More Money Podcast - 232 How to Be Smart with Your Money During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Janna Herron, Personal Finance Editor at Yahoo Finance and Cashay

Episode Date: March 18, 2020

So…it’s been a crazy few weeks (understatement of a lifetime)! I almost never do “timely” podcast episodes. I typically record all my episodes a few months or weeks in advance, so it’s hard to do an episode that is about what’s going on in the news and it still be fresh or on trend by the time it’s published. But, since what’s going right now with COVID-19 and the stock market is something I have never seen or experienced before, I knew I needed to have an episode to talk about it. That’s why I’ve got Janna Herron, Personal Finance Editor for Yahoo Finance, on the show today to discuss what exactly is happening, how we should react and how best to manage our money in these uncertain times. Here are some of her top tips which I completely agree with. 1. Don’t Panic I know you’ve probably been hearing this a lot, but honestly it’s the best advice you can take. I understand it’s easier said than done. I myself am trying not to panic. A lot has changed in my life and business in just the past few weeks, such as all my future speaking engagements have been canceled, so it’s hard not to panic and think the worst. But just remember, the best thing you can do is stay calm to maintain a clear head. When you let that panic take over, you’ll start to make emotional decisions that may not be the best choices for you in the long-term. 2. Don’t Sell Off All Your Investments Another piece of advice that’s easier said than done, but I would really implore you not to make a very rookie investing mistake which is selling off all your investments to free up cash because you’re panicked. I’ve even had thoughts of selling some things off, or stopping some of my investments to have more cash on hand. That’s a natural feeling to have! Our instincts are telling us to cash out and run away from danger, but when it comes to long-term investing you cannot do this. This is the time to continue investing or if you can afford to, dump more money into your investments. 3. Free Up Cash Flow If You Need To Now you may be thinking “What if I need cash though?” If you don’t have a fully funded emergency fund that can float you for 3-6 months if you lose work, then that’s obviously a different story. If you feel like your livelihood is at risk, then it’s important to have cash on hand. And by that, I don’t mean literally get cash out of the bank to put under your mattress (though there’s nothing wrong with having some physical cash at home). I mean that in order to prevent you from going into debt, you need to have cash to pay for things if your income dries up. In this instance, there’s a few things you can do. File your taxes. It’s tax season after all, and you may be due for a nice tax refund. Put those funds to good use by putting them into your emergency fund. Cut or pause any unnecessary subscriptions Cut back other unnecessary expenses, like eating out (this is actually the best time to start eating in and meal prepping). Call your lenders and creditors to see if they can reduce your regular debt payments temporarily. Contact your utility companies to see if they can reduce your payments temporarily. Sell things you don’t need if there’s a market for them. If you’ve always wanted to start an online at-home side hustle, this is the perfect time to start! If you’re still worried about not having any cash, then either reduce your regular contributions to your investments, pause them (but don’t forget to restart them when you can afford to), or if you’re really desperate, liquid some of your investments (ideally from your TFSA or taxable accounts first, not your RRSP). And if you need to borrow money, make it your last resort and avoid high-cost debt like credit cards and payday loans. Work with your bank to secure either a close-ended loan with set payments or a line of credit. For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/232 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mo Money Podcast. This is episode 232, and I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the show. How are we doing? Are we doing okay? Are we? Are we? That is the question of the century. It has been the craziest week ever. So I posted that Money Minute episode on Friday, and I think I recorded it on Monday. And I even had to listen to it again to see if it was still relevant because so much has changed in a matter of days, which is why I wanted to do this specific episode today. Because if you've been listening to the podcast for a while, it's been around for almost five years now, you will know that I almost never, I can't off the top of my head think of when I've ever done this happened in my personal experience, in my lifetime, what is going on with COVID-19, the pandemic, the stock market, all of it, I thought I should probably do an episode on what's happening.

