Yeah, same with me. I'm not poor but I'm certainly not rich based on local cost of living (Silicon Valley).
Oh well, I guess I'll try to make more money so I can contribute more taxes to help pay for this.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How Will You Spend The Stimulus Money?
- Thread starter honestone33
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Oh well, I guess I'll try to make more money so I can contribute more taxes to help pay for this.
You are so correct - in high living cost areas like NY and CA, this $1200 is nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
Rent & mortgages here in CA are in the $3K for small house.
Whoever in congress came up with $75,000 minimum must be living in rural NoTown, USA....
[automerge]1585404210[/automerge]
Well said!
That's what I will be doing as well since the government is giving any help to "middle income CA earners"
I Read an interesting stat today in my state about the stimulus check, and that 30% of the residents in my state will not qualify for the stimulus check due to 1). A backlog of unpaid taxes, 2.) Unpaid backlog of child support and 3.) If the resident is under any type of pending/active investigation from the federal government.
If you think about 30%, that’s a pretty significant number, and there will be some really upset people that probably think they’re ’entitled’ to that money, in which the above cases, they are not. [Some times I think consumers forget that the stimulus check is a ‘privilege’, not a right.]
I’d like to donate a 1/3 of the stimulus money to ‘critical support centers’ for hospitals that are actually trying to obtain N95 masks, and at this point, any given amount makes a difference given the shortage, plus limited funds they openly admit they don’t have.
If you think about 30%, that’s a pretty significant number, and there will be some really upset people that probably think they’re ’entitled’ to that money, in which the above cases, they are not. [Some times I think consumers forget that the stimulus check is a ‘privilege’, not a right.]
I’d like to donate a 1/3 of the stimulus money to ‘critical support centers’ for hospitals that are actually trying to obtain N95 masks, and at this point, any given amount makes a difference given the shortage, plus limited funds they openly admit they don’t have.
3M has been ramping up NA production for a month now. They should be making around 30M masks a week in about a month. They plan on having 1B made by the end of the year, 2B in the next 12 months. And that's just 3M.
N95 masks don't expire themselves. Their banding/elastics may, and those are easily replaced in clean room environments. For a lot of companies that make these masks and higher grades, it takes a long time to get to 24/7 capacity. Due to the nature of how they're made, a lot can go wrong and it's easier to catch it in small steps than having to destroy a lot of stock because it was fabricated incorrectly.
None of this should have happened, IMO. There mere idea the world's balance was held in play by a handful of companies making critical care products is outrageously stupid. I would hope that once we're done with this crap that all these companies putting on a "war" will spin off divisions that make these products because this could easily happen again.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
N95 masks don't expire themselves. Their banding/elastics may, and those are easily replaced in clean room environments. For a lot of companies that make these masks and higher grades, it takes a long time to get to 24/7 capacity. Due to the nature of how they're made, a lot can go wrong and it's easier to catch it in small steps than having to destroy a lot of stock because it was fabricated incorrectly.
None of this should have happened, IMO. There mere idea the world's balance was held in play by a handful of companies making critical care products is outrageously stupid. I would hope that once we're done with this crap that all these companies putting on a "war" will spin off divisions that make these products because this could easily happen again.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Last edited:
That's going to be one step - we're all going to be a little overgrown if the shutdown of non-essential businesses continues too long. Right now I'm close to a month since my last cut, a couple more weeks and I'll be looking for ways to trim it myself. I feel sorry for those folks that rely on tips for a good portion of their income and don't have that right now.
I'm starting my own plan to help local restaurants where I can. I'm fortunate that I'm still working and that I've been directed to work from home. As this means I'm driving less, it frees up $60-$80 monthly because I'm not putting gas in my vehicle. I'm "flipping" that money to get take-out from local places for lunch at least one day a week and maybe a couple dinners. I also have additional money freed up from my gym suspending membership payments until they can re-open (honestly, if it means the difference between those employees getting a check or not I'd rather that they DIDN'T suspend the dues) so I can get several nights of take-out that I normally wouldn't. It's not much, but I hope it helps them.
As for the stimulus check - I'm ready for a new MBP, I was going to buy one anyway, this just helps offset that cost.
About 10 years ago I was going long-er-ish hair, and it got to be a big PITA. I was using an amazing local stylist, $50 a pop, but I was on a trip for about 2 weeks, hair in my face bothering me ... so on a trip to an Apple store at a mall, I cut through a store what had this huge section of Wahl clippers, most were like 40% off, so I picked up the nicest set, came back to my IL's house, and clipped it all off
\From that day till today, I started just using clippers to do my own hair, I go from a tight clip to occasionally doing high-n-tight on sides/back with a little length on the top (after about 3-4 clips, it gets unmanageable, and I go back to tight all over), I've got to where I'm pretty good at doing it too.
