In certain ways, most of us make risk management decisions every day in our lives. For example, while driving may be a risk, wearing a seatbelt reduces the risks.
Many people right now are at a big of a crossroads in how they think about risk, however, with the covid-19 pandemic.
There are ideological debates about how much risk we as a nation should take on, and many states and local governments are encouraging shutdowns to reduce the risk of virus transmission. There are then risks that come with the steps to mitigate the risks, however. For example, along with the social distancing aspect of mitigation, there are economic repercussions.
While most of us aren’t sure the exact right answer as far as how to best manage the risks with covid-19, it may have us thinking about managing risks in other parts of our life.
The following are things to know about risk management in your daily life.
Take Care of Your Health
One of the most important things we can do in our daily lives to reduce our risks in a myriad of ways is taking care of our health.
When we take care of our health in the general sense, while we might not be eliminating related risks, we’re doing the best we can to reduce them.
For example, simple changes in your lifestyle can have a big impact on your level of risk.
Exercising several times a week at a minimum, eating whole foods instead of processed foods and drinking water are things that most of us can incorporate into our lives.
Many universal risks, such as chronic disease are linked to health.
Be Willing to Learn
We should never stop learning, and we’re lucky that we have so many available sources right at our fingertips as part of our modern lives.
When you learn and educate yourself, then it helps you better understand risks, the proper steps to mitigate them, and it helps you make fact-driven decisions.
In essentially every way, there are usually four general steps of risk management. The first is assessing the risk. Then, there is categorizing the risk. This means you determine if the risk is small or minor to you, or more serious and severe.
You have to think about the probability of risks occurring too.
Then, once you’ve handled these steps, you can start considering your options. Education can be used in all of these steps.
Risk Management in Your Career
As well as risk management being important to your personal health, it’s also important in your career.
Your goal should be to reduce risks of things like getting fired while also being proactive enough to take advantage of new opportunities.
For example, maybe you decide that you will put your focus on networking and continuing education as a way to not just maintain your current job but also potentially work toward new career goals.
Personal Finance
Risk management plays a massive role in your personal finance decisions.
You want to invest your money in a way that will allow you to outrun inflation, but you don’t want so much risk that you put yourself in a precarious situation.
Some of the ways you might manage risk in the arena of your personal finances include:
- Pay for things with cash rather than using credit cards—this helps you avoid the risk of spending more than you can afford
- Compare mortgage rates and try to get a 15-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage. Then, you can pay it off faster, and you’ll be able to start investing more once you do that.
- Whenever you have the opportunity, max out your retirement.
- Work toward building an emergency fund that will cover at least six months of your expenses.
Relationships
Risk management extends to your relationships with friends, family, and partners too. This is a critical component of your life and should be considered as such.
Risk management in relationships first relies on choosing the right people to surround yourself. You want people in your life who are positive and thoughtful, and then you should always treat them the way you want to be treated.
People that you put in your life should be inspiring to you and make you feel like you want to be your best self.
Cut relationships with negative or toxic people.
Risk management is often thought of as only being a financial term, but there are a lot of ways we can take the logistics of risk management and apply them to other areas of our lives.
