4 Steps for Managing Finances after Brain Injury

Brain injuries are tough (no kidding!), and managing personal and family finances after brain injury can seem downright impossible.

Even when there is no brain injury, financial hardships usually strike an emotional chord with us. Those emotions are amplified when added to a brain injury.

What do you do when a brain injury abruptly cuts off a third, half, or all of the family income?

Whether you are a survivor or a caregiver, here are some steps you can take to regroup, get control, and regain your footing.

First Thing’s First: More Money Is Only Part of the Equation

When we are in the midst of financial struggles, we often think “If I only had made more money….” There is likely something that can happen in the long term to help with the income side of things. In the short term, however, we often have more control over how much we spend.

Step 1: Prioritize

There is a reality that we only have so much money to go around. The brain injury has likely reduced that. If we aren’t careful, we can go into panic mode and lose track of where our resources are going.

There is also the likely reality that we will have to cut some things out of our lifestyle to get the most value out of the money that we do have.

To get us started, the following priorities will be our financial foundation. Everything else is extra.

1. Food for the family is first. This is food cooked at home food. It’s cheaper, and it’s better for you. I will make one comment here. In the transition from pre-injury to post-injury, survivors and caregivers can become very overwhelmed with the changes.

   If meal preparation is too much right now, go ahead and eat out. But keep it short term. Like 1 week at most. Eating out 2 meals per day off the dollar menu (3 items/meal) can be almost $300/month. That’s expensive, and it’s terrible for you (remember Supersize Me?).

   If you need a medium to long term solution, ask for help. Possible sources of support can be family, friends, church groups, etc. You pay for the food, and someone else cooks it. Also, it lightens the cooking load of everyone if each meal is large enough to provide leftovers.

2. Keeping the heat, lights, water, and phone on are next. There’s no cable or internet here. I’ll mention that in a minute.
3. Third is the mortgage or rent
4. Next make sure your vehicle is taken care of: insurance & fuel
5. Last is basic needs clothing. Think replacing worn out shoes or a child out growing their winter coat.

Once these are covered in our budget, we start adding other things as long as there are funds. As you are adding things, be aware if it is a lifestyle item or a real cost. For instance, debt payments should take priority over premium cable or high tier cell phone plans. Wherever the money runs out, that’s where the spending stops.

This of priorities might sound familiar to some of you, if you listen to Dave Ramsey. If he gets you motivated, you can listen to him go over it by clicking here.

Step 2: Make a Budget

Some of you probably rolled your eyes at this. Maybe you’ve tried in the past and it didn’t work. Maybe you think it’s too simple a solution. Most people (brain injury or not) fail with their finances because they do not have a budget. If you’re like I used to be, you check your bank balance once or twice a week to make sure nothing bounced.

It’s so embarrassing to look back on that.

A budget is crucial when you are going through a huge life change like a TBI. We need to know what’s coming in (even if that’s nothing) and we need to know what’s going out (even if that’s a whole lot more than we want to admit).

The raw facts can be very frightening at first. That’s OK. It’s normal.

But in the long run, it’s going to be very liberating. Really knowing the numbers will help reinforce against impulse spending.

Now it’s time to work our expenses to be equal to (and preferably less than) the income we have coming in.

When I did this exercise, I found it to be beneficial to start from scratch, instead of whittling away at the original budget. When I started from scratch, I was able to say “How am I going to get the most from my money?” instead of saying “What do I have to go without?”

Sometimes we do our best, and we just can’t make the pluses and the minuses balance out. If that’s your situation, here are some things to keep in mind.

What to Do When You Cannot Cover Basic Expenses

Depending on how much the person with the brain injury was making, it is very possible that the remaining household income cannot cover the basic household expenses.

If that’s the case for you, the first thing you can do is to reach out to family for immediate needs. As you are working those avenues, you can look into disability assistance, local charities, and your church group.

As you are seeking help, make sure you tell people that you are actively working to improve your financial situation. Make sure they know about your budget. Make sure they are aware you are cutting cable, eating at home, and whatever else you have decided is necessary. People are more willing to help others who are already helping themselves.

Long Term Financial Changes

If finances are going to be tight for a while, there are some other steps that may need to be taken to weather the storm.

You can examine the possibility of living with family to significantly reduce household expenses.

Although challenging to obtain, there is government assistance for people with long term disabilities.

Step 3: Don’t Be an (Cartoon) Ostrich. Be a Real One

The cartoons show ostriches sticking their heads in the sand when there is trouble. I was disappointed by a google search that said that it’s only in the cartoons, though. Anyway, I’m not happy to admit it, but I’ve been a financial ostrich.

Perhaps you’re like me and have a knee-jerk reaction to financial troubles. I think that’s perfectly normal for most of us.

Financial challenges have always triggered a visceral shutdown in me. I can’t help it. I want to stick my head in the sand, pretend none of it is happening, and act like it doesn’t matter. To be honest, I can feel my body tightening up just writing this.

The good thing is that sticking your head in the sand doesn’t matter. What matters is what you do after you stick your head in the sand.

Do you keep it there?

Or, do you pull it out of the sand to see what’s coming?

What happens to our cartoon ostrich with his head in the ground? Things go worse for him, because whatever danger he’s hiding from eventually makes its way to him. Poor guy.

A real ostrich will get busy and use those long legs to get the heck away from trouble and back to safety. It does that stinking fast, at up to 43 mph.

I’ve made better decisions, so it doesn’t happen often. However, when they come up, I still have knee-jerk reactions and stick my head in the sand.

With practice, I’ve learned to make sure I take my head out of the sand. I’ve gotten better at getting myself out of whatever trouble I’m in.

Step 4: What to Do Now

0-60 Days Post Injury

If you are in the first month or two of your (or your loved one’s) recovery journey, Working through all of these steps right now may simply be too much. Been there, done that.

Give yourself a 60 day grace period, but only if you need it. Obviously, delaying your financial game doesn’t help much. But I know from experience that there is a lot of emotional baggage to process at the beginning of your journey. So in the first 60 days:

• Focus on covering the basic expenses I listed above.
• Come up with a plan to get economical, healthy, home-cooked food.
• Make sure you get enough rest.

Making sure you have a secure place to live, giving your body (and mind) the right fuel, and getting enough rest will do wonders to help you start making the adjustments (financial and otherwise) that come with a brain injury.

60 days

As you get to 45-60 days from your injury, start working on

• Creating a written budget
• Prioritizing your expenses

These are the two steps that have the most emotional triggers with them. But they are also the two steps that will set you up to effectively tread water, and eventually succeed long term. 60 days without a budget is dangerous, and I only allow that for people who really need it emotionally. Don’t let it stretch towards 90 days. You open up the possibility of doing more financial damage and you further delay getting more traction in your situation.

What You Can Control

There is so much that is out of our control with a brain injury, especially in the short term. Life is a whirlwind of doctors appointments, sleepless nights, and relationship strains for both survivors and caregivers.

Getting on top of our finances is something that we can control. It gives us the information we need to, make short and long term decisions for our own benefit.

While it can be daunting at first, it is the first step to improving our situation.

I hope these steps can help you find some control over your finances and help you make better decisions