Financial security during and after Coronavirus

[mcseal2]

What are you guys thinking the economic impact of this is going to be long term?

I consider myself pretty lucky as of now. My money that's invested has dramatically decreased in worth as has everyone's, but I kinda figured that was a gamble when I invested it. I have a long time until retirement so it's not a major concern currently. I am still working on the ranch and don't see that changing unless I become sick myself. I can do my job while staying away from others for the most part as long as nothing breaks down. I don't see my income being disrupted at this time. I'm not having to dip into my emergency fund and am planning on increasing it each paycheck past my usual amount. I'm going to do that by taking out cash and putting it in the safe. I don't have a lot of debt, but I plan to work toward getting that to zero also. Not paying for child care with the kids at home will help with that. I'm good on food for a couple months also, we don't grocery shop often so we get a lot when we go. We had stocked up right before calving season hit and we got busy which turned out to be right before Corona virus also. We even have toilet paper!

What are others doing to protect their families from a recession or worse? I'm trying to make sure I'm not missing something now I'll regret later. I figure it's my job to make sure my family is in the best position I can put them in as this plays out. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

 

[ODB]

I’m just glad over the past couple years I’ve been lax on putting money into retirement. When things pick up I’ll start dripping some in and offset some of of the drop. Other wise I’ll just let it sit where it is.

 

[Rob5589]

Good question. My 401k took some lumps. Hopefully the company was buying when things were low. The economy prior was very strong so there is no reason to believe it won't get back there. How long will it take is the big question.

 

[HuntHarder]

My 401k lost a good chunk, but i am 20 years from retirement, so no big deal. I got lucky in that I have a pretty large chunk of my money sitting in cash right now. I plan to invest in the market heavily as it starts it climb back up and hopefully get 20-40% on my money. My end game is to buy a piece of land, build a house and rent out a couple of my other houses.

 

[Phaseolus]

I’m retired and moved my retirement into risk averse investments 4 months ago. I don’t have a pension and losing ’only’ 20% of that I’ve seen in the last month hurts. The saving grace is that my Wife does have a pension and we have zero debt.

 

[5MilesBack]

I've been saving and investing since I was 12 (thanks, Dad). So that money has seen the Crash of '87, the 2000-2001 Dot Com Bust, the 2008 Financial Crisis, and now the 2020 Coronavirus Panic. Yet, it's still worth exponentially more than I've ever put into it. So if you leave it alone, it will grow. My problem is, if I ever want to use any of that money, it's going to cost us an arm and a leg in taxes to sell it. But if Congress ever decides to raise the LT capital gains tax rate above 15%, I'll be selling it all and taking the hit before it goes up.

 

[mtwarden]

the previous 5 years I've been very slowly moving my 401's from mutual funds that were heavily invested in stocks, to bonds and even some of the 401's have the option of fixed accounts

if I had to guess, mine are now only about 10-15% in stock based funds

I'm sure I took a good hit, but much less of a hit than I would have 5 years ago

an important point is I'm only a couple of years from fully pulling the pin, if I was a lot longer out, my strategy would look much different

this year we got a modest windfall from a property sale, we're now doing everything we can to minimize capital gain taxes on that windfall- we both opened up $7000 IRA's (that's the maximum) and both upped our current contributions to our current 401's for this year- will still pay a chunk to Uncle Sam, but the extra $ sitting in our saving account right about now doesn't look too awful bad

 

[WCB]

I'm in sorta the same situation as you. My job is deemed essential and am working form home only going in when I need to. Wife is a teacher so she is still getting paid. Saving money on child care, fuel to and from work, eating out, etc.... Besides dumping a bit of money into the market when this starts to clear up a little I'm not doing much different.

We were and still plan on moving if we find the right property and are a bit more motivated with the low interest rates. We got lucky on our home purchase and will be able to sell it for double of what we purchased it for with almost ZERO money put into it besides normal maintenance, paint, and new carpet. Strike while the iron is hot we can get a little upgrade in house and hopefully some acreage and keep pretty much the same payment.

 

[mcseal2]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like my thinking is similar to all of yours.

 

[street]

Just my opinion, if you have a ways to go still, you should be investing as much post taxe deferrals into stocks as possible. There's nothing better than tax free growth.

 

[DenverCountryBoy]

With the way the fed is printing money, I wouldn't sit on cash for too long. I think we will definitely see some inflation, maybe stagflation for a while.

