Help CenterThe Covid-19 pandemic has sent us home and it’s time for Spring Cleaning! Financially-speaking, it’s a good time to plan. Talk to your wealth manager for a free financial planning kit. And, if you’ve a friend who’s lost a job, consider forwarding this to them and we’ll offer them a free initial consultation.
How long can you go?
If you have lost or are facing significantly-reduced income, it’s time to focus on the basics. Prioritize your spending by looking over your recent months and sum them up. A yellow pad is sufficient—a spreadsheet is even better. Then add up your in-cash assets. Divide the assets by the expenses and you’ve got your timeframe; this is how long you can go without the money.
You may have unemployment checks and/or contract or part-time work. To keep it simple, multiply your timeframe, just calculated, by the monthly estimated paychecks and see how much more time you have. You’re looking for a ballpark answer to the question—just enough to settle your nerves and also, create a realistic motivator to find new income!
Avoid pulling money from the retirement plans. You’ll bankrupt your future self if you do. Treat the mortgage and other loans as a second-to-last resort. You’ll be procrastinating, and creating more stress for later. We don’t know the duration of this economic trouble, but we do know how to make it through. Again, if you’d like help, we provide a complimentary interview!
Americans saving more
The Covid-19 pandemic is dangerous for the families who don’t have enough money saved to make it through months of low or no income. And this is likely to change the behavior of Americans, much like it did after the Great Depression. According to a recent survey, people are saving their Covid-19 checks. (1)
This bucks the trend of our lifetimes. Since the Great Depression—the one from the 1930’s, not the one we’re going through, or the one 10 years ago, or the dot-com crash 10 years before that—we have saved less and less. Covid-19 is teaching Americans to save more. This could be great news for retirement plans. And, over time, with enough savers, it could strengthen America’s financial system.
We miss you!
Letter from Linda
Allow me to close with a letter from the President of one of our investment companies, Linda Martinson, at Baron Funds.
“Nonetheless, we believe that the economic damage will not be permanent or long-lasting. We are optimistic about the current situation and the stock market prospects. Compared to prior global health crises, today the world has the best tools and resources that it has ever had, like computers and computing-driven innovation that can help us discover drugs and vaccines faster than ever before, and the internet and other widespread information channels that can help us coordinate efforts globally.” (2)
Covid 19 could be temporarily bad news for companies that depend on consumers to spend all that money. But the pandemic could be a long-term win. Covid is a major disruption that creates new industries, new business models, and new opportunities for investors.
Forward this letter to anyone who could use financial help. We’ll provide it free of charge. Let’s all get this ship back on the right track!
Source:
(1) https://twitter.com/TeddyVallee/status/1252994256786132996
(2) Letter From Baron Funds
(3) Coronavirus in the U.S. – Where Do We Go From Here?