Because this is the – it's basically consuming all of our lives. This is all I'm thinking about. This is all I'm talking about. This is all I'm talking about. This is what I see everyone else talking about. This is pretty much what's going on in everyone's lives. So I thought, yeah, I should probably do an episode about it. So for this episode, I have with me Jana Heron. She is the personal finance editor for Yahoo Finance and Cache, which is the company's

new personal finance hub. And we are going to be talking about, we're going to be talking about what exactly is going on the stock market, what you should be doing with your investments, what you should do to make sure you have enough cash for an emergency or, you know, an impossible recession, or maybe you have to quarantine yourself and take time off work, whatever the case. And just a whole bunch of other stuff that I'm sure I've honestly tried to ask as many questions as I could that I felt like you would want to know the answers to. So you are going to get a lot out of this. I hope at the end of the episode, what you will feel is maybe a little bit of a sense of calm because we are all about like finding solutions. I have been saying this all week

and will continue to say this. No matter what, do not panic. I know that is easier said than done. And I am also human. So of course, I have personally had some panic times the past couple days. The best solution, in my opinion, is to really take a step back, not let your emotions take over, make a plan, get organized, and do some of the things that we talked about in this episode. Honestly, once you do that, full disclosure, this past weekend, I spent my entire weekend cleaning my house, organizing my house, making sure like legitimately I made a full inventory of what we had in our pantry, in our freezer, in our, you know, bathroom. So I knew what kind of medications

we had. Um, I wanted to make sure how much do we have in case we do have to stay here for a couple of weeks or even a month, because I mean, I live in Toronto. It is the most populated city in Canada and there's a very good chance things will continue to get worse. So I wanted to make sure I was prepared. As soon as I did that, make that inventory, have an idea of how much food do we have and how long will it last us. Honestly, I slept like a baby. I felt so much more empowered and in control. So I highly recommend if you haven't done that, do it. I just made a simple spreadsheet and just went through all the stuff in our house. Like how many pasta sauces do we have? How much cans of soup? What do we have?

And then once you have that, then you also won't feel the need to continue to buy things and hoard and stockpile because I've been seeing all these empty aisles. My sisters have been sending me videos of going to all these grocery stores and there's nothing. This is not how we should be acting. Of course, get some things for your home to make sure you have enough in case you do have to be self-quarantined, but don't go crazy. Make a list of what you've got at home and then most likely you will have enough for a while. So let's all take care of each other and not go crazy, not be super selfish. Okay. But I know that's not you at all because you're one of my listeners and all my listeners are amazing humans. So we are going to talk about all this important stuff that's been going on

right now. Just before I get started, I have a few words to share about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Momany Podcast is supported by YouFile. It's that time of year again, you know, time to file your taxes. So how are you going to do it this year? Why not join over 1 million Canadians who put their trust into Ufile's 20 years of experience helping taxpayers get it done? No matter if you've got a simple return or your situation is a bit more complex, like you're self-employed, have lots of investment income, or have rental properties, Ufile can help. Moreover, if you're a student or filing return for the first time, or have a very simple tax return to file, or if your family's income is

less than $20,000, you may be eligible to file your return with Ufile absolutely free. Ufile also offers the triple guarantee, meaning you get their assurance of accuracy, satisfaction, and the best tax result. To learn more and to get your taxes over and done with the pain-free way, visit U-File.ca. And as a special bonus, get 15% off when you use promo code MoMoney. Once again, that's ufile.ca and make sure to use code MoMoney to get 15% off. Well, welcome to the MoMoney podcast, Jana. I'm so thrilled that you're here because we have a lot to talk about. Yeah, it's an unbelievable time we're living in right now. Yes, it's really crazy. I feel like everything keeps changing day by day. So even when I think

I just, I mean, we're recording this on Friday, March 13th, I uploaded a little podcast episode that I do called Money Minute. And it was just, it was honestly, I recorded it Monday and I'm almost like, I might need to re-listen to it to see if it's still relevant. That's exactly true. We have on Caché that's that's the website that um i'm the editor for and it's a personal finance website um one writer has a coronavirus and travel what it means for you and every morning she has to update it because things change so rapidly wow that is really really crazy so um let's start off with getting to know you a little bit more. So you are the personal finance editor for Yahoo Finance and Caché. Do you want to talk a little

bit about what Caché is? Because I know it's kind of specifically focused on creating content for younger people. So Caché is really a personal finance website with an encyclopedia of tools, guides, explainers, really education stuff from as simple as how do I create a budget to as complex as what is the investment pyramid. So it really is to help younger people go from point A to point Z when it comes to their personal finances. That's awesome. That's great. Well, I'll definitely link it in the description of this podcast or on my website so people can check it out.

