This very unexpected pandemic caught everybody by surprise emotionally and financially. Many people are in the scary position of not being financially prepared for this very real emergency. Nobody expected to be without income and having to rely on the charity of others to feed their families.
One of the biggest lessons we can learn from this real emergency is the importance of Paying Yourself First – aka PYF – a time-tested concept the Center for Financial Empowerment teaches to our youth participants. Experts recommend putting aside 20% of your net-pay for emergencies, retirement and other goals every month. Paying Yourself First is the concept of putting money aside first, before you pay your other necessities. Since there are so many temptations to spend, if we don’t put money away into savings first, we very likely won’t save at all. Regardless of how much or how little income you have, the PYF concept is the best way to make sure you have a savings “buffer” in case of a crisis. If we’ve learned anything from these unprecedented times, it’s that we all can become better financially prepared for the unexpected.
Hopefully in our lifetime we will never see the likes of this scenario again, but chances are some other unexpected emergency will arise that we need to be prepared for. Paying Yourself First will guarantee that you will have some control over your financial situation. Being prepared will sure alleviate some real worries that folks are dealing with right now.
Paying Yourself First is the right move for today and tomorrow.