For a lot of people job security is high on the list of things that you should be looking for when accepting a new role or job. Since COVID19 and other economic factors many people that are employed and haven’t had to worry about job security are now looking at periods of unemployment. With unemployment taking a sharp rise in recent times, we know many of you will be looking at what you can do to keep a roof above your heads.
Losing employment isn’t necessarily the worst thing to possibly happen but you do need to look at what you should be doing. Being proactive and acting straight away will help lessen the burden of not having an income. What options do you have and how should you be moving forward to keep your home? We have 7 things that you should do to try and keep up your rent payments.
Access Savings
If you have been lucky enough to have been employed for a while and you have managed to put a little away every week or month for a rainy day. Well now is the time to access it, it may be tied up in a number of different saving schemes and not necessarily accessible straight away.
When the chips are down, you are not going to be receiving a regular income anymore, you will need to locate your savings and put them into an accessible bank account. When you start using these saving you will want to budget this, look at what you have and how many months or weeks you will be able to cover the rent. This should help remove a bit of pressure whilst you find some more work.
Draw Your Pension
Your pension may be able to help bail you out for a while. If you have a pension that lets you access or make early withdrawals this may give you the time you need to find new employment or bridge the gap until future financial help arrives. Remember that withdrawing some of your pension early will affect you later when you retire but if you are out of options it will help you get through this rough time. Once you are back in employment look to see if you can start topping up or making larger pension contributions to help cover and replace what you needed to remove.
Start A Side Hustle To Keep The Wolves At Bay
Everyone has a few talents that may not be utilised in the best way, if you have a keen eye for design look at refurbing clothing or furniture and selling them in the local advertiser or online. Do you enjoy a bit of DIY? See if there’s anyone local who needs help around the house are there any building jobs you can help with? Anything that needs fixing/putting together offers yourself and your services.
Do you have strong reading and writing skills that could be used to help edit script? Writing content online or tutoring people working on school courses. A strong runner that goes out several times a week to keep fit could start a running club. You could help people get fit or introduce them to running and guide them how to get started in the sport for a small fee. Any hobby or interest could be your side hustlelook and what you enjoy and how you can offer it as a service. Being well priced and friendly will help you go a long way; it may not be a huge amount of money, but it may be enough to cover rent until you find fulltime employment.
Borrow
Borrowing from a bank can be a slippery slope that may put you in a worse position later on down the track. Loans and credit cards with 0% interest for the first year may help and get you out of trouble until you find more work. But if that work doesn’t happen you could end up with interest and missed payment adding up, making the loan a crippling debt that could cost more than your home.
Maybe you have family members could be in a position to lend money to you until you can pay them back. Swallowing your pride and asking for help may be the best thing you can do. They may be in a position to offer you a loan with zero interest just a small fee or a bottle of wine as a thank you for helping you through a tough time.
Sell Unused Things
Most of us have a house full of past hobbies that we have either grown out of or lost interest in over time. This could be exactly what someone else is looking for. Selling an old push bike or weight set could help you accumulate enough money to cover the next rent installment until you are back in a regular employment. Look around and see what you either don’t need or something that isn’t used anymore, online social media and trading websites are an easy way to sell unwanted or hardly used items. You could even have a garage sale, advertise online or in the local advertiser. Open up your garage door and see what people want.
Lodger
When times are hard, friends can help you keep up high spirits. Your friends could also rent one of your rooms and help pay towards your accommodations outgoing like electricity, gas and internet. When getting a lodger or roommate make sure this is possible by looking through your tenancy agreement. You don’t want to get in trouble or even kicked out for subletting.
If you are unsure ask your landlord or lease holder. When you organise a lodger make sure you have some ground rules set out regarding visitors and who’s got what shelf in the fridge. If this is the first time living with someone remember communication is key to a happy home. A bit of give and take is going to be needed but hopefully you can both share the burden of the rent and bills. If you then get into fulltime employment you may still want to keep your lodger to help save more money, you may get used to the company and enjoy them being there with you. It could be the start of a great thing.
Minimize Outgoings
Look at your expenses for the house, what do you need to pay out for and what are the luxuries you could do without. Removing cable TV and stopping the Netflix account could be the start to minimizing your bills, stopping monthly subscriptions all mount up and will put more money back into your pocket. When shopping stop getting the name brand and switch for a cheaper alternative. It may not taste exactly the same but when cash is in short supply you need to make adjustments. Can you walk more places reducing the amount of money spent of fuel? Down grade your phone contract or switch to a sim only plan to continue to keep costs down. Remember the less spent on all these little things can go towards rent. It can be kept to a minimum until you are back in employment.
Final Thoughts
Being out of work can be mentally exhausting, remember you have to be proactive and start looking at ways you can minimise your outgoings and look at what you can do to increase the income you have. When you are back on track and employed again you can go back to the old habits or you can continue being frugal and the extra cash not being spent can be put into savings, pensions or used to pay back loans.
