How Should You Spend Your Covid-19 Recovery Check

The IRS has begun sending out checks as an economic stimulus response to the Covid-19 crisis. This money is an addition to unemployment that has been authorized. Much could be said about the stimulus, but I’ll be brief before I get to my main point(s). First, Joseph saved Egypt from starvation out of savings, not debt. That would have been nice. Second, I am pretty soured on “bail-outs” after the last one, where it seems like a lot of money wound up at banks instead of to the people the banks were foreclosing on. Three, since apart from voting for the person who voted for this, it happened without your say-so, I don’t think you have a moral obligation to do anything except spend it wisely. To that end, here are some suggestions in no particular order:

1. Meet your daily needs. The economy is chugging to a halt like my old Ford Escort, and everyone is feeling the impact. Use this money to stay afloat and pay for necessities.
2. Pay off debt. While this does not give the economy a shot of adrenaline, it seems to me that you have no business buying more stuff when you haven’t paid for the stuff you already bought. And I say “you”, but I mean me:)
3. Help local businesses. The best thing for the economy in general and your community in particular is if local business continue to operate and pay as many people as they can. So if you are meeting your daily needs and don’t have a bunch of debt, buy local.
4. Give to somebody in need. Do this personally or through your local church or a charity that you trust. While many people are receiving help through the stimulus or through unemployment, I’m sure there are a lot of needs not being met. Go meet them.
5. Remember your church and your missionaries. If the membership of your church was strongly impacted by the economy then that will be reflected in their giving, which could create an economic crisis for your church. Also remember that there are missionaries living around the world who are also (probably) in quarantine and they continue to rely on financial, emotional, and spiritual support from Christians like you. If possible, be a blessing to them. There are also many missionaries trying to raise support and all of a sudden all of their Spring meetings got canceled.

Again, these are in no particular order, but thought I’d throw out some ideas. God bless!