This is kind of like maybe a little positive thing in this whole kind of situation is that I feel like this may be a good kind of opportunity or like motivator for people to educate themselves more about money. There's one silver lining maybe. But let's kind of start talking, I guess, about what's going on here because it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I just want to get your kind of personal take on this as a personal finance editor who's probably been doing this for a while and probably seen quite a fair bit. What are your kind of feelings or thoughts about what's going on right now? This is really unprecedented. I think I was a personal finance reporter when the financial crisis happened in 2008. And so there are definitely similarities, but there's this whole layer of a public health crisis as well that makes it even bigger and a little bit

scarier, I think, for people. And then you have what's happening in the stock markets as a result. And so you're seeing investments in your retirement savings go down. So that's really scary as well. And you're thinking about, if I have to hole up for two weeks or more in my home, can I afford to do that? So there are a lot of different layers to this. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, I experienced the last recession and the last crash. I don't think I was actually when the crash happened, I didn't even have any money in the stock market. I was just starting out. So I was quite broke. But still, I remember it so vividly because it took, in my mind, a long time to recover. And so this time around, I definitely had a different perspective, especially when it came to investing. I knew not to make some of the mistakes that I made in the past, which was basically not start to investing out of fear. So I'm just continuing what I'm

doing. But like you said, there's this added layer of this health situation and it makes things more unpredictable. It's not just an economic situation here. We're dealing with this pandemic. And like many people probably listening, I recently watched the movie Contagion because everyone's been watching it and talking about it. And I had, I'd never seen it. It's obviously a very different situation in that movie. And also that movie is not real, but a lot of scary similarities actually, just like watching the movie. I'm like, oh my gosh, they're telling us not to touch our face. And oh my gosh, they're telling us to self-isolate and stuff like that. So there's a lot of, I think, panic because of the health thing specifically. And then there's

the, you know, what's going on with oil and then there's the stock market and then all the political stuff going on. There's just like a lot of components, I feel like. Oh yes. It's like I said, it's very layered. And so there are different fronts that you're going to be dealing with this. So I think there are different ways to really think about it and break it down. There's people who are traveling or have travel plans. How should they think about that? How they should think about their long-term savings? And then what they need to think about with their short-term savings and their cash flow. And that's another component that people might be facing if they have a cash crunch and they don't have enough emergency savings. What

are the steps that they can take? Yeah, I know. One thing that did definitely come to my mind when all of this was happening was hopefully all the people that have been listening to this show or just have been kind of reading more personal finance content throughout the years or months, have taken that advice of, because everyone says it's like, make sure you have an emergency fund. And I feel like some people are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to it. It's like, well, this is why. I think maybe some people always just think of a personal emergency and maybe that's because we talk about it. It's like, well, you may get laid off and stuff like that, but there could be a global emergency like this and you want to make sure you have

the money in the bank in case something happens. I mean, I'm sure and I feel like this will definitely happen is we will see some, you know, job losses right now because industries are going to collapse because of what's happening. I mean, it might be too soon to say that, but it just seems very familiar what's going on. Definitely. And to your point, this is an emergency. So it's time to break into those savings. There are times where you're like, oh, well, I like to get this thing or that thing. Maybe I'll just get my emergency savings. No, no, this is not that time. This is the time that you actually need those savings. So you really want to make sure that they're liquid, you know, you're able to access them easily and just be ready.

