How has COVID affected you financially?

**disneysteve** · 07-19-2020, 05:59 PM

Overall, our spending is down quite a bit. For 2019, our average monthly spending was $6,657. Year to date for 2020, we're averaging $5,576, a difference of over $1,000. I'd say the lack of travel is a big factor. The lack of dining out is another.

There's also been virtually no unplanned shopping. No browsing in stores. Almost no impulse purchases. We've been ordering almost everything except groceries online. My wife would normally go to Target or Walmart every week or so. Since this started, she's been ordering online for curbside pickup, just getting exactly what is needed and nothing else. And we've been making even more use of Amazon.

Lots of other ways we've been impacted. I'll post again later.

**kork13** · 07-19-2020, 07:36 PM

I honestly don't even know how to quantify the financial impact, but it feels pretty far-reaching. A few random thoughts though:
-$11k: We put our home in AK on the market for sale ~6 Mar, literally days before restrictions & concerns related to COVID first started to become a factor.... But at the time, the RE market was strong & very active. As COVID mess took effect, while the first ~2 weeks looked promising, showings rapidly fell off, and basically stopped for about 6 weeks. We resisted as long as we could, and finally ended up dropping our asking price by $10k. The house went under contract on the very day we flew out (14 May), but in the meantime we had to eat the price cut & 2 extra months of mortgage interest.
+$5k: While waiting for our home to sell, my orders to my next duty assignment were basically put on an indefinite hold. By the time they let me go, we had to go to AZ first for my 2-month training course, before proceeding to my next base -- which means that I continued to receive AK's significantly higher COLA & housing allowance (instead of the allowances for here in Idaho) for all that time sitting in AK waiting and while TDY in AZ, until I checked in to my new base last week.
+$2k (or more): It's really hard for me to differentiate the necessarily higher spending we did while traveling compared to our normal steady-state expenses... But I know for a fact that we spent ~$1k/mo less in March/April, primarily due to less (almost no) driving, cooking everything at home, rebates from insurance & others, no childcare costs, and so on.
+$6k: In late Feb, I started aggressively buying a few various ETFs, and continued buying the entire way as the market crashed, then all the way back up to its previous levels. I sold most all of it in early June for purchasing our new house, netting a healthy 14% profit over the course of those 3.5 months. The few shares that I kept also have ~$1k profits (on paper).

That's what most immediately comes to mind... Perhaps I'll think of more over time. Gratefully, my family's income has remained stable throughout all of this mess, even including the profits we receive from our rental property (tenants haven't had any problems either). Much to be thankful for, in spite of the widespread chaos, acrimony, & uncertainty.

**Singuy** · 07-19-2020, 08:37 PM

I invest only in tech of our future, and Covid have unmasked many financial instabilities with companies that are old dying dinosaurs and really highlighting how nimble tech companies are eating the world.

Covid has supercharged my stock portfolio to the point of really thinking about retiring. I however still don't fully trust my returns so it's a wait and see kind of game. Besides that, our vacations were cancelled and refunded. We are spending way less on eating out. Can't really find any good places to deposit spare case for any significant returns so thinking about just paying off our car.

**~bs** · 07-20-2020, 01:00 AM

Like Sin, I angled my portfolio high tech, so it's doing pretty well so far for this year.

Spending probably some lower than last year, I'm not really a big spender. Eating and drinking out are main reductions in expenses.

Income is up over last year due to a new job I took last year, but not nearly as high as it would have been if covid didnt happen. Lost out on significant performance bonuses due to the company struggling. EVP above me is set to retire by end of year, so company is preparing me for promotion, which I guess is a plus. Going to be more work and more stres

**disneysteve** · 07-20-2020, 05:52 AM

As far as my job, thankfully my hours remained stable. Two of our eight sites were closed so they had to reassign some people to give everyone their contracted hours. They blocked out the per diems so they couldn't get any hours.

The one thing that did change was that typically I pick up an extra shift or two every month. Between having 2 sites closed, all of the stress from COVID, and not wanting to increase my exposure to COVID patients, I didn't take any shifts for about 3 months. So my total income for the year will be off by a few thousand dollars as a result of that.

Our daughter was laid off from her job. Her last day was March 13. She didn't qualify for unemployment because her last job was with a non-profit that doesn't pay into the system. At one point, the job got a PPP loan so she did get 8 weeks of pay from that. She finally went back to work yesterday although at reduced hours currently (they are closed 2 days a week for now).

**breathemusic** · 07-20-2020, 06:26 AM

Thankfully I work as a civilian for the military so my job and benefits have been completely stable and I now work 100% remote, but my spouse AND my roommate both work in the conference industry, which has been non-existent. My roommate originally projected this year being his highest earning year ever until COVID, then I thought he'd be lucky if he made 1/4 of his original projections (he was commission based). His company has been able to quickly pivot to virtual conferences, so now business is picking back up, but it's a lower cost market, so he's still going to only end up making about 1/2 of his original estimates. My spouse has lost virtually all of his business. He's similarly pivoted and is now looking at programming other things that support client virtual needs, but it takes time to do that where no money is coming in. He's mostly just making unemployment and eating into savings. The other thing that has changed is that because now my roommate's work may allow people to telework permanently, and my roomie's income has significantly dropped, he's very likely going to move out within the next year and move to the neighboring state because he will save significantly in income taxes. He may still rent a bedroom here and be back a night a week or so, but he would no longer rent a room for his daughter, so we'd loose some rent money too.

