5 Ways to Get Ahead of Financial Emergencies

Shit happens.

You blow a tire on the freeway.

Your dog eats 6 pinecones.

You’re late on rent because you blew a tire on the freeway and your dog ate 6 pinecones. 

Everyone will experience a financial emergency in some way. How you handle those times can have an impact on your money for years. 

It’s better to get ahead of financial issues at the start rather than wait until you’re really up shit creek without a paddle. 

Here are some tips to help mitigate the impact of financial emergencies. 

Take a minute to be mad.

Really. It fucking sucks when you have an emergency that is going to cost a lot of money. Making decisions in the heat of the moment is not a good idea though. From a “this is what your brain is doing.” standpoint, it’s interpreting the event as danger and is going to want to find the quickest route to safety. That route might not be the best for the situation. So take a pause, calm yourself and your nervous system and come back to the problem when you’re less emotionally heightened. 

Unless of course, the emergency is a, “You gotta get the fuck outta there!” kind of emergency. Then, by all means, get the fuck outta there.

For the sake of this post, I’m assuming it isn’t a GTFO emergency.

Assess the damage.

Okay, the thing happened. What is the cumulative damage of the thing happening? 

If we’re using the example of the tire blowing out on the freeway, the damage might be, obviously, your tire and maybe some other parts of your car. It might include the cost of a tow truck to move your ass off the freeway and it might include the cost of missing work to deal with the issue. 

Assessing the damage means you get a clear picture of what you need to tackle from most important to least to get the emergency dealt with efficiently. 

Make a plan.

Whatever you considered from your “Assess the damage” step is now your to-do list. Again, we’ll use the tire scenario. 

First, you need to get your ass off the freeway so calling a tow truck is the first order of business. Your car insurance might have a clause that includes free roadside service. Sweet! Use that and get reimbursed for the cost of getting towed. Did you know some credit cards or membership services can also offer free roadside help? Well, they do. 

Next, you might need to call work and let them know you’re going to be late because you had a tire emergency. Even if it’s a crap job that you wish would burn to the ground every day, don’t risk a no-call/no-show because you still need money for that tire and we can tackle leaving that shit job once this tire situation is handled.

Speaking of tires, uh, you need one. Again, check with your insurance or vehicle warranty if that’s covered. If not, a quick Google shopping search can help you find a good price for a replacement. 

By working your plan from most important to least, you’re making sure the things that will have the biggest impact on your finances are a priority to take care of before they can cause more of a ruckus on your money.

Make a plan for missed or late payments.

We’re switching examples here! So your dog ate six pinecones on a Saturday night and now you have to take them to the emergency vet. Thanks bro. That emergency vet bill takes you over budget and now you’re going to be late on your electric bill. Damn dog! Instead of not doing anything and hoping you don’t get disconnected, get ahead of it. Call your electric company and be honest. “Look, I had an emergency and am going to be short on my bill. Can I set up a payment arrangement or defer the bill out a week or two until I get paid again?” 

Sometimes, because you’re making an arrangement before it’s late, they’ll even waive late fees or disconnect fees. Just make sure you can absolutely make those payment arrangements or else they might not offer leniency again later.

Not only does this give you extra time to make up for that shortage, but it also keeps your account(s) in good standing. You never know what might pop up next or if you’ll need another extension because of another emergency later down the line.

Have a safety net in place for next time.

As much as we hope there won’t be a next time, we know that’s a lie. There will always be a next time. Once you have the situation handled, figure out if there’s a way you can create a safety net so when it does happen again, it’s not as big of an issue. 

Set up a car maintenance fund to pull from the next time your vehicle starts acting up. Get pet insurance so you can get reimbursed for the next emergency visit. Set up an emergency fund to cover time off work or to cover the shortage on bills because of said emergency.

While we can’t be prepared for every single financial hiccup that may happen, we can have a few things in place so something small, like a blown tire, doesn’t completely fuck up our entire budget. A little preparedness can also help us avoid having to put things on credit cards or use financing options that get us into debt that might be hard to get out of. 

Life is going to happen. The best we can do is have tools in place to deal with whatever gets thrown at us to the best of our abilities.

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