Long story slighly-less-long, my hair isn't experiencing any SIP issues
Overall, I agree that hard/uncertain times encourage savings, but considering the living-from-paycheck-to-paycheck reality of a fair amount of the population, a goodly chunk will recirculate very quickly (and especially if unemployment spikes to 20%+). And even among those who have the flexibility to sit on the money for a while (which I do), I'd expect the added cushion will somewhat loosen those tight purse-strings.
Overall, I have more faith in consumers quickly putting the money back into circulation than I have in most businesses. If a business' doors have been shuttered and its employees are collecting unemployment, much of the money will be sent to bankers, landlords, utility companies... entities that don't churn their cash at high speed. Capital investment takes time, consumption is much faster. Now, those businesses that see current opportunity in the situation will be pumping that money right back into circulation by hiring new/displaced workers, etc. The 2020 version of "Shovel-ready projects."
There are already LOTS of those opportunities available. Supermarkets in my area are hiring by the hundreds, to help with stocking shelves and staffing registers.
Displaced workers could REALLY grasp an opportunity here. In order for a business to claim the loans/grants available from the stimulus package they need to have not laid off or furloughed employees. This means displaced employees are probably still being paid so if they go grab one of those temporary jobs they could replace lost income if they rely on tips, or just flat "double-dip".
Kroger/Ralphs is a national chain and they've been flooding the radio channels with their commercials the last week or two. AFAIK some stores are operating 24/7 with closing hours meant for disinfecting entire stores and high risk paths, restocking and fulfilling orders for delivery the next day.
Someone's gotta do that job.
While I still have a job and I know I will be definitely getting the full amount for the check based on my income, I will just save it towards a Mac Pro 2019 since I need the expandability and ability to upgrade the RAM to run a bunch of virtual machines for a virtual lab setup to learn and experiment with new IT software. Also, I am getting sick of maintaining an X99 Hackintosh and the person who maintain the guides and configurations are gone. I don't want an iMac Pro since the memory in that is hard to get to if I want to upgrade in the future.
Also, I don't really have the time to fiddle around with it. I have 3/4ths of the funds saved up for a base model and probably a 1TB SSD upgrade with a federal employee discount and need a few months afterwards to save a little more. Probably by July, which everything will calm down. Going to shove my RX Vega 56 and the NVMe drive into the machine and figure out whether or not to get the Promise 2 Bay HD or just save up money for a four bay Thunderbolt 3 HD enclosure.
In the near term, I want to get the Magic Keyboard for my iPad Pro 11 2018, but that is not coming out of the stimulus check, but the discretionary spending budget for May.
Also, I don't really have the time to fiddle around with it. I have 3/4ths of the funds saved up for a base model and probably a 1TB SSD upgrade with a federal employee discount and need a few months afterwards to save a little more. Probably by July, which everything will calm down. Going to shove my RX Vega 56 and the NVMe drive into the machine and figure out whether or not to get the Promise 2 Bay HD or just save up money for a four bay Thunderbolt 3 HD enclosure.
In the near term, I want to get the Magic Keyboard for my iPad Pro 11 2018, but that is not coming out of the stimulus check, but the discretionary spending budget for May.
Any money I get will definitely go into my savings, with the economic fallout of this pandemic in front of us, I the best course of action is save any and all money
Yes I think a lot of us will find that the most prudent approach. We can't be sure right now how the occupations labeled as essential will hold up as the first peak of the pandemic hits the USA.
Whatever disruption we've already experienced and whatever relief we predict for our own family via the recently passed stimulus legislation, we may tend to regard where we're at right now as some kind of stable if unfamiliar and not very entertaining situation. It's what our brain wants to believe anyway. Chaos is only fun when it's in a movie or on a videogame screen, basically.
So in real life we make the best of a bad situation by --for openers-- saying this is as bad as it gets, now how do I dig outta here. Oh I got this paperwork to apply for my biz loans, okay. Or okay at least I got half the rent covered now and they can't evict me at the moment, so that's a start.
But we're not sure of how robust the protection of our medical caregivers will become or stay. We're not sure how long people will observe lockdowns and advisories to stay home, and we're not sure of the strain on local economies -- e.g. what if that supermarket folds instead of trying to retain stock clerks and cashiers and curbside delivery staffers, and what if the next supermarket is 70 miles away instead of 15, etc. And of course the incubation period for a noticeable infection by the virus can be a couple weeks, so in a way how we feel today is one thing but how we feel in two more days or six more days may have been determined by some contact we had with the blasted virus awhile back.
So yeah as much as I'd like to look at a stimulus check as a green light to get an MBA to replace my old MacBook Pro, that check is going into the bank. Maybe I'll need it to pay someone to try to round up my next winter's rice and beans in late October, who knows.
Still... I came here after looking at 2020 MBA reviews and comments.