Really the only positive financial impact is refinancing the mortgage (which realistically I could now afford the mortgage 100% on my own without having to really crazy tighten the purse strings if it came down to it), and we're not spending as much money on vacations this year.

**disneysteve** · 07-20-2020, 07:43 AM

On a more specific level, our gym has been closed since March. We normally pay $80/month and I get about $23 back from my insurance. So initially that was a savings. However, my wife then started doing private training with her trainer from the gym. She's doing it twice a week for $10/session, which comes to $80/month so we're right back to where we were, and actually even more since I'm not getting the insurance money while the gym is closed.

As for investments, we all know how volatile the market has been the past few months. I've continued to put 13% into my 401k and at least $1,600/month into our taxable account. When the market crashed back in March, I did pick up some AAL and JETS. Right at the moment, the AAL is down but the JETS is up from my basis. I plan to hold onto those for a while as I'm sure they'll eventually recover even if it takes a few years.

We are debt-free so no impact either way from the low rates. I am planning to buy a car one of these days (whenever I get off my butt and do it) but I'll probably pay cash for that.

**Goldy1** · 07-20-2020, 08:01 AM

It has not too much yet. We got the hammer in 2009 when I quit my job while expecting our first child and dh got laid off for 15 months due to economy. We did fine then due to being minimalist before it was a thing, and having savings, but I remember.(
the no medical insurance options but self pay and no preexisting covered during this time is another topic) It has effected my emotionally. I worry about job loss. Sure, we have paid off cars, and house almost paid off and emergency savings. However, we have two young kids to support. I cut ortho a check for 4 grand this year. lol. My dh is middle aged. He likes his computer auto related job. However, it's very niche related, and he can't just walk into another job easily.

We lost in retirement. I bailed out into cash (I know, I know)(not withdrew but went to cash within 401K
401K match which was going to be started, gone.
otherwise nothing yet. We lost out on a few things like preschool for youngest wasn't redunded when closed bc she got a few zoom calls!!!!

Hopefully, I'm not on here talking about job loss come Fall or Winter, but I"m trying to prepare for the worst and control only what I can which isn't a lot.

**bjl584** · 07-20-2020, 08:02 AM

Positive impact here so far.

No eating out or trips to go on has helped us save considerably.
I've been spending a lot of time at our cabin, so no cost to doing that other than food and fuel to get there.

**~bs** · 07-20-2020, 11:24 PM

Good point on mortgage, I refinanced too. Knocked 4 years off my term and paying the same monthly. Good deal.

Also I did benefit from the personal $1200 stimulus, and EIDL and PPP stimulus for my business. Cant' argue with free money!

**QuarterMillionMan** · 07-21-2020, 02:18 AM

Since COVID and due to staying home I estimate that each month I saved an additional $1000 to $1500 every month. Prior to COVID every month from Los Angeles I'd do a 2 night stay in Las Vegas (~$600), a day trip (turn-around) to San Diego Indian casinos (~$400), and an overnight hotel stay or two in Tijuana (~$200). Last night for the first time I did a day trip to a San Diego Indian casino and came home with an extra $150. The casino was jam packed and I felt very uncomfortable in the presence of all those people albeit everyone was wearing masks, it gave a false sense of security. I left after 30 minutes. I hope I don't get COVID from that brief encounter.

**disneysteve** · 07-21-2020, 06:07 AM

Originally posted by ~bs View Post

Also I did benefit from the personal $1200 stimulus

No stimulus money here, which is fine. I did read that part of the whole relief package is a provision to allow you to deduct $300 of charitable donations this year even if you don't itemize deductions. If that's accurate, we will be able to take advantage of that.

One thing we did in response to COVID is we made a nice donation to the local food pantry. We would normally donate food from time to time but since supermarkets were so crazy and they were limiting purchases of things like canned goods and pasta, we just wrote a big check and gave them that instead.

**ua_guy** · 07-21-2020, 07:58 AM

We've been fortunate to keep our jobs, and things are even-keel for the most part. I took a small reduction in salary, but in the same breath, DH received a small raise and an unexpected bonus. Some benefit has been realized from the commute savings and lack of "entertainment" spend. We do find ourselves using our RV more, but fuel has been relatively cheap, and we did not take some big trips we had planned, so additional spend that didn't happen this year. Retirement and investments have been up and down with the market. So far, we're up.

On a not-financial note, it's solidified for us that we want to move back to our home state. We miss our families and want to be near them and the places we love. This could have a huge financial impact and we're trying to dump a home and get moved before the music stops...

**disneysteve** · 07-21-2020, 08:18 AM

Originally posted by ua_guy View Post

On a not-financial note

Not the subject of the thread, but non-financially we have been having a lot more family dinners together. Prior to quarantine, my daughter and I often worked opposing schedules so the 3 of us weren't all home at the same time to have dinner together. Since March, though, there have been a lot more joint meals. Early on, we also did several family walks.

Personally, I've started playing the piano again. I also just got a grown up paint by number that I received on Thursday and have been working on daily since getting it. I had hoped to get it earlier when I had some PTO but it took forever to ship.

How has COVID affected you financially?