The past six weeks have felt like an endless stream of news, and it’s been a challenge trying to keep up with everything.

A lot of that information, unfortunately, has been negative. Many Americans are struggling financially because of business closures and it’s had a major impact on the economy. We’ve been working with our clients to deal with these challenges, but we’ve also taken a lot of calls from people that haven’t worked with us before but need help with their finances.

That’s our goal in a time like this. We want to be available for as many people as possible, even if it’s just a 15 minute phone call to review their situation and provide some assistance. That offer stands to anyone, and you can find out more about what we’re doing during this episode.

But we also want to bring much of that information to the podcast as well. On this episode of Money Wisdom, we want to catch you up on everything this administration has done to provide aid to individuals and businesses.

In order to stabilize things and inject cash, the government has taken a number of different measures. Most of the attention has gone to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which we detailed in a past episode, which you can check out here, but there are new changes coming down seemingly every week. More relief might be coming down the line as well depending on how long this shutdown lasts. And a lot of it will affect your retirement planning so it’s important to keep up with every provision so you don’t miss out on something that might benefit you.

Among the things we’ll cover on this show are:

•Tax filing deadline

•IRA contribution deadline

•Recover rebate

•Early withdrawal penalty waived

•RMDs not required in 2020

•Paycheck Protection Program

Regardless of your situation, make sure you take the time to understand what relief might be available for you and hopefully this helps you do that.

Mailbag

As we mentioned earlier, we’ve heard a lot from clients and non-clients over the past few weeks. So many questions are coming in because everyone is being impacted in some way by the coronavirus. We brought two great listener questions onto the podcast to answer for everyone.

The first is about contributions to a 401k. The natural reaction might be to halt those when the market goes into a free fall but Joel will explain why you might actually want to be doing the opposite. The second question comes in from a couple that works in the restaurant industry, which has been hard hit during this pandemic. Should they pull money out of their IRAs to get through this difficult stretch? Joel will also provide some guidance on this idea.

[0:44] – Why Joel is actually excited about this time.

[1:36] – How will your business change once we come out of this?

[3:44] – Communication might be great for a lot of advisors right now.

[4:14] – Why we don’t require investment minimums from clients?

[6:15] – So many people need help and advice right now because of all the changes and uncertainty.

[8:46] – Let’s review all the action the government has taken recently.    

[9:09] – Tax filing deadline and IRA contribution deadline moved back.

[10:08] – The recovery rebate going to individuals. How helpful will that be?

[12:01] – RMDs not required for 2020. That affects a lot of clients.

[13:04] – The early withdrawal penalty has been waived for retirement accounts. 

[14:27] – Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.

[17:17] – If you need to discuss any of the things, here’s how you can set up a 15 minute consultation.

[20:12] – Mailbag Question #1: Should I press pause on my 401k contributions until the market is doing better?

[21:46] – Mailbag Question #2: My wife and I are both restaurant managers at different places but both are closed right now so we’re laid off for the foreseeable future. Should we take money out of IRAs to get us through this rough patch?