I feel badly for families who were counting on their investments to pay college tuition and fees.
Yea, the investment picture is bleak. Glad that my kids are long done with college. (But I do have some job concerns for them).
Some families this April will have to make college decisions without the college visits/revisits they had originally planned. But at least they do know about the dire financial situation before committing to a school.
My biggest worry is about people living paycheck to paycheck. Yesterday I sent my self-employed hairdresser (a single mom with home salon) a check to prepay services, help her with cash flow - her other part time gig is Closed. To me it seems a time where those with good fortune (even if investments down) should extend a helping hand. Once I retire, ha which might not be on the original schedule, it will be harder to do this kind of thing.
I think kids who graduated in 2009 had a harder time getting going financially. My kids graduated later and went to grad school. One started a venture funded firm with two years money in the bank. They were doing very well but are unlikely to hit their numbers this year as a result of CV. The other is in a new job as a Nurse Practitioner, but I donāt think we are going to run out of need for NPs in the near future. Right now, sheās doing telemedicine as patients in California are not supposed to go in to the doctor unless it is urgent. But she does go the the clinic each morning to go to work. She has a friend who had a contract job in tech recruiting that ends in April. My daughter suggested she try to create a company to meets a need of people in shut down.
Iām just happy for a 2 day respite from market news.
I have been trying to help just a little by giving bigger tips to drivers, takeout food and coffee pickup for the services Iām still able to use, and telling every hotel/airline/restaurant worker, thanks for still being open! But I am absolutely horrified by the number of businesses that are closed, or barely moving inventory. If people can somehow transition to an online business, that seems to be the only way to stay afloat.
I feel fortunate that my family has stayed employed through this, but who knows how long that luck might last. Our company is doing more business than ever, along with our oldest sonās (software engineer/online streaming) and younger sonās company (software engineer/gold exchange). There seem to be some industries that are thriving throughout this, and anything online is a big draw. Traveling to different states and watching what has been happening firsthand has been a real shock. Every day it seems to get exponentially worse and itās hard not to get really depressed.
Does anyone have an idea how this 2 trillion dollar package they are looking at will affect the economy in the future? Will this trigger significant inflation? Iām not sure how adding so much debt and the lack of tax receipts will play out in coming years.
It seems to me that they are throwing huge amounts of money around, ie helicoptering cash, I believe it was described. I completely agree with the checks to people who have been laid off, and small business grants/loans, but there are many businesses that have seen a surge in business and some who are even hiring (ie grocery stores, Target, Costco, etc), so why do you send a check to someone who is still employed and may have even gotten a raise, or plenty of overtime? Maybe someone can explain this to me. Absolutely support the medical community and the jobless, but going into this kind of debt has to impact the future.
@busdriver, I agree. To say more would be getting political, so I need to keep my mouth shut.
Oh no, @1214mom , donāt get political. I definitely donāt want to go there. Iām thinking that spending like this could possibly cause major inflation, which would seriously impact retirement for many people, perhaps more than any other single issue. Iām just not sure if inflation is a likely scenario because of huge debt. And if there are things that are completely unnecessary added onto the debt because we are being frantically reactive, I donāt think thatās a good investment. Of course, they didnāt ask me.
It all scares the heck out of me. My friend and I talked today about how our retirement reality is most likely not going to be what we thought it would be, although we are more fortunate than many. Itās so disheartening, after years of putting aside wants in order to save ā¦
I know that my idea of what I will do in retirement is changing. My goal now is simple: I donāt want to have to live with one of my kids. Again, though, I am fortunate. Barring serious health issues, I should be able to accomplish that. Others are not so fortunate, or donāt have kids to burden.
I used to joke that every major civilization in history has fallen, and it was just a matter of time until ours did, as well. I no longer joke about that.
So what type of protection is there to counteract inflation? Very economicly challenged here! I thought it was having money in the stock market? So a double whammy for those who have saved for, and on the cusp of retirement only to see all the savings vanish? I totally agree with Kelsmom, and extremely disheartened after trying to ādo the right thingā by being frugal and saving for a rainy day in a variety of stocks/bonds. For what purpose I now ask?
