Crashing Oil and May Budgets
I have been quite silent this past month. My day job is still in the oilfield and believe it or not, when the price of oil crashes, the frontline leaders are busier than ever. Mostly it has to do with de-mobilization of equipment and "right sizing our workforce" as all of the oil industry likes to code phrase what is really going on; mass lay offs. So I have been a little preoccupied trying to keep the maximum amount of people working and helping in the ever unpleasant decision making process of who to keep and who to send home.
On a brighter side, it appears that restrictions on self isolation are starting to lift in various states. Here in Texas, we are staging up the re-opening of various businesses. I am a little impatient for the barbershops to open up so I can get rid of this bushman look!
All that said, this is the beginning of May and if you have not done so already, it is time to create your budget for the month. We are still focusing in on the four walls: Food, Utilities, Home and Transportation. Until the economy is opened up and this crisis has passed, the primary focus should be to keep afloat and just cover your basics while stockpiling cash as best as you can.
So what does this look like? First, figure out how much money you are going to have come in this month. Then, start spending that money on paper. How much of your income will you spend on food this month? How much on utilities, house payment, vehicle payment/fuel? Once you get that figured out, any extra cash needs to be stockpiled. Your credit cards can wait and your student loans should be on hardship deferral by now. Until things fully open up, we are still in an emergency measure and we should be holding onto as much cash as possible to weather this storm.
Final piece of advice: DO NOT spend on anything that is not an absolute necessity right now! Every dollar you can save today may be absolutely necessary to avoiding a foreclosure or dealing with an emergency down the road.
I will be working on the Forum page in the coming days which can be navigated to from the menu bar. I will begin breaking down a detailed budgeting example as well as opening up things to any questions you may have. So please visit and ask your questions!
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