How To Navigate Financial Uncertainty, According To Experts

Rising gas prices and market volatility driven by the war with Iran are fueling financial uncertainty. Add to that the daily barrage of headlines warning that an AI-bot is about to take your job, and it’s understandable if you’re feeling uncertain about the state of your finances.

Regardless of whether your worst fears come true or not, it’s prudent to financially plan for the unexpected, and now is always the best time to do so.

CNBC Select covers how to prepare for financial uncertainty, and the one step experts agree matters most: building an emergency fund.

Building an emergency fund is often the first step in preparing for financial uncertainties.

“An emergency fund is a super, super basic thing that you should really prioritize before you even think about saving money for investments or buying a house,” Rachael Burns, CFP and founder of True Worth Financial Planning, told CNBC Select.

While other experts recommend setting aside three to six months of living expenses in your emergency fund, Burns believes how much you should save depends on your situation. If you have a stable government job, you may need to save less than someone who is self-employed or who works seasonal jobs.

If you’re looking for a place to store your emergency funds, both Burns and Michael McAuliffe, president of Family Credit Management, recommend high-yield savings accounts (HYSA). This type of savings account provides easy access to your money and a higher return than traditional checking and savings accounts.

Look for an account with an APY of 3% or more and no monthly maintenance fees, like the UFB Portfolio Savings, SoFi® Checking and Savings or Western Alliance Bank High-Yield Savings Account.

McAuliffe recommends opening a HYSA for your emergency fund at a different bank than the one where you have your everyday checking account.

“That helps you with impulse purchases,” said McAuliffe. “We don’t want you to be able to get on your app [and] transfer the money immediately, because it’s too tempting. We’re too impulsive, we’re too emotional. We justify things.”

Adding the friction of an interbank transfer can help you keep your emergency fund reserved for emergencies.

Planning ahead for financial setbacks reduces the likelihood that you’ll be forced into making a suboptimal decision.

You’ll want to avoid actions like raiding your retirement account or taking out a loan against your retirement savings. Early withdrawals from retirement accounts can be subject to taxes and penalties, so this option shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“It’s just an incredibly inefficient way to meet a financial need,” Burns said.

While you may be able to borrow against your 401(k) balance (depending on your plan), this isn’t an ideal reaction to, for example, an anticipated job loss.

“When things are rough, taking on a 401(k) loan… has a lot more consequences than people think,” McAuliffe said.

If you lose your job, you will need to repay the loan, or it could be considered a distribution and subject to taxes and a penalty. The exact repayment period varies, so if you’re in this situation, call your plan administrator for more information.

Even if there are no negative changes in your financial situation, saving today and protecting yourself from the worst-case scenarios will put you in a better position down the road.

On top of an emergency fund, you can protect yourself with the right insurance.

Rather than agonizing over every possible scenario, Burns prefers to think about how likely an event is and determine if you’re in a situation to withstand it.

“Then we address each of those risks as best we can,” she said.

Events like severe illness or injury, death of the household’s primary income earner and damage or theft of your property can all be covered by insurance.

If you own a home and have a mortgage, you’re typically required to have homeowners insurance, which protects your property. Further, renters can protect their belongings with renters insurance. Many companies offer discounts for bundling insurance policies, including Progressive, which offers renters insurance in all 50 states.

If you have life insurance or disability insurance through your employer, you may lose these coverages if you leave your job, are laid off or fired. As such, it can make sense to have policies not tied to your employment.

As you’re shopping for coverage, consider Ladder for life insurance and Assurity for disability. Both offer no-medical-exam policies, meaning you can qualify without a physical exam, and are featured on our lists of the best life insurance and disability insurance.

Financial challenges are largely unavoidable, but by taking slow, steady steps to build an emergency fund and put the right protections in place, you can increase your odds of navigating them successfully.

At CNBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience.

For this story, we interviewed Michael McAuliffe, founder and president of Chicago-based Family Credit Management and Rachael Burns, a financial planner and founder of True Worth Financial Planning.

Michael started Family Credit Management in 1996 after working in banking and credit counseling. He received a bachelor’s in business management from Concordia University Chicago and a master of science from Abilene Christian University.

Rachael Burns is a certified financial planner and certified divorce financial analyst.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every personal finance story is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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