What if you were able to come out of this time of social distancing and economic crisis with a stronger and healthier financial life? What if you looked at this as an opportunity to take a little bit of your extra time each day to work on your finances?
Since it takes me about 35 minutes to drive to work in the morning and 45 minutes on the way back home, I have an extra 1 hour and 20 minutes of my day that I don’t have to drive while I’m working from home that I can use to accomplish something. This doesn’t even take into consideration all of the networking and social events that would usually take up some of my time throughout the week.
Obviously, your situation is different than mine (and probably a whole lot different if you have kids at home who would otherwise be in daycare), but I’m guessing that we all have at least a little extra time right now that we can dedicate to our personal finances.
It looks like we’re going to continue to practice our social distancing skills at least through April, and now is a great time to work on creating a better financial situation, so I’m giving you 30 days of stay-at-home personal finance wins throughout April.
Unfortunately, I understand that there are many who have (and who will) lose their jobs during this time of uncertainty and objectively will not come out on the other side of this with a stronger financial situation. Hopefully, many of these personal finance wins can help to lessen the blow and make things easier on them. On the other hand, I think that many of these wins are still relevant to those who are fortunate enough to be in a position to not have to worry about their job and their finances to help them build healthier finances.
Day 2: File for Unemployment or Short-Time Compensation
This win obviously won’t apply to the majority of people, but is extremely relevant to those who have lost their jobs or who have had their hours cut but haven’t been laid off. If unemployment isn’t relevant to you, then it may still be beneficial to continue reading about short-time compensation so that you can pass the information along to anyone you know who may benefit from it.
Unemployment benefits have been expanded so much under the CARES Act that many people will make more money while on unemployment than they were while they were working. I think that most people know what unemployment benefits are, so I’ll spare the details and provide a couple of resources:
- Indiana Department of Workforce Development Unemployment Insurance Claimant Handbook
- Indiana Department of Workforce Development Unemployment Insurance FAQ Page
Short-Time Compensation
Something that many people may not be aware of is that the CARES Act also provides funding to support state short-time compensation programs through the end of 2020. Short-time compensation allows those who have had their hours reduced, rather than being laid off, to receive partial unemployment benefits.
Many people are facing this situation and aren’t sure how they’re going to make it on a reduced income. I would assume that many of those people aren’t aware that there’s a program such as short-time compensation available to help them. If you’re in this case, then it probably makes sense to look into.
30 Days Of Stay-At-Home Personal Finance Wins
- Day 1: Understand The CARES Act
