3 Money lessons to learn from the COVID -19 Pandemic.

 How do I navigate the COVID-19 pandemic financially? What financial lessons can I learn from this COVID-19 Pandemic?

If these are some of the questions that come to your mind anytime you think about the COVID-19 crisis, then this article is for you.

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a lot of disruptions to the economies of the world, our health system is under siege, businesses are folding, people are losing their jobs, basically, our normal lives have come to a grinding halt.

On top of that, the pandemic does not only expose how fragile our health systems are but also how fragile our wallets and bank accounts are.  

Nonetheless, as the saying goes every cloud has a silver lining and this cloud (COVID-19) is no exception. I believe that this crisis in as much as we hate it has some very important money lessons to teach us. How to build our bank accounts and purses to become resilient to any form of pandemic or disaster in the future.

Here are 3 money lessons we can pick from this pandemic to forge ahead and become financially resilient.  

1. It is important to build up savings and investment: The importance of individual savings and investment cannot be overemphasized. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has just made it crystal clear to many that indeed it is important we set aside part of our incomes. It does not necessarily have to be a huge amount, at least one-tenth of your income or more if you can is okay. One thing we also have to note is that we don’t need to have a huge income before we can save. Some proportion of any level of income is saveable, whether big or small. In order to have a resilient bank account savings alone is not enough, it must be accompanied by investment. After accumulating enough savings you can then take part of that savings and invest. However, at any point in time, we must have some liquid savings (money you can easily cash out). That is, we must not lock up all our monies in investment.

2. We must have multiple streams of Income: The second money lesson this pandemic is driving home is that it is expedient we have diverse streams of income.  Usually, a major stream of income accompanied by supporting (auxiliary) streams of income otherwise know as passive income. With the pandemic causing many people to be unemployed and businesses collapsing, this is where having multiple streams of income comes in handy. It could be dividends on your shares, profits from your mini supermarket (kiosk),  profits from some products you sell.  For those wondering how you can earn a passive income, I suggest that you start with selling something.  The pandemic has also shown us the business that can stand the test of time, foodstuffs, supermarkets, pharmacies, and cosmetic shops among others. So you can find products in this line of businesses and sell. There are also other enormous opportunities around with regards to passive income so identify what works for you and stick to it. 

 

3. We must be equipped with more than one skill set (expertise):  The third financial lesson to pick from this pandemic is that we must increase our earning capacity. One of the ways to have multiple streams of income is to equipped with more than one marketable skill. It is no secret that most of us are going to be unemployed after this crisis. The interesting thing is that it is not only employees that are going to lose their jobs even some CEOs and business founders because their businesses are folding. With more than one marketable skill you can easily find something to do temporarily before you get back on your feet or get another job. Mostly vocational skills work well in this regard, like being a makeup artist on the side, doing photography, or decorations, and event planning just to name a few. Just any soft skill that you can be able to balance with your main job is fine.

 

I hope this article has been helpful to you, comment below what your thoughts on this topic are, and some of the lessons you have personally learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. And don’t forget to follow, like, and share it with your friends and let us all grow together.