MONEY HACKS: What Does Returning to Normal Life Mean for Your Wallet?

As summer kicks off and states lower or completely remove COVID-19 restrictions, most Americans are eager to travel, get “out and about,” and spend time with friends. So – what will this mean for your wallet and your cash flow/spending plan? In this Money Hacks episode, I share some cash flow ideas and considerations as we return to “normal life” once again so that we can continue to make wise financial decisions for the future.

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Video Transcript:

Hey, this is Alex Assaley with AFS 401(k), and it's Money Hacks #80. I just grabbed some lunch. I've been in one-on-one financial coaching sessions here all morning and am getting ready to head back in for the afternoon, and so for the first time in, I guess, a long time, I had to pick up some lunch out on the go, and it got me to thinking that as we get back to more normal work and life environment, there are certain things that we're going to start doing.

Again, certain things are going to impact our cash flow, our monthly spending, and budget. And it's one of the topics that we talk about a lot in these videos and in our one-on-one coaching because it has a huge, huge impact on our overall financial life and how we make and strategize for our financial security and success over the long term.

So, this morning, one of the folks that I was meeting with has just done an incredible job over the last year in paying down and paying off credit card debt. She started 2020 with about $18,000 in credit card debt. She now has it paid all the way down to under $3,000 dollars and attributed a lot of that to changes in her spending and saving habits as one of the silver linings of the health pandemic over the last 14 to 15 months.

But she's concerned that as things start opening back up, as people start getting on the move again this summer and into late 2021, that her spending habits are going to change, and they probably are. So, this is a great time, I think for all of us, to work on looking at our financial picture, working on our, and looking at our monthly cash flow, the money we have coming in, where that money is going, and planning for some of the new or resumed expenses and spending that we'll be needing to do over the course of the next several months and year. I think in order to do that, some of the things you'll think about are increased transportation or commuting costs, if you're getting back into the office on a more frequent basis or going back on a daily basis, as well as, you know, I just spent $18 here eating lunch for one.

If I do that, a couple of times a week, that adds up over the course of a month. There are some other things that have changed a lot. Some of us have picked up a lot of different subscription services during the pandemic, whether it's Netflix or Amazon Prime or Disney+, perhaps grocery delivery services.

Maybe we've been spending money on eating out via delivery, as opposed to going out to eat and, you know, assessing any of these monthly subscriptions and other expenses that perhaps we've altered our lifestyle towards, and seeing which ones we're actually utilizing, and which we aren't necessarily utilizing, is vital to making sure we have a really good game plan when it comes to our cash flow.

As we get into the summer months, I know we've all been kind of waiting and there's a lot of pent-up demand to get out and travel and experience all the great things that the world has to offer and I hope you get to do that and you do it in a financially wise and also safe way. So, I hope this video is helpful.

I'm going to get back to doing some one-on-one sessions, and we'll see you again next time. Thanks!