The COVID-19 pandemic has made a massive impact on the way we spend money. With millions of people becoming unemployed across the country, it can be tough to find work and keep it. Savings accounts are being depleted, and for many, this is a really tough time. This is especially true for dental hygienists and dental assistants who are experiencing business closures all around the US.
Let’s explore how temp dental hygienists, who usually experience income fluctuations but are likely dealing with even more now, can prepare for tough financial times now to make this pandemic a little bit easier to manage.
The Quad-Account Approach
The quad-account approach is perhaps the best option you have when working as a freelancer and attempting to budget. In this approach, you have four accounts open to help you manage your money and plan for your expenses and future. Let’s take a closer look at each of the four accounts in this method and understand how the cash flows through them. It is important to note that they do not have to be actual separate accounts, but it does help if they are since the savings can accrue interest easily.
The Bill Account
In this account, you place money first. This is the most important and vital to your everyday life, covering all of your bills. Rent, electricity, gas, water, and other essential payments all go into this account. Mentally, you should remind yourself that this money cannot be spent on anything other than the bills you must cover. This means that you always have the absolute essentials covered before anything else. Obviously, you can move a bit of money between filling this quota up into your second account for food and gas, along with other basics, but this should be your main focus.
The Secondary Essentials
This is the second account that holds things like food, gas, and other very important things that you need to get through the day. It also holds your leftover money for fun things like movies, nights out, gaming, and other non-essential but nice to have items. Everyone deserves to unwind so if you can afford it, this is where the money for relaxation goes, too.
The Tax Savings
Taxation, when you are a freelancer, is different. No one is holding the taxes out of your payments so you have to be responsible for it. That means you need to place what would normally come out of each job into this account so you can pay your taxes when the time comes. This is vital and should be properly filled by tax season to prevent scrambling when the time comes.
Retirement/Rainy Day Savings
Like taxation, retirement is not held out of your payment, either. If you want to one day retire, this is a good way to begin creating your padding. Alternatively, this is also a good place to put base savings for sudden expenses, too. If your car breaks down or a water pipe explodes, you want to be able to replace what you need, right? With the economy being unstable, having extra money squirreled away for a rainy day is definitely a good idea, at least until COVID passes.
Let Stynt Help You
Working as a freelancer is rewarding. Let Stynt help you increase the reward and make it even more profitable by offering you access to dozens of unique freelance dental jobs. As a dental hygienist or dental assistant, you can find out more by filling out the information form on the Stynt site or joining through the app to get to work on job searching. Stynt actually cuts out most of the work!
When you are a freelancer within the gig economy, more income is always better. Let us help you find more jobs and grow that savings account.
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