So what are you going to do with your stimulus check?

[LSWC]

Another H&K would be nice... USP Expert, P2000, VP9Sk....
I'm sure I'll peanut-butter it though and do 20 small things vs one large one.... maybe....

 

[HA556]

I gets none!

 

[CLT65]

I am 65 and 8 months - I rounded it off. I will be 66 in August.

Max is $3K and change. I will get about $2500/mo by last statement I got from SSA - if I wait for FRA. Before the stimulus benes were announced, I was considering applying for SSI now.

No offense intended, and I am sorry for your job loss, but to be honest it sounds like you're still pretty well set. I can only hope to be half as ready when I get to where you are, in 15 or 20 years.

I've still got four kids to help with college, and my employer sliced their 401k contribution to almost nothing a couple years ago. We'll be OK, we'll get by, but I honestly have no plan for retirement planning. We live simply, no fancy toys (or consumer debt), old paid-for cars, etc.. The 401k was looking fairly nice, but not nice enough for someone approaching the half-century mark. Now I'm afraid to look. Retirement is going to have to take care of itself in the future, for me unfortunately.

It's nice to see someone put such priority on helping family, and setting things up for your kids' future. That is an admirable thing to do.

 

[The Heretic]

No offense intended, and I am sorry for your job loss, but to be honest it sounds like you're still pretty well set. I can only hope to be half as ready when I get to where you are, in 15 or 20 years.

No offense taken. I am doing ok. But I too have a mortage, as do my kids.

I feel obligated to my daughter - she has had a rough life, especially when she was young, my wife and I were separated and I wasn't there for her to protect her from evil. I didn't know how rough her young life was until much later because my ex hid it from me. And life hasn't been fair to her the last 15 years or so either, thru nobody's fault, so I am trying my best to smooth out the rough spots and make try to provide for her after I am gone. She too may not be able to work much longer - again due to those circumstances beyond her control.

Myself, I am satisfied with a roof over my head (but away from the things of man, preferably out in the woods), a few toys, simple food and some financial security. Sure I would like more financially, but I am fine as is.

I just want to be sure that I keep what I got, and at the same time make sure she keeps what she has earned too. She has worked had for it, just as I have, and I don't want to see either of us lose those things that make our lives tolerable, maybe even comfortable.

I know there are a many people who are much better off than we are, while at the same time many many more who are much worse off. I myself was fairly poor when I first started out. I also know how fragile it all is - what we are going thru now is just a glimpse of that possibility, and people are panicking at the mere thought of it.

 

[CLT65]

I know there are a many people who are much better off than we are, while at the same time many many more who are much worse off.

Isn't that the truth! Sometimes I find it easy to treat myself to a little self-pity, looking around at what others have that I don't. Then I see someone far worse off and I realize just how good I have it.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

I am 65 and 8 months - I rounded it off. I will be 66 in August.

Max is $3K and change. I will get about $2500/mo by last statement I got from SSA - if I wait for FRA. Before the stimulus benes were announced, I was considering applying for SSI now.

I went a year early. Glad I did. Another year at my job would have aged me by 15 years or so.

 

[coyote223]

You misspelled tax money returned check,,,

 

[GWS]

The night before I got laid off I went to Costco and spent $500 on supplies - half of which went to my kids. Then I went to Winco and spent another $100. Oh well, at least the kids have steak and a couple of roasts now (and other supplies).

Oh man. You ARE the food bank.
Good on you for taking care of your family. Good luck with the job situation. Can you file for Unemployment perhaps?

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Buy Apple stock.

Don't laugh. It's sitting at about $250 right now. A couple weeks ago it was at $325. It'll probably be $400 by December.

 

[sobo]

I'm single, and I don't get one.
But that's OK, cuz I wasn't planning on, nor expecting, a "gift" from my gub'mint that stole my money from me in the first place...

 

[The Heretic]

Oh man. You ARE the food bank.
Good on you for taking care of your family. Good luck with the job situation. Can you file for Unemployment perhaps?

