Repair Your Credit Profile

Unemployment is a difficult thing to deal with at the best of times. With the challenges now facing the world’s economies, many are going to face this emotional rollercoaster for the first time in their working life, quickly needing to find ways of saving money and seeking out saving tips. It is therefore important to realise that you are not alone and by acting positively you will improve your chances radically of finding new work. You therefore need to understand it for what it is, concede it and move on.

Taking each of these in turn:

Recognise it for what it is; a period of acute stress. There are many contributors to this stress, including….

• A voyage into an unknown world - “what is going to happen to me?”

• A feeling that you are letting people down, particularly your immediate family. Financial dependents and younger children can cause this feeling to be much stronger. Family goals will have to be postponed.

• Lots of new challenges, like understanding the benefits system.

• Worry about mounting debts, including, in some cases, concern about having homes repossessed if there is a mortgage involved.

• Difficulty in adjusting to a new life style with a different income – “how will we keep up with our friend’s social scene”.

• Worry about how other people, friends and former colleagues will view you.

• A reduced level of self-worth – “how did I fail?”

• Anger at former employees or circumstances leading to the unemployment

• Lack of motivation “what is the point?”

Accept the situation. This may be hard to do, but once it has been achieved in a meaningful (not superficial) way you can get on with repairing the damage.

Move on positively and swallow your pride. Changes should be made the damge of losing money needs to be managed. Do not hide from decisions. Some of the things to put on your agenda to consider include:

• Make sure that you access any benefits that you are entitled to straight away. The means testing may feel intrusive, but it is imperitive not to misuse your time. It is very difficult to get any form of benefits paid for the period when you should have claimed and did not know how to.

• Review your budget in detail. When you have completed this, do it again taking out the bits that you can live without. Make every penny count by finding ways of saving money.

• Speak immediately to your bank and other financial relationships before any damaging situations arise. They are professional and should give you some breathing space, particularly in relation to your house or mortgage.

• Dont hide from humanity. The best way to get back into employment is to get out and speak to people, so find out what friends and previous colleagues are doing. Tell people you are looking for work when visiting places like business networks or social events. Word gets around and generally people are willing to help. You will quickly discover that you are not alone.

• Turn the unemployment into a long term opportunity. What do you really want to do? Redo your CV, and plan for future situations.

Finally, try to gain benefit from any help that is available from family, friends and associates. Look online for any guidance available during this difficult period. For example, look for personal finance software that can help you to manage your money better and to coach you about saving money. There are also a variety of sources online for saving tips that could be useful, so seek them out.

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