Scott Hannah, president and CEO of the Vancouver-based Credit Counselling Society, says you should avoid pulling money out of your registered retirement savings plans or drawing down your line of credit to cover any shortfalls.
Once that’s done, he suggests building an emergency budget that outlines your family’s basic necessities. “Everything else is a luxury at this point,” he says. Now is also the time to cancel that summer trip to avoid penalties, look for refunds from cancelled March Break camps and postpone any other purchases, he adds. Another tip: look at every item in your budget and try to scale it back by 10 per cent. That can add up to hundreds of dollars, Mr. Hannah says. The key is to make a plan and follow it. “When people make a plan, they feel better because they’re taking steps,” Mr. Hannah says.
Mark St. Louis, who started his own retail marketing and design consultancy, PivotRetail, this past October, says his retail customers are shutting down their stores temporarily and postponing projects. “It’s a very fluid thing, day-to-day,” he says. “We’re definitely feeling it.”