🍎
I intend to stimulate the economy by buying something that I want but have no need of. I think a 65" TV sounds about right.
today i read the money could be maybe possibly ~3weeks out
if you efiled your money will deposit in that account
4-6weeks to file an IRS change of address forum, maybe you can do this online?
if you efile, dont change your banking situation
dont delay filing this years taxes and consider a efile even if you owe money.
if you efiled your money will deposit in that account
4-6weeks to file an IRS change of address forum, maybe you can do this online?
if you efile, dont change your banking situation
dont delay filing this years taxes and consider a efile even if you owe money.
Sounds patriotic enough to be justifiable!
But I'm trying to imagine a 65" TV... think the dimensions are roughly 56 x 30-something? and I'm not sure I have more than two interior walls in my house that could even accommodate such a creature, leaving out the studio, walls of which are reserved for work anyway. I'd probably go into shock watching a big screen TV since I'm used to looking at 13" laptop screens, max.
Yea we are holding it until things balance back out, and then it can go back into the economy.
Depending on model/bezels and height of stand they are about 57 X 36 which is slightly smaller than the console my current 40" sits on....I've been meaning to buy a new TV since I bought new furniture almost two years ago since my current TV looks comically small sitting on that. From my spot on the couch, my current TV looks about the size of a laptop so this will be quite a shock to the system for me too!
We had an investor meeting earlier today and we were projecting the economy in my state probably won’t stabilize until mid July, maybe even late August. But if you look at other states like Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Washington, they are progressively degrading every day with their economy conditions and overall case increase with C/19, which could take literally a year or longer for a full recovery. It really is interesting to see the West Coast from the East Coast, and everything in between, but I think some have the notion that everything will just ‘fall back’ into place like it normally was before this whole situation started, but it will be the exact opposite for a lot of states that will take longer over others to actually recover in their economic position. I think some states will rebound quickly, and the ‘stimulus checks’ will definitely boost localized businesses, but long-term, there is a lot of damage control that needs to be assessed.
I got the first of my "stimulus checks" today - my tax refund was deposited and is pending daily close-out of books.
I might need to shift to a slightly different use of income - my TV has a quadrant flickering. It's an LG that has quadrants of bakclight control (kind of like several panels assembled into a larger screen), one of those is flickering at startup so it may be failing. 6 years old, and I might need to be shopping for a TV Better than some my parents have had, though they also still have a DLP with the original bulb...
I might need to shift to a slightly different use of income - my TV has a quadrant flickering. It's an LG that has quadrants of bakclight control (kind of like several panels assembled into a larger screen), one of those is flickering at startup so it may be failing. 6 years old, and I might need to be shopping for a TV
Better than some my parents have had, though they also still have a DLP with the original bulb...My neighbor received her Stimulus refund last week, and I asked what she planned on spending/investing it on (That’s Kind of a personal thing to ask someone, but I’m just curious of somebody else’s perspective in my community), and she replied ‘What’s there to even spend it on, when everything is closed’.
In a way, she’s absolutely right. The point of the stimulus check I think it is to reinvest that money into your local economy, but if everything is closed for the foreseeable future, then obviously you either save that money or pay bills/Re-surge essential items. I’m finding even for those who thought their jobs ‘were safe’ are now learning that they probably aren’t, and if you’re not in public service sector (Which is my profession) or in healthcare where it’s actually thriving due to C/19, it seems you really don’t have job security with how uncertain everything is.
On that same token, I think a large majority of consumers will invest this money into their savings, strictly because there are a lot of people without jobs right now and it’s only going to get worse for the economy in some areas for at least the next six months.
My ‘end goal’ was to find some local businesses to donate that I really see the value in in terms of the product/service they were putting out before the pandemic started, and I still plan on doing exactly that with dividing those funds, hopefully it helps in any way possible, as there is an onslaught of multiple business types that will not survive this recession.
In a way, she’s absolutely right. The point of the stimulus check I think it is to reinvest that money into your local economy, but if everything is closed for the foreseeable future, then obviously you either save that money or pay bills/Re-surge essential items. I’m finding even for those who thought their jobs ‘were safe’ are now learning that they probably aren’t, and if you’re not in public service sector (Which is my profession) or in healthcare where it’s actually thriving due to C/19, it seems you really don’t have job security with how uncertain everything is.
On that same token, I think a large majority of consumers will invest this money into their savings, strictly because there are a lot of people without jobs right now and it’s only going to get worse for the economy in some areas for at least the next six months.
My ‘end goal’ was to find some local businesses to donate that I really see the value in in terms of the product/service they were putting out before the pandemic started, and I still plan on doing exactly that with dividing those funds, hopefully it helps in any way possible, as there is an onslaught of multiple business types that will not survive this recession.
Last edited:
I should be getting $3400 and I'm saving that until I can get an updated MacBook Pro (whenever that comes out) so I can get out of my basement where I'm stuck on my 5K iMac. But if it seems like things are getting worse, I'll just pocket it and maybe stock up on some more food.
Even with having half decent savings, we will still save it until this is over. Will try to buy from the smaller businesses since they don't have the capital to weather this like the evil corps.