5 Tips for Making It Through the Financial Crisis

Many investors are hurting from the financial meltdown, especially as they are just getting started in investing. Some of you have suffered a foreclosure or bankruptcy and are strongly motivated to help others avoid what you’ve been through. Others have lost jobs or have seen their hours or wages severely cut. Times are tough all over.

With the right education and investing strategy you have the tools you need to turn it around, but it is still going to take time and some good financial strategies to make it through the financial crunch.

Here are some things credit counselors advise clients to do in order to survive the financial disaster that continues to haunt this country. This is prudent advice for anyone, even those who are beginning to see some success in their investing careers:

1. Keep making your mortgage payments on time. Stopping foreclosure on your own home while you are in the midst of trying to help others is a daunting task and one that will damage your own credibility with clients. If you can’t help yourself, people will question your ability to help them.

2. Hold on to that day job. Until you’ve filled the pipeline with 10 or more active Short Sales under negotiations and have seen two or three months of closings each month, it’s best to keep the regular paycheck going and run your business part time. If you are still employed, consider carefully before you pull up stakes and move to a new job and/or a new location. It takes time to get established some place new, especially in this economy, and the last hires are often the first to go. Long term, your real estate investing will take care of that problem, but be conservative as you’re first starting out.

3. Keep up your insurance payments. If something happens to you or your spouse, insurance is what will take care of the hospital bills, pay for the kid’s education, keep the car on the road, and provide a nest egg for your survivors. Even after you’ve made a success of your investing, an accident could end that stream of income for your family in an instant. Insurance is critical.

4. Take care of yourself. When times get rough people tend to stop taking their prescription medications, eating properly, getting enough sleep and exercise. Your family needs you to remain strong and healthy. Until you are well along in your investing career and have a good set of employees, your business will not run itself.

5. Avoid taking out a big loan for a car or other major purchases. Don’t strap yourself with 48 to 72 months of car payments. Until you’re well established in your investing career, forget buying the new car on credit; buy a used car with cash when needed.