Money Lessons From a Truly Terrible Year

By Charlotte Cowles

What are we supposed to learn from this hellish year financially? It beats me, to be honest. To suggest that there are money lessons from 2020 implies that its events were logical or within our control, disasters we could have budgeted for. Personally, I want to throttle anyone who says the pandemic should teach people to save more in case of emergencies. Of course, it’s always helpful to have savings! But that’s maddening advice for the millions of people who didn’t and won’t be able to for a long time — and for the plenty of people who did and still ran out of money anyway.

One thing is for sure: This past year changed everyone’s outlook on their finances and their security in general. And that must have taught us something. To get a better sense of what we may glean from it, I spoke to several financial experts about what they learned in 2020 — for better or worse — and what they hope to carry forward in the future. Here’s the advice they gave.

1. Understand where your money is.

“I discovered this year that many people don’t know their numbers,” says Tiffany Aliche, author of The One Week Budget. “A lot of my friends weren’t sure whether they had private or government student loans or what the interest rate was. They didn’t know how much money was on their credit card or what that interest rate was, either. When everything is fine, that may not seem like a big deal, but when you lose your job, those details really matter.”

For me, doing a detailed inventory of my money (and my debt) was a huge part of keeping my sanity this year, especially during scary patches. Right before the pandemic hit, I paid a small fortune in vet bills trying (unsuccessfully) to keep my beloved cat alive. As a result, I decimated my savings just in time for the economy to implode.

That same month, I lost a work contract that had supplied a reliable stream of income. Then the world locked down for the foreseeable future, and I was ready to panic. So I did what I normally do to calm myself down: I drank too much wine and then (the next morning) wrote everything down. I made a spreadsheet of my expected income, my bills, and what I could pay when. Doing the math helped me realize I wasn’t quite as broke as I felt as long as I kept track of everything and stuck to the plan.

2. Figure out where to get help.

Anyone who says they got through this year under their own steam is probably lying or in denial. We all had to lean on someone — a family member who provided free child care, a landlord who offered a break on rent, a friend who gave useful financial advice. Asking for help is a humbling experience, but it also forces us to kick the tires on our support networks.

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