Any time you’re looking at the prospect of incoming money, that money should have a plan. That’s true if you’re in normal times with a paycheck, getting a bonus or an inheritance, or now as the United States Congress is trying to come up with their economic relief plan that may result in checks to many Americans.

I got the question last week, what should I do with my check?

First, make sure your 4 walls are taken care of.  This is where most people’s relief money will go, especially as we plan for this to get long.  Keeping food on the table, lights, water.  Make sure you’ve got a very healthy emergency fund. Rochester and Olmsted County families are more likely than many around the US to still have two incomes expected to come in, but many families are or may soon be down to 0 or 1 (maybe with unemployment benefits, maybe not).

Then make sure you can pay your expected bills for the foreseeable future, not just the 4 walls basics.  Realize you probably exercised your credit card extra recently, preparing for this current event; that’s a bill you will need to pay soon too.

Then, are you contributing the full minimum percentage to your 403b or 401k, to get your employer’s full match?

Do you have PMI on your house?  Paying down your house enough to get you past that threshold and getting rid of that only-useful-to-the-bank bill is a great thing to do.

How about any other small dollar or higher interest debts that could be completely paid off without draining your emergency fund?  Paying those off, if you can, makes you more flexible in the future. Because flexibility has and will remain being a super power as the world situation wears on.

After that, a Roth IRA likely makes sense.

Finally, if you still feel good about your financial situation, investing further (more 403b/401k and/or 457b contributions, or taxable accounts) when stocks are on sale is indeed something to consider. As with any plans to expand your investing footprint, make sure you’ve got a written investment policy statement first.