Government

How To Get Your Coronavirus Money

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How To Get Your Coronavirus Money 1

The coronavirus has upended the U.S. economy and sent millions of Americans into unemployment. While it isn’t enough to offset everything, Congress did pass some legislation providing a cash infusion to Americans as a way to both help people through a tricky time, as well as try and prop up the economy. Of course, getting funds out to all Americans isn’t an easy task. Really, the only way to handle such a thing is to tap into the one institution almost every American must interact with, the IRS. How To Get My $1200 Payment As is always the case when you try and get to “everyone” someone gets missed, and this big government payout is no exception. If you have the “average” interactions with the IRS your payment is on the way and you don’t have to do anything. If you have a less common situation, then things can get trickier. Check out my Acorns review Basically, if you filed income taxes in 2018, or if you’ve already filed for 2019, the IRS will use the same information you provided for any refund, or payment you had. If you didn’t file taxes, either because your income was too low, or …

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Investing the Government Shutdown

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Too many investors try and ride short-term news events and rumors as a way to make easy money. It seldom turns out that way. Take the current government shutdown. Conventional wisdom says that Wall Street hates uncertainty. Furthermore, a lengthy shutdown could disrupt the still fragile economic recovery. Add that to the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling and you should have a plunging stock market. Funny thing, the stock market isn’t really going down. Stocks and the Shutdown of the US Government The problem, of course, is that we’ve seen this show before. Recently, Congress and the President took both the debt ceiling and funding the government to the wire but eventually reached a deal. While political partisans go red in the face discussing who won and the lost, the reality is that the overall economy, and by extension Wall Street, really doesn’t care how the pie is sliced up, as long as there is a pie. The only real concern for investors is that the instability at the government level will eventually bleed over into Main Street and Wall Street. Some may argue that is happening right now, but the fact is, no matter how long it seems, …

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Government Making Profit From Bank Bailout?

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The huge government bailout of banks during the height of the banking crisis was the cause of much concern and hand wringing. Among political types, the debate centered around the theoretical concepts of whether or not the government should be involved in propping up banks and whether or not such involvement constituted something “socialist.” Whenever the political theories involved, as a more practical matter, there were some very real concerns about how and when the government might be able to undo some of the things they had done. One example was the government’s bailout of Citigroup. The Treasury provided $25 billion to the banking giant. In exchange, it got an enormous amount of preferred stock. At the peak, the U.S. Treasury owned approximately 27 percent of Citigroup stock. This unprecedented arrangement left some very difficult questions up in the air to be determined later, not the least of which is how does someone — the U.S. Government included — get out of a 27 percent position in a major financial institution without causing more problems? Thankfully, recovering markets and an improving situation at Citigroup have made it unnecessary to answer such questions under difficult scenarios. Rather, the Treasury has been …

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Free Government Grants for Moms and Government Grants for Dads

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When I write personal finance articles for Finance Gourmet, I put on my Financial Planner hat. Just a few short years ago, I was a professional financial advisor with all of the required securities licenses. I had my Series 7 License, my Series 66 License, and my Life and Health Insurance licenses as well. In addition, I was a Certified Financial Planner, or CFP if you prefer. Most of my clients were upper class, high-income, people with either a high-paying job, or they owned their own business. As a result, most of the people I worked with day in and day out as a financial consultant were well educated, either through formal education, or as graduates of the School of Hard Knocks. They also knew a little something about money. While it might be those who don’t have any money, or those who really don’t know anything about personal finance who need the most help, they also are the ones who can’t or won’t seek professional financial advice. As a financial adviser, you find out quickly that trying to “win” discussions with clients who believe something that is incorrect is not worth the effort. No matter how many facts or …

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US Government Money Help

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Have you ever wondered what a website from the US Government about money and personal finances would look like?  Wonder no longer. The US Financial Literacy and Education Commission (what did that cost?) provides a basic financial resource for investing, saving, retirement planning, mortgages, and even starting a small business, all on mymoney.gov. I’m not saying anything on there is earth shaking knowledge that you probably didn’t know, but it is always nice to have an unbiased government resource to direct people to whether you are in finance or not.  There’s nothing scarier than sending your Grandma to a finance website and just hoping that there are no money scams on there waiting to ambush her. Check it out.