Now, I feel like because we're talking about, you know, liquid, having some cash on hand, people may feel, and I've definitely heard this from lots of people, feel the need to liquidate some of their investments in order to have that cash if they don't already have that emergency fund. What would you say to people that are thinking that? Yeah, no, don't panic. Don't go sell things just because you see the market going down. Maybe if you need to access that cash, that might be one reason, but I would check other places in your financial life first. And for a lot of younger people, especially, you know, welcome to the stock market. The good news is, is you have decades to build wealth. And there are going to

be ups and downs along the way during those years. And right now we're just, we're in a down. The other thing is I would caution people against is this is not the time to become a day trader. You know, don't try to start timing the market to see if you can make a quick profit. You know, that's just, that's a tough business and people are not usually very successful at it. They can't time a bottom, they can't time a top. I mean, look at us, we're up right now after being way down yesterday. So that's what I would say. But if you need those investments because you don't have any other financial safety net, maybe you need to liquidate a little bit to have a little bit of cash on hand. But I do think there are other places to turn

before that to deal with any kind of cash crunch. So what would those ways be? What are some other things in people's kind of financial lives they can look at to be like, oh, I can free up money there. I can free up money there. Exactly. Well, here's the thing. If you feel like you're going to have a cash crunch or you're already having one, so maybe you have to stay home because your child's school has closed and you don't have the type of job where you're going to get paid, even if you're at home, you don't have sick days, what you need to do is look around. And one of the first things to do is, did you file your taxes yet? And are you a person who will be getting a tax refund? Because that's a quick injection of cash that you might be able to get. So people can take the time that they have at home

and just get those taxes done and get that tax refund. So that's like a good $2,000 to $3,000, I think, on average for people and have it sent direct deposit so you don't have to wait for a check in the mail. So that's one. Another thing is really you can work with your lenders and creditors when it comes to your payments. So you can start with your biggest ones, which would be your mortgage, maybe your car payment. And you can give them a call and say, hey, I'm having a real hardship right now. Is it possible for me to be able to skip a payment until things blow over?

And we saw this happen during the federal shutdown last year, where lenders said, yeah, okay, you can suspend that payment and make it up next month. So that's a way to just kind of free up cash. The other thing you can do, utilities, for example, you can ask them to reduce your payment in winter. So some people have like a higher heating bill, for example. Um, so they might be able to reduce that payment for this month and then you pay it a little bit back in the next months. They can, they can figure that out because they have that seasonal history. And they also usually have hardship programs that you can also apply for where you can delay a

payment. So I mean, there's a couple other things if you want me to keep going. I do have like a whole list. Yeah, no, I'm interested. I'm just trying to like, yeah, I kind of think of like, what if I were in this situation or like, honestly, back when the last recession was and I was living on a very low income and trying to figure out how can I stretch this dollar? Because at that time, I was finally trying to save up an emergency. Yeah, I think lots of people would love some suggestions. Right. And so we all have like some subscriptions in our lives that they're definitely wants and not needs. So maybe you can suspend those for a month or two of cable streaming services, even your gym membership. So that that's another way to get a little bit of cash.

You can also look around locally and nationally for different charities that offer assistance. So you want to look at who offers food assistance, who offers clothing assistance, maybe housing assistance. You know, you have the big ones, Goodwill, Red Cross, Salvation Army, but you also have local food banks and churches that often step in during these kinds of times. So this is, yeah, this is the time to really kind of get creative and do your research and see what's out there. And I feel like this can be a good thing for people that have never really thought about their money ever. Right, right. You know, people often resort to selling items. You know, that's something to do. It might be more difficult in these times

because maybe people are trying to hold on to their cash, but you never know. And then when it comes to borrowing money, this is always the last resort in my head because it can just snowball out of control and lead to worse outcomes six months from now. But if you need to borrow money, try to avoid the high cost debt. So credit cards, obviously payday loans, things like that. Instead, I would contact your bank or credit union to find out if you qualify for a small close-ended loan where you have set payments and that could be helpful. I know again, during the federal shutdown, there were several credit unions that were offering interest-free loans to people, small, but ones to get you through. So I'm not sure if we're going to see that again. You never know. Perfect. So yeah, those are very, very helpful suggestions. But now I kind of want to shift a little bit more to the investing side of things because I see people panicking. I see actually two things. I've been getting a lot of messages from people that have heard the old adage, buy low, sell high. And so they're like,

