Has anyone [in the U.S.] received your stimulus check? How are you going to spend it?

[freebeard]

My parents set a good example, retiring into a geodesic dome at the coast. My son, when he isn't working weekends again, is painting Warhammer miniatures.

I fall in the middle, lightly beating on the Chaos in my immediate surroundings.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Sure, but then they were promised that check and planned accordingly, and had some portion of their lifetime pay extracted.

It's a bad system that should be phased out for something not dependent on the number of workers in the workforce, robust against changing life expectancy, and encouraging people who want to take more control over their finances to do so.

Every government program is dependent on the number of workers paying taxes. Social Security is no different.

[Xist]

How about the episode of NextGen when Wesley saves the Enterprise (and a significant portion of Startfleet?) from an addictive video game?

[Xist]

I didn't realize this thread was active for 6 months. In that time Meet Kevin probably released 200 stimulus videos and made millions, so the equivalent of an episode or two of "Seinfeld?"

I am not saying that a $2,000 check will happen--or won't. I am not sharing my conclusions regarding who is responsible for what.

I am just curious what has changed for everyone in the past 10 months and what would you do with $2,000, if, for whatever reason, you had that much to spare?

Originally Posted by Xist

Between my two jobs I work about thirty hours a week, but I should have a few more with the school next year.

This did not age well!

I was supposed to have more hours and a small raise, but I was supposed to see students that coughed, sneezed, and laughed in my face in-person during a global pandemic.

Then my hours were cut in half--at most $200 a week.

I don't know how the public school job worked out, but let's say they would have given me one step. With one year of experience (in a school), I would earn $29,995.34 this school year, so let's say $14,997.67 for a semester Even when I was only seeing 2-3 client a week I am sure there would have been some conflict, but let's say that I manage to serve two masters.

I made $26,125.85 with home health and $5,505.85 the first semester at the charter school. If I worked at the public school in the fall my pay would have been $41,123.52 instead of $26,125.85--57% more!

However, it would have mostly been in-person, and I was sick 3 times despite minimizing contact with others and obsessing over staying home, wearing a mask when I need to go out, and washing my hands when I get home. I would have lost days of work each time that I got the sniffles or was exposed to someone who did, until I could get test results.

The agency paid me $840 twice in May. Until mid-September I averaged $408.33 a paycheck. Since then I have averaged $971.25, but from January to April I averaged $1,090, plus I had the school job!

So, my caseload is slowly improving, but I am still a couple of hours short of where I was when TPgate started, and $800 short of my total income the first four months!

Originally Posted by Xist

Mine went straight from savings and will stay there for another couple of weeks until I pay off my credit card--unless I get some harebrained scheme first.

Does anyone have a good harebrained scheme?

I paid off my credit card, but the stimulus check is still sitting in my Navy Federal account earning a whopping 0.25% interest!

In the past 7.5 months I have saved an additional $5,800, so I really could buy a $6,000 - 7,000 car, I just don't feel compelled to.

At Bank of America, I have $3,902.02 in checking, the minimum $500 in savings, and owe $1,828.43 on my credit card, but I need to sit down with Mom and figure out what I bought for her and my brother over the last month. Then I will pay off my credit card.

So, I have $9,000 more cash-on-hand. I haven't actively looked for houses, but I have looked at everything that Zillow and my realtor have sent me, but none of them looked worth evaluating, and I wouldn’t necessarily have 5% down.

In 7.5 months I still haven’t figured out what to do with savings that aren’t enough for the down payment for a house.

What about you guys? What would you do with $2,000?

[Stubby79]

Put it in the bank, or if you'd be too tempted to spend it, some kind of investment to keep it out of reach for a specific amount of time. Maybe one you can pull it out of relatively easily, should an emergency come up.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by redpoint

UBI is inevitable.

You might be right .. but .. I would prefer UBE.
Universal Basic Employment at a basic livable wage .. those who want more can work more , work smarter , get better jobs, etc.

IF done well , there is something everyone can do that adds value / benefit to society at large , their community , etc .. Ideally something like a super good job placement program .. but less than ideally even if UBE pay doesn't line up with 100% pure capitalism supply/demand .. because that would be the ideal , but not the primary goal of the program .. pick up litter by hand , sort recycles by hand , turn a hand crank electrical generator , etc .. spend the resources to find something/anything that person can do (employment).

- - - -

On the thread topic of the stimulus check .. I am fortunate to not need it .. and I think there are/were better ways (more return/benefit to society) for the same tax payer investment/cost.

but .. Money Network / Meta Bank that manage the stimulus cards .. have also for several months now been actively and deliberately refusing to give mine to me ... soo there is that also.

Apparently they extremely dislike the existence of option #5 .. attached .. and have for months been refusing to do that , when I select that option over and over .. responded with things like 'if you don't choose option#5 , you can use your card to do x y z' .. I say I still choose option #5 , they continue to refuse and repeat the same 'if you don't choose option#5, you can use your card to do x y z' .. repeat , repeat ... I started a complaint case with the O.C.C. already months ago , but that is a very very slow bureaucracy.

[JSH]

Merry Christmas!

We will do the same thing with this stimulus check as we did the last one - give it to charity. Likely the Oregon Food Bank again.

[Piotrsko]

Sounds like a plan for me, also. Sucks to be here in reno penniless.

[Xist]

Turnip signs massive measure funding government, COVID relief
It sounds like they are still going to vote on the $2,000 amendment, but either way, it will go into savings, whether I am 1.5% closer to having a down payment or 5%.

[freebeard]

#1 on my list would be buy a replacement tooth. But I'd have to get uncomfortably close to someone (and their assistant), so ???

Not happy about the money going out of the country.