After a stretch of unemployment, you’ve finally found a new job, congratulations! Now there's some steps you need to take to recuperate your finances as well as prepare for the chance of something like this happening again in the future. Here are some tips for recovering after unemployment.
EMERGENCY SAVINGS
If you weren’t prepared for a potential unemployment, your finances likely took a hit during your time out of work. The last thing you want is to be in the same situation in the chance that something like this happens again. Start working towards an emergency account where you’ll have three to six months’ worth of expenses saved up for you to use regardless of the emergency.
CREATE/UPDATE BUDGET
Once you know how much you’ll be making at your new job. It’s time to create a new budget. Calculate what your take home pay will be and sort your expenses by needs and wants. Continue to cut back on items you don’t need for the time being. Once your finances begin to level out a little, you can begin to add some more fun purchases back into your budget. Don’t add everything back at once as this may throw your budget out of balance.
DEBT ELIMINATION PLAN
If you accumulated debts during unemployment, you need to come up with a plan to get them paid. List all of your debts from highest to lowest interest rate. Those with the highest interest rate should be your highest priority as this well help you save money. As you pay off credit cards, stop using them if possible until you have them in a manageable place.
CREDIT SCORE
There's a chance your credit score may have fallen during your time of unemployment, especially if you were dependent on credit. While it's super easy to let your score fall, it's just as difficult to bring it back up again. Click HERE for more ways to improve your credit score.