If you are used to living frugally and have low baseline costs, then you may be better able to live through a period of poverty than those who have built up an expensive lifestyle with high baseline costs.
I think real estate is supposed to hedge against inflation.
I think though that we are all in uncharted territory. I know I had never factored a pandemic into my finances and am not sure how one does thatāmaybe start manufacturing PPE and UV sanitizers?
Trying to stay debt free and save whatever folks can is always a good idea. If one can figure out how to help folks work better remotely, that should be in high demand now as well.
@kjofkw, I invested in stocks partially as a hedge against inflation too. I was thinking of lowering my allocation earlier this year, because I was hoping to retire next year, but I have heard from multiple āexpertsā that about 50/50 is fine for early retirement. Well so much for that ā50.ā 
Gold. Every fiat currency comes and goes, but gold is forever. Gold has been a store of value and means of exchange for thousands of years.
@busdriver11: āIām just not sure if inflation is a likely scenario because of huge debt.ā
No with an aging population if Japan is any guide.
We are staring at Great Depression levels of unemployment. 20-30% unemployment. 50% contraction in the economy. The US has an economy of over $20 trillion. Even $2 trillion will not be enough if we want to avoid loads of massive bankruptcies, permanent job loss, and permanent economic damage (hysteresis in economic tems).
The alternative (if we donāt clamp down and make people distance) is 60% of the population gets COVID-19 and (because the healthcare system everywhere completely breaks down due to an influx of millions of patients at the same time), 5% of them die. About 10 million people in the US die. And the economy would still suffer a people become (even more) gripped by fear and donāt go out.
Right now, we are faced with 2 terrible options and a third that would increase debt. Iām not worried about debt right now. Iām worried about surviving to fight another day. We can worry about the debt later if we manage to avoid another Great Depression.
Oh Jeez, now I am really depressed.? Watching the news makes it worse. I told my husband to buy vegetable seeds in case supplies run out in the stores, and this lasts for many months. Besides that, trying to limit spending and hang onto cash, paying down and refinancing debt seems to be the smartest thing people can do.
A friend posted a list of companies who are hiring, but I donāt think I can post the phone numbers. Home Depot, Verizon, Staples, FedEx, UPS, and likely all grocery stores. Iām sure many health care positions are open. Work as much as possible if you can, and save and donate your money is my mantra.
I would love to make sure that we are putting money in the hands of people for whom it will make the most difference. Iām concerned about large companies but more about small companies. The airlines have spent most of their profits over the last 10 years on stock buybacks, so Iām a lot less sympathetic to them than I am to the flight attendants, mechanics and pilots who have to lay people off. We are very concerned about some of the small stores and especially folks like our cleaning lady and the PT who had been coming to our house to make sure we avoid back problems in our old age. I can keep doing what I do (albeit one of my companyās product lines is transforming quickly from in-person to digital at lower price levels and we have already lost a significant part of our revenue for the spring in that product). But, these people are reliant on coming to our home and the governor of our state has just forbade that (though we cut it off prior to that). What do they do for income? What happens when they canāt make rent payments?
Iām currently advising a small consulting firm that was in the process of being acquired. They are probably going to have the key partners agree to halve their base salaries (and get no bonus) and lay off half of their people (though a lot of the back office folks would probably have been terminated by the acquirer anyway).
Itās hard to see inflation being an issue when we are depressing our productive capacity. Maybe if demand comes roaring back faster than we can produce when the virus is gone, but Iād guess things come back more gradually.
Itās impossible to design a perfect system (or even define a perfect system, but I will try) that gives money only to people who need it and will spend it immediately. This is not just to help people keep food on the table, but to keep the economy functioning. I was thinking about this last night and wondering if they would exclude social security and/or pension recipients. After all, these folks will continue to get the income they were getting before. I think itās important that they get money out there in peopleās hands quickly. Having an income cutoff is probably a good idea and easy to implement. I am already thinking about how to distribute my check, should I get one. Should I pass out many $20 bills to people that will immediately spend the money, or should I give it in one shot to the soup kitchen or the free health clinic?
You could consider paying them anyway. Thatās what we are doing for our 2x month housekeeper.