Lessons Learned From the Coronavirus

Back in March when the world heard about the Coronavirus or Covid-19 if you prefer and it was making its way through every country imaginable, there were several thoughts that passed through my mind. The main one that stuck out was what financial lesson can we learn from this for our future.

Like many people when I heard about the stay-at-home orders, people out of work and even the possibility of businesses closing permanently, I started evaluating my life and necessities. I am not a minimalist by any stretch and I also wouldn’t characterize myself as a hoarder. But, I like to keep my deep freezer full of meats and frozen vegetables. In my pantry I always have a few can goods, dry beans and rice. I even try to keep a couple of packages of toilet paper and feminine supplies on hand. This habit of keeping supplies on hand come from growing up in the south east where tornados and freezing rain happens.  If the roads freeze overnight you may not be able to get off of your street or out of your drive way because the land out east is rolling and not flat.

Well these simple lessons that were passed down from my mother are what saved my sanity during this pandemic. While people were running to the stores to buy cleaning supplies, toilet paper and food, I was secure in the fact that I was okay. Sure, I did get tired of eating the chicken, hamburger and pork chops in my freezer, not to mention cooking, even though most of the time I used my slow cooker. But, I was not going hungry and I even learned how to make bread.

Given the fact that I had food to eat the next thing to think about was money. Thankfully, I work in an industry that was considered essential, but I still looked at my emergency fund. I calculated my monthly bills to see how many months my savings will last. And although I set up my savings to cover eight months of expenses, I found out that it would probably last a year. I didn’t have to buy groceries and I wasn’t going out to restaurants and stores, so my discretionary spending was way down. That was the final faze during these unprecedented times we are facing right now, that told me I was okay and able to weather any storm that comes my way.

Its natural when you first start saving money to create an emergency fund to fill like you will never make your goal. Or, when you finally get to that magic number, to second guess yourself and decide that it can’t possibly be enough money and you may need to save a little more. But, when some unforeseen emergency hits and you realize that having money in the bank just alleviated that added stress and you can make it through.  That is the time when you really understand how important having a plain old boring emergency fund sitting in a bank savings account earning nada is worth it. And you are glad you didn’t transfer that money to an investment account so you can “earn more” in the stock market as stocks start to fall.

Keeping an emergency fund and having it in a basic savings account so that I had access to it as needed really helped. Plus, I was able to have meat and fruit delivered to many friends and family that were elderly, so that they could stay safe at home and not risk possible exposure and I didn’t have to worry about busting my budget since I had a long while before I would need groceries.

Ms, Smart