Money Musings 💠no better time for money buddies 🤗🤗🤗🤗
I hope you are safe, healthy and keeping as sane as possible during these crazy times.
We are following all the same precautions many of you are as far as social distancing, vigorous hand washing and FaceTime socializing to keep high risk and immunocompromised people as safe as we possibly can.
But amidst all the fear and stress around the virus itself, there are also a bunch of financial things going on that I want to address.
First and foremost, you might have noticed that the stock market has been going bananas. 🍌 Why does this happen? Mostly uncertainty and the expectation that COVID will have a big impact on our economy.
In response, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates on Sunday to almost zero. The Federal Reserve is our central banking system - their main job is to prevent and alleviate financial crises. They lowered rates in order to stimulate the economy. A.k.a. Try to get us and companies to spend our cash, instead of invest it or save it.
Tuesday S&P announced that we are in a global recession. For those of us who lived through the Great Recession of 2008, that brings up a lot of bad memories. What’s a recession? Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.
With everything that’s going on, I definitely don't feel like going on a spending spree. Given all the new challenges businesses face, a lot of people are getting their hours cut, losing their jobs or are afraid that it’s coming soon.
So what can we do to protect ourselves and our communities financially?
Revisit your emergency fund.
The most important thing we can do right now is check in on our emergency fund and if we aren’t happy with where it is, start saving. This should be our number one priority - over paying down debt.
Stop watching your investments.
Save yourself the torture and stop checking in on your investment balances. Turn off notifications if you receive them. We invest for the long-term so we can wait out dips in the market. As long as we don’t need the money now, we can wait this out and stay the course.
Give yourself some leeway.
These are really stressful times (to say the least). Try to be easy on yourself. If you do something (or buy something) you regret, give yourself a pass and take that lesson with you going forward. We are all not at our best when we’re stressed to the max. Let’s be extra forgiving of ourselves and others.
Give back.
Whether it’s through our time or money, there are many ways to give back and support our communities during this time of crisis. I’ve seen people offering to do grocery runs for the elderly and immunocompromised, donating money to food banks for children who have lost access to daily meals during school closures and checking in on friends to make sure they are okay. Social distancing is an act of giving in itself because you are protecting people at risk!
Support small businesses.
Many of our favorite small businesses are going to suffer a lot from all of the changes happening. They may be trying to make payroll and support their staff with a lot of lost revenue. We can support them by purchasing gift certificates, ordering takeout (I know… you’ve never heard me say this!), buying tickets to future events and sharing the work they do.
What is weighing most on your mind right now money-wise with everything going on? I’d love to hear from you!
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
Scan your credit card and bank statements. If you are looking to up your savings, but aren’t sure how, you can start here. When we scan through our credit card and bank statements it can help us see if there are any expenses that we want to let go of. Yes, the monthly subscriptions can add up quickly, but the annual subscriptions are even sneakier because we can forget we have them or that they’ll automatically renew.
When we proactively look through our statements, we can be deliberate about renewing or cancelling. This practice also allows us to catch any erroneous charges that might normally be overlooked. Believe me - it happens more than you’d think! I use the word scan purposefully. Make a list of your accounts and scan through your statements for the last twelve months. Once you’re logged in and know where to pull your statements, it should only take 30-60 seconds per statement.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
The Fiscal Femme Private Slack Community. We were planning on opening the new Fiscal Femme Slack Community at the end of March, but given everything going on with COVID-19, the volatility of the markets, feelings of isolation and potential earnings in flux, we thought there was no better time to have a group of amazing money buddies. 🤗🤗🤗🤗
We opened doors Monday and it’s already a flurry of activity with everything from intros, how to stay calm during market swings and figuring out how to WFH. I have never been more grateful for this incredible community! 🙏
Ask questions, share resources and wisdom and connect with other like-minded Fiscal Femme’s.
You can join the Fiscal Femme Slack Community here (it’s free!). Once you sign up, you’ll get an email with a quick survey and after you fill it out, you’ll be sent a special link to join the community in Slack. I hope to see you there!