Money lessons I’ve learned from 2020

Now I don’t know about you. But I think we can all agree that 2020 was a bit of a whirlwind when it came to money. Whether you were furloughed or made redundant from the pandemic, or couldn’t work because of the restrictions. Or maybe you saved so much money from working from home and not having to pay for commuting costs. I think we can all agree that we thought about money way more than usual. I certainly did! So here are the money lessons I’ve learned from 2020,

HAVE AN EMERGENCY FUND

I think one of the most important money lessons I’ve learned from the past 12 months, is the importance of having an emergency fund. I was lucky that at the beginning of the pandemic I was still working. Just from home. So my commuting cost stopped. Which saved me about £250 a month. And then I couldn’t eat out. Something that I didn’t realise I did quite so often before the pandemic started! Which probably saved me another £250 over the month.

But fast forward six months, and I was made redundant from that job. Despite working the whole of the pandemic while so many colleagues were furloughed. It was decided I wasn’t needed anymore. Which is where having an emergency fund is so important!

DON’T FORGET YOUR SAVINGS

While it was incredibly tempting to spend all that extra money I was saving. And trust me I did spend some of it! It was also an incredible opportunity to save more than usual, without feeling like I was sacrificing too much. Because I couldn’t go out and spend my money anyways!

I’ve spoken about having savings goals before, but having a lot more to save each month was a huge motivator to put the extra cash into savings. And watch those savings grow a lot quicker than planned.

SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES

If the past 12 months have taught me anything is that we need to continue to support local business. Even more so than before. While big corporations were handed huge bailouts, local businesses really struggled to survive.

I’m definitely trying to be more conscious about where I shop from. And where I can, will continue to shop local, rather than putting even more money in the pockets of Amazon or ASOS.

So there you have it. The money lessons I’ve learned from 2020. What money lessons have you learnt?