Economic Issues

COVID-19; Financial Survival Guides For The Unemployed And The Underemployed -By Casmire Ohanabalu

Published

4 years ago

May 1, 2020

INTRODUCTION

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is defined as illness caused by a novel coronavirus now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV), which was first identified amid an outbreak of respiratory illness cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China.It was initially reported to the WHO on December 31, 2019. On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global health emergency.On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, its first such designation since declaring H1N1 influenza a pandemic in 2009 (Cennimo, 2020). It is an understatement to say that corona virus has put the universe to a halt. Everything all over the world has stood still. The worst aspect of this stagnation is the economic meltdown which the world is currently experiencing due to this pandemic.

Many businesses have shut down and some others have cut down their level of production or operations. Organizations and business entities have either lost their source of supplies or source of patronage. Globalization is seriously cramped down and it is having negative effects on the world economy. The effects of the covid-19 have chain reactions. It flows from the world economy to the national wealth level, then down to the various organizations in the country and finally on the individual employees of these organizations. Because of this situation, some organizations are compelled by the circumstances to lay off some of their employees. Those that struggle to maintain their workforce are faced with the option of reduction in the salary range of the workers. Currently some individuals have lost their jobs while others remain underemployed as a result of this pandemic. The essence of this write-up is to provide guides for those individuals that may be affected adversely in terms of job loss or reduction in the level of their livelihood.

GENERAL FINANCIAL SURVIVAL

Even in the absence of Corona virus, individuals have to survive financially. For human beings to survive and grow financially, they must have the following three things:

Income
Savings
Investment

Income

Yourdictionary.com sees income as the amount of money or its equivalent received during a period of time in exchange for labour or services, from the sale of goods or property, or as a profit from financial investment. No independent individual can survive without income. Income can be earned through the following ways:

Rendering of Services
Selling of goods
Working for an organization/ a business entity
Providing solutions to problems
Income from Investments

These incomes can come in forms of the following:

Sales
Salary
Wages
Commission
Bonus
Rent
Profit
Fees
Interest
Rewards
Other payments

For an individual to survive financially, he must have means to one or combination or multiple forms of incomes stated above.

Savings

According to an online blog “Quicken”, savings refer to money you put aside for future use rather than spending it immediately. In addition to the benefits of saving up for future purchases, delaying an impulse purchase also helps you decide whether it is something you really need, or a waste of money you will regret shortly after buying. George Clason, the author of the Richest Man in Babylon advocates that one should save at least 10% of his earnings. In his words “Gold cometh gladly and in increasing quantity to any man who will put by not less than one-tenth of his earnings to create an estate for his future and that of his family (Clason, 2002). There is a dire need for one to forego some present expenditures or gratifications in order to grow financially and achieve much in the future. Savings fulfills the motives of holding money as postulated by Keynes, 1936 as follows:

Transactionary Motive
Precautionary Motive
Speculative Motive

The last two points above are so crucial that they cannot be satisfied without savings.

Investment

An online dictionary, Wikipedia defines investment as an allocation of money in the expectation of some benefit in the future. In finance, the benefit from an investment is called a return. The return may consist of a gain (or loss) realized from the sale of a property or an investment, unrealized capital appreciation (or depreciation), or investment income such as dividends, interests, rental income etc., or a combination of capital gain and income. The return may also include currency gains or losses due to changes in the foreign currency exchange rates.

Investment can be made from savings or with borrowed money. It is advisable that one should invest in a venture he understands its operations. Invest time before investing money. It is true that the higher the risk, the higher the potentials of gain but it unwise for an investor to take an uncalculated risk with the hope of making a high return. We have had cases of fraudulent investment proposals like MMM, Get-Rich- Quick Schemes and some other Wonder Banks. It was really appalling and unfortunate that some so-called educated Nigerians stake money for such frauds.

