9 Immediate Money Solutions during COVID19 PLUS 4 Employer / Recruiter Resume Secrets
Coronavirus Financial Solutions for NOW with Advice from Suze Orman & Dave Ramsey
There’s nothing quite like the terror of suddenly being faced with the reality that you have nothing coming in financially. These past few weeks the number of us who no longer have jobs, or are temporarily laid off has really increased significantly, “More than 6.65 million people filed for unemployment benefits in the US during last week” (the week of March 27th).
The good news is that there are some resources and solutions we can turn to during this time.
Financial Influencer Suze Orman advises
- The First Thing to do is contact each bill that you have let them know your situation and ask for help.
Immediately contact your mortgage lender, landlord, student loan company, utilities, phone company, Internet provider and anyone else you make monthly payments to, and ask for leniency. Many businesses are working with you to help reduce cost or offer new payment plans due to COVID-19.
She even goes against her own advice in these unusual times, typically shel advises getting rid of credit cards and recommends asking for an extended credit limit and advice on how to delay payments. If you’re familiar at all with Suze then you know she is very direct and clear in her advice to pay down credit cards immediately and get rid of these.
- The Second thing is Stimulus Package- We have the stimulus package to be released now that has been signed into law.
Critical Information — Here are FAQ’s and answers from the New York Times Coronavirus Stimulus Payments
“How large will the payments be? Most adults will get $1,200, although some would get less. For every qualifying child age 16 or under, the payment will be an additional $500.
How many payments will there be? Just one. Future bills could order up additional payments, though.
How do I know if I will get the full amount? It depends on your income. Single adults with Social Security numbers who have an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less will get the full amount. Married couples with no children earning $150,000 or less will receive a total of $2,400. And taxpayers filing as head of household will get the full payment if they earned $112,500 or less.
Will I have to apply to receive a payment? No. If the Internal Revenue Service already has your bank account information from your 2019 or 2018 returns, it will transfer the money to you via direct deposit based on the recent income-tax figures it already has.
What if my direct deposit information has changed or I want to add it for the first time? On March 30, the I.R.S. said on its website that it would build a portal where people can update their information “in the coming weeks.”
Do college students get anything? Not if anyone claims them as a dependent on a tax return. Usually, students under the age of 24 are dependents in the eyes of the taxing authorities if a parent pays for at least half of their expenses.
What year’s income should I be looking at? — 2019. If you haven’t prepared a tax return yet, you can use your 2018 return. If you haven’t filed that yet, you can use a 2019 Social Security statement showing your income to see what an employer reported to the I.R.S.
What if my recent income made me ineligible, but I anticipate being eligible because of a loss of income in 2020? Do I get a payment?
The plan does not help people in that circumstance now, but you may benefit once you file your 2020 taxes. That’s because the payment is technically an advance on a tax credit that is available for the entire year. So it will depend on how much you earn.
When will the payment arrive? -Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said he expected most people to get their payments by April 17. Presumably those people using the new portal would not get money until a few weeks after they are first able to provide their information. The I.R.S. has not said when those receiving paper checks would get them.”… see the full article link above for a complete list of FAQs.
3. Apply for Unemployment — One of the immediate things to do if you’re unemployed is apply for unemployment for your state. Keep in mind that it may take a little while for them to respond due to the volume of new applicants. So be patient and courteous If you speak to someone, kindness and appreciation go a long way. They are dealing with an enormous volume, larger than they had expected. For my state the expectation was 3.5 million in one week, However, The applications were almost doubled to 6 million filings in one week.
4. Reduce Your Bills — Review your costs and immediately begin cutting unnecessary bills the goal is to reduce your expenses and costs by 30%.
NOTE — do not get rid of your insurance plan. This may feel like an extra expense, but it’s worth keeping. The good news with this is that when you have a financial need and your status has changed you can reach out to healthcare.gov and reduce your cost.
For example, One thing I did after I was laid off is to stop my gym membership. We know gyms are no longer open so immediately stopping that payment is important.
If you are still working, switch to an emergency budget that focuses only on what is absolutely necessary until you have at least three months of income set aside for living on.
If you find that you absolutely need cash to be warry of payday loans and taking cash out of a credit card. The interest rate for these is astronomical!
- Delay Tax Filing — you can delay filing them if you owe anything this is helpful. This can be delayed until July 15, 2020 according to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin.
“On March 20, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin tweeted that the Treasury and IRS “are moving Tax Day from April 15 to July 15” however, if you expect a refund. Definitely file right away.
- Budget Advice from Dave Ramsey — Another financial influencer originator of Financial Peace University shares this for how to improve your finances during the Covid19 pandemic. “Get on a budget if you aren’t already…Take care of the four walls… This is your priority paper things in this order before anything else one. 1. Food, 2. Utilities, 3. Shelter, 4. Transportation.”
For example, if you don’t have food in the fridge don’t pay the cable bill.
7. Sell extra Things & Side Hustles to get money coming in right away. Two other things he recommends is to pause your debt snowball, sell things you don’t need. Here are some great ways to get a temporary job or start a side hustle.
8. Connect to a Community — Additionally, he recommends is to connect with a little community group like a not-for-profit or a church, of course do everything in your power first before seeking this help, but if you’ve done everything and still need support don’t let your ego get in the way of providing for your family. Many churches and community groups have provisions for this type of situation. They actually want to help you! Read his full article here
On a personal note, I worked for years with a food bank during the recession of 2008 and even ended up using the food bank when the economy came knocking on our door. It really helped us get through a difficult time, and no one makes you feel bad. They’re glad you can use the service.
What are the other options?
9. Work for an Essential business, these companies are in high demand right now obviously. Completing applications here can help you get hired sooner rather than later. Take a look at the companies considered essential right now an apply. See the important resume information below.
- Easily Refine Your Resume, most recently I worked as a recruiter, here are things that employers look for when looking for quality employees. One, they look for is results. The easiest way to show this is in numbers that you were able to accomplish. List three bullet points under your professional summary showing how you benefited your most recent employer.
For Example, if you were able to help the sales department show what percentage you wear your team we are able to grow your reg ion and in what period time. OR if you were in charge of improving operations or production, show brief examples… bullet point or two of what you did to improve profit and reduce loss.
2. Match Posted Descriptions - sure that your descriptive terms mirror what employers are looking for, this is the most effective AND easiest way to refine your resume, reverse engineer your resume. The easiest way to do this and look up several job descriptions in the field you want to go into and make sure those terms are supported in your resume reflecting the work you did. Review several similar jobs and notice the terms they use.
When employers search for employees they will often search by these terms within their own description and Candidates that have these terms sprinkled throughout their Resume come up first in the list they see.
3. Pro Tip — Update your resume every other week at the latest. Another thing that employers get to see is who most recently updated their resumes and these are displayed first. One way to keep your resume fresh used to go in and revise descriptive terms with synonyms. This will keep your resume at the top of the search list.
4. Ideal Times to Post / Update your resume. Employers and recruiters typically post brand new jobs on either late Sunday afternoon or first thing Monday morning. This is when I would apply for new jobs for the week. Keep track of this in a spreadsheet including the company you applied to date you applied and any contact information for the hiring manager. You can find this on their website or LinkedIn if it’s not posted on the job board. Reach out to them within a couple of days, thank them for considering your application and follow upWith them in a week or so if you do not hear back. Stay courteous kind professional and express gratitude these are things that stand out to employers looking for employees especially in a crisis.
