Toronto Star Feature: How We Rebalanced Our Budget to Survive the Pandemic
BE MONEY SMART.
My husband and I were featured in the Toronto Star and shared how we personally shifted our finances and rebalanced our budget to survive the pandemic. You can read the full article here.
Our income was hit hard after we returned from our family vacation in March, just 3 days before the Canadian border was closed. We were required to undergo 2 weeks of mandatory quarantine which meant Marcais could not return to work and we would be without our fixed source of monthly income.
People often believe there’s a secret to successfully managing your money or that you need a certain income to do so. What you actually need is a solid financial plan (regardless of your income). Yet, 69% of Canadians do not have one. This is why so many people feel that there’s never enough money or that climbing out of debt and actually saving is impossible.
Having a solid plan not only creates the roadmap to achieving your financial goals but it also ensures you can quickly adjust your finances when life throws you a loop, like say COVID-19.
When our household income was reduced, we could have easily decided to maintain our lifestyle and pull from our Emergency Fund or take more money out of my business.
But that wouldn’t be money smart. Instead, we did exactly what I advised my clients to do; adjusted our Money Master Plan, shifted spending, continued saving and elevated our money mindset.
Here are a few steps that we took:
Shifted Spending & Continued Saving
Having a budget already in place made it easy to identify what spending areas we could reduce. We created a new “COVID-19 Budget” and cut over $1,000 in monthly expenses which allowed us to live off of our reduced income. We still consistently save the same amount each month and have not touched our Emergency Fund.
Maintained our weekly Money Dates
When life happens, people tend to easily focus on adjusting to the circumstances of life and fail to adjust their finances in the process.
We have weekly Money Dates every Sunday to review the family finances, check spending vs. budget and adjust our plan if needed. Having these scheduled dates allowed us to quickly adjust our Money Master Plan when ‘life happened.’ Continuing these weekly meetings has ensured we stick to the new plan without going into debt, using our savings or pulling from the business.
Money Mindset Matters
We had a choice – allow our mindset and energy to spiral downward with the crisis or elevate our money mindset and continue to attract abundance.
I personally held tight to one of my favourite mantras: The Universe is my marketing department. This has led to so many wonderful opportunities, including this manifested opportunity to be featured in the Toronto Star again. [If you missed my first Toronto Star feature where I share my personal money journey, you can read it here.]
I also added a new mantra that “My business is open for expansion” which has led to several virtual speaking engagements, collaborations, random cheques in the mail and unexpected clients.
You CAN inhale financial confidence and exhale financial peace, no matter what life throws at you.
And this is exactly what I teach my clients in the Live in Your Worth coaching program.
The wait list for the next program is now open. Join now to be notified when enrollment begins.