Boost Your Finances In The Wake Of Your Nebraska Car Accident
Court fees, lost work, medical bills, and other expenses can quickly put your financial life in disarray. Although your award or settlement hopefully can cover the bulk of these expenses, you will likely need to reconfigure your budget and financial habits as soon as possible. Particularly if you received a large sum of money, consider hiring a professional financial planner or accountant to create a reliable budget, cut unnecessary expenses, pursue lucrative opportunities and take care of tax-related obligations.
Ideally, you should review your financial situation and set a strict budget directly after the accident. Early budgeting can help prevent the financial insecurity that drives many injury victims to settle for far less than they deserve. If necessary, consider applying for government assistance, taking out a loan, or temporarily downsizing your lifestyle (e.g. crashing with a friend to cut out rent expenses) to maintain financial stability in the interim.
Finance management tools
If you aren’t the most disciplined type when it comes to finance management, the following finance management tools can help you stay organized and ahead of the game.
- Mint.com: This web-based personal financial management service made a huge splash when it first rolled out, and it continues to be quite popular. Mint offers account aggregation that enables you to track all bank accounts, credit cards, investments, loans and other transactions through a single user interface. Through this intuitive, free service, you can create budgets, receive alerts on unusual spending, monitor your credit score and receive custom tips for reducing fees and saving money.
- Shared spreadsheets: Particularly for couples, families, roommates and other groups with collective financial needs, shared spreadsheets through platforms like Google Drive are excellent collaborative tools for financial management. Since many tools like Mint do a lot of the work for you, shared spreadsheets encourage you to regularly review your accounts and manually update them, so you remain in control of your finances.
- HelloWallet emergency savings calculator: Everyone understands the importance of saving money, but most are relatively clueless when it comes to determining the appropriate amount. HelloWallet recently introduced a free emergency savings calculator that determines a specific, goal savings amount based on your earnings, expenses and lifestyle. Having a specific target in mind eases the anxiety associated with setting money aside.
In some cases, settlements or court-awarded money from a car accident lawsuit can be quite substantial. Recipients who don’t have proper money management skills may not know what to do with a wave of new income, and they can consequently squander away more than they intended in a short period of time. No matter how tight your budget might be, practicing smart money management techniques both before and after you receive any compensation will serve you well in the long run.
Building your network
What you need more than anything after a car accident is support. Even if you’re a staunchly independent type who abhors asking for help, swallow your pride. If family and friends offer help, accept it, rather than politely decline. Having someone else meet responsibilities will save you time and energy, and the companionship will be energizing and uplifting.
Also consider reaching out to friends and acquaintances who have undergone similar situations, and get advice. For example, maybe a friend told you about a friend of hers who underwent a legal battle after a car accident. Call this person for recommendations of legal professionals and other hindsight-inspired advice.
Your network can offer support that will change your life dramatically. From your mother driving you to doctor’s appointments to your neighbors delivering home-cooked meals, you will be surprised how much easier your life becomes when you allow others to help you through a difficult time.
For immediate insight into your Nebraska car accident, call Inkelaar Law to get the justice you deserve at (877) 537-4665, or visit www.JusticeYouDeserve.com.