I tried to file today, but the website kept saying something like "field REASON FOR SEPARATION has too few characters", but there was no such field displayed for me to enter the info. I tried twice. Tomorrow I will try a different browser. My laptop is a MBA that is almost ten years old and I have not updated the OS, so the browsers are old versions. I suppose it is possible that the site is not compatible with that old of a browser, but it gave no warnings that I had to use a newer browser.

Of course, this is a state website and they usually suck anyways.

 

[The Heretic]

I'm single, and I don't get one.
But that's OK, cuz I wasn't planning on, nor expecting, a "gift" from my gub'mint that stole my money from me in the first place...

You should get $1200 if you filed taxes for 2019 or 2018

 

[sobo]

I gross well over $100k/annum.
I paid off my mortgage years ago, I have no credit card balance, nor is there anything else that would get me more than the standard $12,000 deduction.
Ergo, my AGI is waaaaay over the limit that would qualify me for this check. I pretty sure I ain't getting one, and that's OK by me, given my financial health.

And I, too, lost close to your loss from my portfolio since Valentine's Day.
But I checked tonight and I've made back about 20% of the loss, so I'm 1/5 of the way back to where I was a month or so ago.

 

[sobo]

@The Heretic You said you're almost 66, but that you'd get hit with a 20% penalty for 401k withdrawal.
Unless you've got some weird plan, once a person hits 59-1/2, they can begin withdrawals from a 401k without incurring any penalty.
I'd be interested to know where you heard that you'd be assessed a penalty at your age.

 

[The Heretic]

@The Heretic You said you're almost 66, but that you'd get hit with a 20% penalty for 401k withdrawal.
Unless you've got some weird plan, once a person hits 59-1/2, they can begin withdrawals from a 401k without incurring any penalty.
I'd be interested to know where you heard that you'd be assessed a penalty at your age.

The penalty is not due to the plan, but because the value of the funds are down 20%, even though I switched to mostly bonds in December last year. I am down $80K, so if I cash out any of those funds/etc., I will take a hit of 20%

I knew the market would go up and down over time, but I never anticipated that three things would happen at the same time; that I would get laid off because of a virus, that there would be a recession, and the stock and bond markets would both tank at the same time. It is kind of like a 'perfect storm'.

As an aside - the reason I got laid off - well, I wasn't the only one, I don't have all of the info yet, but my impression was that it was an across the board cutback. This was a HUGE corporation - one of the largest in the world. They don't lay people off overnight. This was something they have been planning to do for weeks. Somebody had to plan this and different people had to know who was going to go - because they kept just the right people on my teams to keep it bare bones and still keep making progress with the projects. The corporation was talking about cutbacks last year - they did a cutback of 10K people last year (outside of the USA).

I am not saying anything evil was perpetrated or it was done with malice - they did what they had to do and they planned it carefully from what little I saw of it. But it wasn't just the virus that caused the cutbacks, indeed, I don't think it had anything to do with the virus. I do think it would have been nice to give us the two weeks notice they said they expect from us when we quit.

 

[Xrperry]

I'm going to pay off les schwab.......again.

 

[sobo]

Isn't that the truth! Sometimes I find it easy to treat myself to a little self-pity, looking around at what others have that I don't. Then I see someone far worse off and I realize just how good I have it.

I often comfort myself with this simple phrase:

"Thank God for *my* problems..."

 

[DangerDog]

If I get one I'm burning it. I don't take help from the government and I'm not a sell-out.

 

[CamoDeafie]

There's a good question, what are the Feds gonna do if a check is uncashed? (we all know they're just gonna keep the money and move it around )

Edit. Looks like the $1,200 and $500 per "qualifying child under 16" is being treated as a tax credit for the year 2020.

 

[biggie24420]

I am sad for my brothers and sisters who were laid off work and are struggling.

I am blessed to still have my job. I work in the medical field (hospital security) and being a first responder, I have to go to work and I WILL continue to go and serve the community.

I made ..... I wanna say $51k last year. so I should get the full amount when it comes to my helicopter money, I mean stimulus check.

I may pickup a Mossberg 590A1 and I definitely would like to donate a few bucks toward someone in need.