I've noticed a lot of knee-jerk reactions to what's going on in the world economically. People selling off investments, changing how they pay their bills, changing exposure with creditors, etc. I've seen people stop applying for credit, while others have tried to get as much credit as possible "while it isn't too bad yet".
Have you cool cats and kittens made any adjustments?
Personally, I've for the most part, left my investments alone. I did drop to minimum payments for 1 month because I wasn't sure what was going on with my job and wanted to hold on to cash just in case. Now that my income situation has shaken out, I'm paying off all of my balances as I don't want to be in any debt during this time. I've also decided to go ham on getting my last derogatories taken care of as once the courts open back up, I expect them to be more aggressive to get what they can at this time. I also think this would be the perfect time for negotiations as I suspect not many people are trying to take care of collections and chargeoffs.
Just curious on how this has affected people's financial habits and way of thinking.
The only impact to me so far is no raise and no bonus.
I hadn't counted on either, so no change to my outlook.
Happy to be essential.
There really hasn't been a change. Investments have stayed the same. I'm young, so I have a lot of time on my side for fluctuations in the market. Bonus payouts happened already, but those will be affected next year.
My biggest concern has been helping out the small businesses around me that have been affected most. I made it a mission that my stimulus check went 100% to people I know who need it, along with parts of my bonus (I did make sure to stash some in my emergency fund). Otherwise, still paying rent, my car loan, and having life go on as normal. Although it has been a blessing in disguise that my spending habits have gone to basically zero 
I've tried to keep things as close to normal as possibly.
Not cutting credit lines or cashing in crappy investments.
If anything, I've been looking for money market accounts with higher returns and moving emergency funds around. While paying off a couple of CCs.
I'll eliminate 3 over the next month or so. Basically pay off several 0% promotions nearing their end.
Hold on to my PPC promotion and ride it another 12 months at 0%..free money..why not?
@Gmood1 wrote:I've tried to keep things as close to normal as possibly.
Not cutting credit lines or cashing in crappy investments.
If anything, I've been looking for money market accounts with higher returns and moving emergency funds around. While paying off a couple of CCs.
I'll eliminate 3 over the next month or so. Basically pay off several 0% promotions nearing their end.
Hold on to my PPC promotion and ride it another 12 months at 0%..free money..why not?
That's actually what I've been doing, looking for new CUs and banks to stash my extra money. I was on the fence about paying off my promotion early, but I decided I just don't want the payment. That's extra money that could go in another savings or money market somewhere.
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Gmood1 wrote:I've tried to keep things as close to normal as possibly.
Not cutting credit lines or cashing in crappy investments.
If anything, I've been looking for money market accounts with higher returns and moving emergency funds around. While paying off a couple of CCs.
I'll eliminate 3 over the next month or so. Basically pay off several 0% promotions nearing their end.
Hold on to my PPC promotion and ride it another 12 months at 0%..free money..why not?
That's actually what I've been doing, looking for new CUs and banks to stash my extra money. I was on the fence about paying off my promotion early, but I decided I just don't want the payment. That's extra money that could go in another savings or money market somewhere.
I agree about the extra money to go else where. I was thinking that when closing out some of these 0% offers.
That's almost $300 a month I can save or put towards another bill.
Eliminated my auto loan payment( paid off a couple of years early). So bills are now down to mortgage and credit cards. And since all of my living expenses and utilities go on the credit cards.
I'll always have CC bills. lol
@Gmood1 wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Gmood1 wrote:I've tried to keep things as close to normal as possibly.
Not cutting credit lines or cashing in crappy investments.
If anything, I've been looking for money market accounts with higher returns and moving emergency funds around. While paying off a couple of CCs.
I'll eliminate 3 over the next month or so. Basically pay off several 0% promotions nearing their end.
Hold on to my PPC promotion and ride it another 12 months at 0%..free money..why not?
That's actually what I've been doing, looking for new CUs and banks to stash my extra money. I was on the fence about paying off my promotion early, but I decided I just don't want the payment. That's extra money that could go in another savings or money market somewhere.
I agree about the extra money to go else where. I was thinking that when closing out some of these 0% offers.
That's almost $300 a month I can save or put towards another bill.
Eliminated my auto loan payment( paid off a couple of years early). So bills are now down to mortgage and credit cards. And since all of my living expenses and utilities go on the credit cards.
I'll always have CC bills. lol
I decided to leave my auto loan open since I need an installment for credit mix. It's upside down by a few grand so I'm probably going to throw $5k at it and call it a day.
