Recovering from a Financial Setback

- One of the biggest myths in the modern world is that your money life is linear. Work hard, build your savings, invest wisely, and retire on a beach somewhere. The reality is that most people experience bumps along the way and when I say bumps, it can mean devastating financial setbacks, and as painful as they may feel, there are actionable things that you can do, no matter how deep in the hole you may feel. Now, there's three buckets of setbacks. There's the loss of income, which means you're going deeper into debt just to survive. There's a loss of savings, which means you've lost your safety net by depleting any emergency funds you may have, and then there's a loss of investment value, and seeing retirement and investment accounts lose their value. It's possible that you may experience all three at once, so understanding the building blocks of a recovery plan is important. The four steps to recovering from a financial setback are taking stock of where you are, exploring your income options, reducing the cost of your debt, and looking differently at your money. I'm Jane Barratt, personal finance expert and Chief Advocacy Officer at MX Technologies. I have several personal finance courses here on LinkedIn Learning. This course, Recovering from a Financial Setback, is designed to give actionable advice on where to start and what to do if you've experienced a financial setback. Please join me as we explore strategies and actions that can improve your financial situation. A financial setback, as painful as it may be, can be a great time to build your money muscles and form new habits that will bring better outcomes in the long-term.