It’s all stimulus

1 comment May 14th, 2008

When I see a penny on the floor I pick it up.

Not for good luck mind you, but rather because I have one of those plastic water cooler jugs that we’re using to collect change.

That penny, combined with a lot of other pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and gold dollars — I love the gold dollars, will be part of my family’s spending money when we go to Disney World in the fall.

This morning I checked our accounts online and noticed the federal stimulus money had been deposited. It was like finding a penny, just a lot more of it.

Now I know the federal government — and local retailers — want us to rush out and buy furniture, clothing and a computer with that money. But I think we’re like most people, we’re going to use it to offset our ever increasing expenses. We put some aside for the Disney trip and some aside for extra spending over the summer because the cost of entertaining a 5- and 9-year-old in the summer seems to go up exponentially each year. The rest are helping pay the bills this month

So in a way, we’re delaying the stimulus. The extra cash will filter back in slowly from June through October — but eventually all of it will make its way back into the economy. The smartest move would be to take all of it and put it in an IRA, but very few are in that kind of financial position.

That’s my story. What’s yours? Are you using it as mad money and buying that one item you’ve been waiting for or fixing something on the house that has needed fixing? Is anyone taking the ultimate gamble and using the entire check on the Mega Millions for that one shot at glory?