We live in a society where most people can earn an income, but protecting that income is a problem. Protecting your money offers you an acceptable standard of living, peace of mind, and it helps you build an establishment of success for your descendants. However, many external forces put your financial protection at risks such as debts, scammers, and lack of spending plan. Are you wondering if there are ways you can protect your hard-earned money? The good news is, there are several strategies that you can employ to protect your hard-earned money, as we shall discuss below.
Let’s get started.
Maintain adequate insurance
Life is full of surprises: some are good and others are bad. No one wants to imagine the prospect that their home, personal possessions, and a job could suddenly be destroyed, damaged, lost, or even stolen. Imagine realizing you aren’t covered and the heartbreak of having to rebuild and replace your treasured items. But imagine the heartbreak of realizing you weren’t covered for the cost of rebuilding or replacing your treasured items should tragedy strike.
That’s why it is very important to maintain adequate insurance cover because it will help you in protecting your money. Make sure that you review and update your insurance cover annually. This is going to help you from being seriously left out of pocket if the unthinkable will happen.
Prepare a financial emergency kit
If you don’t have an emergency fund, now’s the time to prepare it if you want to protect your money. Unexpected things happen in life and others are usually beyond our control. That’s why it’s very critical to have an emergency fund in place to cater to any unexpected emergencies that arise. An emergency fund helps you to cover the unexpected without using the many you have or dipping into your savings. When you use the emergency money, you need to restock it again.
Get your financial documents together
Here are several documents that you need ensure you have to protect your money.
- A beneficiary document- This type of document lets you show who you would like your money transferred to upon your death. The beneficiary form protects your money from the probate court.
- Financial record document-This document should include pay stubs, canceled checks, investments statements, and pension plan records.
- Property record document- It includes vehicle registration and titles, mortgage statements, and insurance policies.
- A durable power of attorney – This document allows someone to step in and make a financial decision on your behalf.
Avoid Scams
Exercise caution when doing anything in life, especially when dealing with your money. There are scammers everywhere. But the biggest scammers are those that can’t see. Take a step to protect your online identity. Your financial institution will never ask you to send any credit card information, account numbers, passwords, and social security via email. Don’t give out your information or money unless you are 100% certain you know who the requester is.
Be aware of red flags – getting something for free is a hallmark of many scams. .
Get life insurance
Establishing life insurance not only provides peace of mind to you but also is essential in protecting your money. If you don’t have one, please establish one. Life insurance is very important because of the following reasons;
- It enables you to pay off your mortgages.
- Life insurance helps you to cater to your special needs. Do you have special needs, a child with special needs, or aging parents that depend on your financial support?
Getting a life insurance will help your love ones support themselves if anything were to happen to you.
Secure your job and enhance your job security
Don’t get stuck without a job. Don’t be that employee that is the first person to be considered for termination if the times comes. Here are some of the things you can do to enhance your job security, and hopefully preventing the unexpected.
- Know how to communicate with your employer. Having a free and clear line of communication with your employer will help you avoid any issues that can develop into bigger problems that can lead to dismissal.
- Try to always provide services that go beyond your employer’s requirements.
- Be a problem solver for your team
- As you gain expertise at work, be a mentor to your team and take pleasure in overseeing them succeed.
- Leave your problems at home when you come to work
- Don’t complain about your workload especially to your boss
- Don’t resist change. Be flexible and use new conditions and requirements to your advantage.
Review your credit report
Reviewing your credit report is also another way of protecting your money. Reviewing your credit card reports enables you to notice any errors in them. You can be consistently paying your bills on time but they don’t reflect, this can affect your financial life if you don’t make it a habit of reviewing your credit card report frequently.
It can also help you in stopping theft and card fraud early enough. For instance, if someone else has been using your social security to apply payments for credit, you might not know the signs unless you take a close look at your credit reports.
Organize your financial documents
Organizing your financial documents is very critical because it helps you save time and money. Here are various steps of organizing your finance documents;
- Review the documents – Before you get to organizing, you need to know which types of financial documents you have. Looking through your documents will help you notice which necessary information you have missed.
- Write down all your account –This should include passwords and usernames. This is an important step where you can look at your beneficiaries’ documents and add any information you need to add.
- Set up a secure filing system – Set passwords for your computer that you can remember.