Editor’s note: This article was updated March 24 using new information about the “stimulus” package passed two weeks earlier by the House of Representatives.
The U.S. government is not exactly an exemplar of fiscal responsibility. The national debt has topped $28 trillion and continues to climb every day.
The government added another $1.9 trillion to the national debt through the American Rescue Plan, which Democrats marketed as fighting COVID-19. President Joe Biden signed the bill into law March 11 after it passed the Senate and the House along party lines the day before.
The so-called stimulus package is “stuffed with a wish list of progressive policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic,” Matthew Dickerson, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation, wrote in a recent National Interest piece.
Among the long list of provisions, the bill distributes $350 billion to state and local governments and $126 billion to K-12 schools, provides about $90 billion to bail out union pension plans, and sends Americans who earn $75,000 or less yearly a check for $1,400.
The American Rescue Plan is the third “stimulus” package related to COVID-19 to be passed by Congress and signed into law in under 12 months.
In 2020, Congress added $2.2 trillion to the national debt through the CARES Act and then $900 billion more several months later when it passed the second coronavirus relief package Dec. 21.
The first relief package sent a $1,200 check to Americans earning $75,000 or less, regardless of employment status. The second one included a $600 check for the same Americans.
Of course, some Americans, especially those unemployed or underemployed, may need to use the most recent $1,400 stimulus to pay bills.
But if you’re not in a dire situation and have been fortunate enough to keep your job throughout the pandemic, you have some interesting options.
Before you decide how you will spend the $1,400 that may have been direct-deposited into your bank account, consider a few smart financial steps you could take—because you and I can choose to be financially responsible even when Congress is not.
Save and Invest
“Time and consistency” are two of the most important elements of financial planning, says Chris Gleason, a financial adviser with Edward Jones.
In a phone conversation with The Daily Signal, Gleason said the best financial advice he has ever received is that “it is never too early, or too late, to start preparing for retirement. … It is very easy to kick that can down the road, and so I think there is no better time to start than now.”
Chances are, we have all had someone tell us that before, but when it comes to actually doing the saving and investing, it can frankly feel overwhelming.
Fortunately, there are several simple things we can all do today to better prepare ourselves financially for tomorrow.
With a Roth individual retirement account, or Roth IRA, as with other retirement funds, an individual contributes money, which is invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other assets to grow the original investment.
Unlike a traditional IRA, however, contributions to a Roth IRA aren’t tax deductible on the front end, but you won’t pay taxes on the money when you retire and begin withdrawing from the nest egg you have accumulated.
Depositing your stimulus check into a preexisting Roth IRA, or opening one, “would certainly be the place I would start,” Gleason said.
There are plenty of financial institutions that will help you open your Roth IRA, such as Edward Jones, Betterment, SoFi, or TD Ameritrade. Some offer a hands-off approach, meaning that professional investors make decisions for you on how your money should be invested. Others allow you to decide which stocks or bonds you want in your portfolio. Some do both.
Pay Down Student Loans
Americans have a total of about $1.6 trillion outstanding in student loan debt. In 2019, the average student loan borrower between the age of 25 and 34 had about $33,000 in unpaid loan debt, according to Forbes.
It might feel easier to put off student loan payments, but paying on your loans will move you closer to financial freedom.
But how to begin paying off the loans? “From a financial perspective, young people should pay off their highest-interest loans first, whether those are credit cards or student loans,” Romina Boccia, former director for the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.
High interest rates ultimately mean you will not only pay more on the loan, but it will take longer to pay off. Consider talking with your loan provider or bank about refinancing the loan or consolidating your loans so that you can pay down the principal and not just the interest.
Paying down student loans consistently will also help to increase your credit score. And a high credit score is often the determining factor when it comes to being approved for the purchase of a home or a vehicle.
Give Generously
A joint study by the University of British Columbia and the Harvard Business School found that people who give more money away, and spend more of their income on others, tend to be happier than people who spend their extra income on themselves.
Generosity is a great way to show support for a cause you are passionate about, to help those around you who are struggling, and to experience happiness yourself.
If you’re so inclined, consider giving some or all of your stimulus check to someone you know who has lost his or her job, or even to a small business owner in your community who is struggling to keep his or her doors open.
Philanthropic giving is a great way to invest in the future of our own communities. And by giving of our resources, we fulfill the New Testament truth that “it is better to give than to receive.”
But choosing where, and to whom, to give can be a challenge, since there are so many worthy causes and always another GoFundMe fundraiser.
In a 2003 interview, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, currently the secretary of housing and urban development, told the Baltimore Sun that there are “so many worthy organizations” deserving of support.
“You can give $1 to each of them and have no impact, or you can give $50,000 here or $100,000 there and have a big impact,” he said. “That’s the philosophy my wife and I have: Let’s target some areas where we know we can have a huge impact, and let’s put our energies there.”
