Inflation is at a 40 year high. Everything costs more and we are in a recession. While there may be a light at the end of the tunnel, we’re not sure if it is sunshine or a locomotive!
What Can You Do to Lessen the Bite of Inflation?
There are two basic ways to address inflation:
- Spend less
or - Make more
Our natural human instinct when confronted with the unknown is to hunker down and conserve. It’s an emotional response. While human history is full of examples of how we react to the unknown (some good, some bad), we must only go back a couple of years to witness how people reacted to the great COVID toilet paper shortage. Was that rational? Perhaps not. But what is undeniable is our emotional reactions to scarcity and the unknown. Inflation is basically reducing the value of your money (i.e. making it more scarce).
So, we want to evaluate our decisions with rationality rather than emotion. It is tough to do.
Spend Less – Rationally:
Evaluate your spending habits. Each person’s budget is different. How has inflation affected your spending? Compare the first 4 months of 2021 with the first 4 months of 2022 by category. Did you spend more on food, gas, utilities and by how much? Someone who commutes daily to work will be more affected by increasing gas prices than someone who works from home. Understand where inflation is hitting you!
Evaluate alternatives / substitutions for those items that are more expensive due to inflation. Some of these are easy to identify while others are complex.
Easy
- Car insurance – we almost never get quotes for insurance; we just renew it each year.
- Cell Phone – there are many low-cost carriers that now offer the exact same quality for a fraction of the cost.
- Food – cooking and eating at home instead of eating out can save money.
Hard
- Cable – do you really watch all of the channels that you subscribe to? Cut back on the cable. Or……cancel it all together and read books for entertainment!
- Change your diet – a healthier diet will lead to you being less hungry and actually eating less, thereby saving you money.
Make More – Rationally
For business owners, you want to increase revenue. There are a few tried and true ways to do this. And yet, some appear to be counterintuitive. It’s a mixture of:
- increasing your prices (you have to keep pace with inflation)
- selling more to you current customers
- finding more customers.
I can feel everyone rolling their eyes along with a deep sigh. Of course we all want to do this, but the question is HOW to do it. Well, we can help you with this. One of our preferred providers has helped us do exactly that over the past 2 years and our revenue has gone up 300%!
If you need help establishing a personal budget, shopping for insurance, generating revenue for your business, or even developing a healthier lifestyle – reach out to us. We have preferred vendors across multiple industries that can help you.
Inflation freaking you out? We can help!
Call (720) 828-6218 to schedule an appointment today.