A brain injury impacts every aspect of your life. You have to make sure that you are doing what you can to overcome or cope with this life-changing event. One thing that you can do is to take a look at the money matters. While you might not be able to control some areas of your life, you may be able to have a say in the finances.
When you budget after a brain injury, you have a few considerations that aren’t present for other people. Here are a few things to remember when you are working out financial matters after a traumatic brain injury:
Find all sources of income
Before the brain injury, you might have had a single source of income if you are single or two if you had a spouse. Sometimes, you won’t able to work as much or at all after the injury. If you aren’t working as much or if you aren’t working at all, you will need to find out if you can have other streams of income coming in. Disability payments are one source. Make sure that you account for all sources of income so that you have an accurate representation of what you have coming into the home.
Notate normal expenses
You will have many of the same expenses after the injury as you did before the accident. The rent or mortgage payment, utilities, car payments and insurance payments are all some that you might have to consider. These expenses aren’t going to go away just because you were injured. You may have to categorize these into mandatory and optional expenses just in case there isn’t enough money to go around for all the bills each month.
Include extra expenses
You may have extra expenses due to your injury. These include co-pays for doctor visits, medication costs, therapy expenses and the cost of any assistive devices or personal care programs that you have to pay for. The extra expenses can be costly so make sure that you are thinking clearly about what you need when you are making your budget.
It might be possible to seek compensation for the brain injury if it was due to the negligence of another person. This can provide some financial relief if the claim is successful. This is another income stream that you might consider, but it generally won’t happen swiftly.
