all of your possessions the owner has no responsibility to reimburse you for those losses.
However, you can purchase an inexpensive renter’s insurance policy that will reimburse you for your damaged personal items like electronics, furniture, clothing, etc. Check out the SimpleDollar.Com page for the best renters insurance of 2020.

MORTGAGE PROTECTION INSURANCE (MPI)
This year I turned 40 years old and for the first time I started thinking about what will happen to my girls if something were to happen to my husband and I. I started by purchasing life insurance, however, in speaking with my mother about her policies she directed me to consider protecting my home as well as providing financial resources to my daughters. Subsequently, she discussed MPI insurance with me. Mortgage protection insurance protects homeowner’s by paying off the mortgage on the home if the owner is to die. This means that if my husband or I die not only will my children have financial benefits paid out, but they will also have our home completely paid off. Therefore, the last thing my kids will have to worry about upon my untimely demise will be finances.

So there you have it, the first step in taking care of your home is protecting it for you and your off-springs. Furthermore, as you obtain more resources you have to ensure you have the correct resources in place to protect those assets. Subsequently, always do your research. Make sure that you set your budget, compare policies, and ask questions about coverage limits and durations. Following these steps are great proactive measures to ensure your greatest asset is always protected for you and your legacy.