I would keep 6 months of cash on hand or in an account and plan on looking for deals on appreciating assets to grow the rest.

 

[KBC]

We are in a pretty good spot at my house, worst case scenario I may be laid off but will get 55% of my wage from Employment insurance (Canada), my wife is an essential service working for the federal government. Regardless of what happens she will continue to get her full salary and likely a bunch of overtime at 1.75x her regular rate. My mother in law is retired and rents our basement suite and her income will also keep coming in. We are so much better off than a lot of people out there, it is a good reminder to be thankful for what we have and what we've worked towards.

I think once this thing ends the economy with fire right back up. People will want to rise up similar to the way they did after 9/11. We now have a real threat and purpose to our lives which will drive us to work harder and improve things at least for a little while after. Then the first world problems of gender pronouns etc. will slowly make their way back into the media until the next big problem comes up.

As far as investing I have quite a few years to retirement so I'm still putting my money away to take advantage of the cheap stuff that will eventually go back up in value.

 

[SoDaky]

Keep your eye on real estate.Quite a bit coming up for sale soon.Trite but true-'they don't make anymore'.

 

[Kimber7man]

I think I’m going to max out my 401k contributions to put it all in the next 3 months. Feel the market will stay down and then start to recover in Q3 and Q4.

 

[Wapiti1]

Our plan is to stay the course. My wife and I work for the same company, and they are financially solid as well as employee focused and essential. At the plant, we are working very hard to keep this out of the gate.

Not having a bunch of meetings every week is actually pretty awesome. I hope people notice how much stuff is getting done and back off the time suck meetings.

On topic, we're still working, but if we get to go home due to illness, we will still be paid (we work for a great company).

Our 401K's took a hit, but we're still in good shape. Nothing to change there, but maybe shuffle the deck to try and maximize recovery potential. I'm thinking tech and medical will be good bets a year from now. My hunting fund was actually mostly in cash as I was in the act of rearranging how it was invested. Our emergency funds were in cash to start. We own our house, and cars.

My parents and my wife's mom are good both in health and finances. My brother is still working and will continue as long as the gas pumps need to be refilled. He'll have some sick pay if he goes off work as well. If something happens there, I can help them out. My wife's family are all stable.

My bigger concern is the outfitter I contracted for moose this fall. I already asked if he wants/needs the final payment. That's money I don't need and if he can use it to stay afloat, we both win. If things loosen up in May, he'll be fine.

Jeremy

 

[MtnOyster]

state retirement, investments and hard earned money saved, not sure that I couldn’t retire now if I wanted to but I still enjoy my job and am thankful to be essential at this time.

 

[NYyotekiller]

IMO your best investment right now is to buy land.

If you can swing it, this summer there are going to be some killer deals on land and/or real estate with people trying to lessen their debt. Plus with interest rates at record low levels financing will be an excellent choice as well.

A couple weeks ago I purchased 20 acres for less than $1K an acre that borders my farm and I plan on shopping for more bargains on decent hunting ground this summer.

I don’t know enough about the stock market to delve into that, I leave that to my investment guy. But I am smart enough to know that they aren’t making any more ground and the cost of it seldom goes down in value.

 

[Mosster47]

Moved everything into the G fund as soon as the panic started in China so I didn't lose a cent and will make 3% through all this.

Will buy investment property in September when the mortgage rates bottom out and people have to start selling their homes just like I did in 2011.

When things are great I lag behind, when things are bad I'm way out ahead. The give and take of working for the government.

 

[Tobe_B]

I’m self employed and considered essential so I’m still working. Other than our IRAs taking a hit we aren’t doing too bad. Finishing up the paperwork and loan process for buying a farm in the next few weeks. After that they can continue the quarantine for as long as they want. I’ve got plenty of work to do and could use the break in my primary business to get it going. My wife and I train horses and I operate a full time farrier business. As long as I can get to the trail heads I can keep my training program going full steam. And if those get closed I’ll shift gears and just train at home. All in all I’m bit being impacted too much. Might have more time for hunting this fall if we don’t fill of our drop camp spots, so I guess I better put on for tags.


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[HuntHarder]

I max out my 401k every year. I too, was thinking about maxing it out early in the next couple months banking on the rebound in the 4th Q. I would have to get close to max, but leave atleast 6% left to continue to get the company match all year long. If we max ours out early, we lose out on company match for the remainder of the year, they only match if we are contributing.

Trying to time the market is like trying to juggle swords tho.