There are various genuine investment portfolios in which one can invest in Nigeria. Some of them are as follows:

Shares and Stocks
Treasury Bills
Mutual Funds
Pension Funds (Savings/Investment)
Real Estate
Starting up a business
Crowd Funding
Education
Bonds (Corporate and FGN)
Cryptocurrency
Agriculture (Livestock/Crop Farming/Value Chain)
Transportation/Haulage

In order to grow and survive financially, one has to make investments which will yield more income for the individual. So, the cycle is, work to get some income, save part of your income for investment, invest your savings for more income. The cycle continues and the individual keeps growing financially.

Financial Survival during and post covid-19 for unemployed and underemployed.

From the introduction of this piece, we mentioned that many companies have laid off some of their staff and some are still going to follow suit due to the effects of the Corona virus on the economy. It is very disheartening and devastating for those affected. For those yet to be affected, I will give the following advice/suggestions:

Find a way to keep reaching out to your supervisors and immediate superiors during this lockdown.

Keep supplying suggestions on how to make some revenue or better the lot of the company during this hard time even if it warrants working from home.

Volunteer to do some work for the company from home even if the job is not mainly for your department.

Follow up with the news and let the management of your company know anything in the news that affects them.

Keep showing interests in the affairs of the company.

Keep being relevant in the scheme of things.

Moreover, if one has already been affected by the redundancy, all hopes are not yet lost, the world has not collapsed. It will only take a little time of patience and hard work to bounce back. Below are some of the activities one who lost his job may engage in to survive financially. If one has saved some money before the job loss, he can go and learn a trade or a skill for some time and establish himself with the money he saved. If one has an investment before the incidence, he can liquidate his investment and convert it to a business after learning the business. Then finally, the category that had neither savings nor investment at the time the hammer struck. This set is advised to try their hands on any of the following:

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make (Patel, 2020). An affiliate marketing business can produce a little amount or huge amount of money each month depending on your campaign and patronage. An affiliate promotes one or multiple affiliate products and tries to attract and convince potential customers of the value of the merchant’s product so that they actually end up buying it. In this type of business, you don’t need to buy or own a product to make money. The products are owned by the merchants, your job is just to advertise or publicise the product. Bring the product(s) to the attention of the potential buyers. Any purchase made by the buyers using your link, you earn a commission on it. There are so many online affiliate marketing merchants but I will recommend two for Nigerians. The two are as listed below:

Konga
Jumia

You can register as an affiliate marketer with any of the above online stores and any product anybody buys through your link earns you a commission which the accumulated amount will be paid into your bank account at the end of every month. It is as easy as that. The only thing you need to do is the register with them by completing an online form. Once you have done that, they will give you a link and some online banners with which you will be advertising their products. To join Konga Affiliate Marketing click on this link or type it on your browser https://bit.ly/3d0JKbX . Once you click on the link or copy and paste the link on your browser, the form will open and you register and start making money. If you want to join Jumia Affiliate Marketing, click on this link https://bit.ly/2xoy83s.

Teaching/Coaching

Although teaching is a vocation but I believe that we all have taught in one way or the other in different levels at various categories. If someone abruptly loses his job, no thanks to Covid-19, nothing stops the person to pick up a book on any area of his interest and offer to coach people at that level. One can start adult education in the neighborhood or decide to be giving one-on-one coaching either for adults or for students preparing for external exams. During this Corona virus era, one can leverage on the internet technology to deliver lectures online to students and get paid. Some of the technologies that may be exploited are Zoom, Imo, Skype and even Whatsapp. You can record some lectures on youtube channels and people will visit to learn. Although youtube strategy will only pay in the long-run when you started pulling enough traffic to your channel. So teaching both online and offline can still go a long way in ameliorating the effects of the job loss ad interim.

Real Estate

Many people believe that real estate is a highly capital intensive business. Yes, I agree but at the same time, it is a business one can also do without a dime. There are so many real estate companies looking for individuals that will bring buyers for their properties. The only thing you need to do is just to link the buyer with the seller and you collect your commission. You can make up to 10% to 15% in a single transaction. There are so many of them in Lagos. Search for one and register with them. Market your friends and relatives, you may land a deal.

