If you are someone who is going through a job loss or salary cut during the coronavirus times, then here are some ideas on how you can manage your money. Due to the nationwide and state-wide lockdown measures, many companies have been suffering losses that are leading to salary cuts and mass termination among employees. This is leading to a helpless situation for employees who really didn’t have a well-prepared financial plan as no one knew such a health crisis will occur all of a sudden.
1) Fixed income investments such as recurring deposits, fixed deposits, and debt funds can be obtained for people going through a job loss. Though once you break the FDs prematurely, you will get a prepayment penalty also it would bring the risk of long-term investment getting used up on an immediate basis.
2) EPF Corpus can also be redeemed by subscribers for people who are going through income slashes. The government has allowed getting 75% of the EPF balance for up to three months, but remember one thing that taking money from fixed-income investments can leave a huge impact on your post-retirement security.
3) People with credit cards who are unable to pay their dues can repay their dues by converting their outstanding amount into EMIs. The interest rate in EMI conversion will be quite lesser and you will also get time up to 5 years to repay the total amount in small amounts depending on your financial strength.
4) If you haven’t lost your job and neither got a pay cut, please start an emergency fund that you can utilize to pay your expenses and fees for hospitalization during illnesses for at least 6 months. This fund should be in your savings account so that you can withdraw the money instantly without any time limitations.