Rendering of Menial Services

There is dignity in Labour. Sweat begets sweet. Individuals affected by Covid-19 job loss syndrome can offer some services like car wash or laundry services. For laundry, one can use his residence for the purpose. You can move around in the neighborhood to pick the clothes, go home and wash them, return them in the evening and collect your pay. For car wash, I believe it can still yield something. Again, some working class ladies do not always have time to go to the market to buy foodstuffs. You can visit various offices and offer to run the errand for them at a price. This one is mostly for ladies. Moreover, one can also offer the services of helping those packing out or moving to a new accommodation. You can organize the entire process of getting the vehicle, moving the items and arranging them in the new home. Charge your clients for the service and earn some income.

Online Micro Jobs

There are some small jobs one can do online and get paid instantly without investing any money. The payments are small hence the name “micro” but little drops of water make a mighty ocean. The jobs come in form of the following:

Pay to Click (PTC) websites.
Online survey.
Pico workers.
Micro workers etc.

PTC Websites

PTC websites are just websites where you can join and get paid for clicking and viewing advertisements. There are some other lots of offers and tasks that you can earn money with on those sites but clicking and viewing adverts are the easiest and most popular. It affords you the opportunity of making extra money at your leisure or free times (Ohanabalu, 2020). If you want to try PTC sites, click the link https://bit.ly/2WeTKaZ or you can copy and paste on your browser.

Online Paid Surveys

Do you know that you can earn money just by answering questions at the comfort of your home? Online paid survey is a type of survey where the survey respondents are rewarded for giving their honest responses or opinions (Villapena, 2016) In exchange for your honest thoughts on a product or service, online paid surveys may be an extra source of income for you. Most companies need to understand consumers’ reactions towards their product or service, for this, doing market research and getting feedback from them is very important. Paid surveys act as a bridge between these two ends. With just a few minutes of your time to obtain your opinion, you can already receive payment, products, free items, or other types of rewards. Online paid surveys are a way to actually get real feedback from people who want to be honest in exchange of getting paid or receiving rewards. It is a more reliable way of knowing what is in the minds of the people, since they can get something good out of it. You can go online and search for paid online survey. They abound.

Pico Workers and Micro Workers

These are online platforms where employers and workers meet for petty jobs online. These are equally good for those looking for extra means of income. No experience or qualifications are required. Withdrawal is very easy. The jobs are listed on the platform and can never be exhausted. All you have to do is to click on small jobs at the top of the site and then the jobs will show up with the amount to earn in the front of each immediately. The interesting part of it is that you decide how much you earn as the amount to be paid is written in the front of each job posted by the employer. So, look for the best paying offer and click to earn immediately. To create account with Pico workers click https://bit.ly/3d2RnOW and for Micro workers click https://bit.ly/2KHGNkB.

CONCLUSION

It is now crystal clear that Covid-19 has brought about so many devastations, the prominent among them being loss of jobs and sources of livelihood for many individuals. For those affected, it is indeed a very big trying time for them and their families. This piece has exposed and outlined some of the activities that may come in handy for those whose sources of income have been taken away as a result of the pandemic. Some of the activities/measures can serve in the short run ad interim pending the time new better opportunities open up while some of them if well harnessed can be a life time provider.

REFERENCES

Cennimo, J (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Practice

Essentials,Background, Route of Transmission Retrieved from

https://bit.ly/2xj0s7a

Clason, G.S (2002). The Richest Man in Babylon. Miami.

Sgnet/New American Library.

Investment. (n.d) In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 16, 2o2o, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investment

Keynes, J. M. (1936). The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and

Money. NewYork. Google Scholar

Ohanabalu, C. (2020). Pay to Click (PTC) Websites. E-Money in a Jiffy.

Retrieved https://bit.ly/2WeTKaZ