what should I buy? I should buy. This is the time to buy. I don't want to miss it. As if they're going to miss this one shot at actually getting into the stock market. And then I do see lots of other people panic, being like, I know I'm not supposed to stop investing, but I have a hard time continuing because my emotions and the panic is setting in and I'm very anxious. Let's kind of talk about the first set of people that are like, I want to start buying. You already said this is not a good time to start trying to become a day trader. So if someone isn't really into investing right now, but wants to start getting into the stock market and buy stocks because they think that's the thing to do, what would you say to those people? I mean, I think it is an opportunity

to get cheaper stocks at this point in time. And the way I would go about it is I would just start increasing my retirement contributions if I feel like I want a larger exposure in the stock market. And I'm a very conservative investor. I want indexed mutual funds, ETFs that are also indexed to the broader market. So that's what you could do. You can increase your retirement contributions either through your 401k plan if you have one or a Roth IRA or a traditional IRA. So yeah, stocks are at a discount, but don't be dismayed if they're cheaper tomorrow. Yeah, because they will be. They're always that way.

You can't get the bottom. You're not going to be able to time it. You're not Warren Buffett. But you're going to get them a lot cheaper. And in the future, they will be worth more and you will see good earnings growth. So that's the way I would go about it. I am, like I said, I wouldn't suggest being a day trader and trying to pick a specific stock. That's, again, that's difficult. That's Warren Buffett stuff. So that would be my suggestion for those people who are looking to capitalize on what's happening in the market right now. Yeah, exactly. Because I mean, personal example, I have been, you know, I can continue to contribute to my, you know,

retirement plan, like you said, doing that dollar cost averaging, just doing those regular contributions. And if you want to kind of capitalize on what's going on, maybe up those contributions if you can afford to. But if you have, you know, a little bit of part of your portfolio, like say 5% that you want to use to buy individual stocks, that's fine. Make sure you have that budget or that limit. But yeah, like you said, get ready to buy something and it'd be cheaper the next day and you feel like an idiot because that's how I've been feeling. But for me, my kind of strategy is the buy and hold. I'm buying these and I'm not going to sell them until I retire.

But again, it sounds like a very simple concept. It's very emotional. It's very hard to open up your discount brokerage account and see a bunch of red and all the money you lost. So I don't think people have the stomach for that, quite honestly. A lot of people don't. Basically, I would just say, why don't you just look at how much you gained at the end of 2019 and don't look anything further than that. Just tune out that noise because it's going to be rough. You know, it was the longest bull run ever. So we were due for a bear market. But that doesn't mean there won't be another bull market.

So hold on. Yeah. And typically, bull markets last longer than bear markets. I think people need to remember because I think a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, are we going to be in this bear market or experience a recession for like a decade? I don't think so. Right. I mean, I think the Great Recession was 18 months long and then followed by a bull market. And that wasn't even the bear market. It was shorter than that. But the actual recession itself was 18 months. And then look at all this economic expansion since. That's a really good point. Exactly. Exactly. So I know the Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief, Andy Serwer, was able to talk to Warren Buffett because we

mentioned Warren Buffett a few times. And I know a lot of people that are really into investing kind of think of Warren Buffett as like the almighty person that knows everything when it comes to investing. I certainly think he's great. And so they chatted basically about what happened on Monday's market crash. I feel like it's been a month and not a week, quite honestly, with all the things that have been happening. Do you want to kind of discuss maybe some of the things that you found from that conversation that might be interesting to listeners? Yeah, it would be interesting to see him come back to those comments after what's happened since then, right? He, at that point, said it's not as bad as 2008 or 1987. But then, was it Wednesday?

We saw the largest drop since 1987, I think. And so, like I said, you have this public health crisis that keeps growing and growing. And so, that's something that's out of the financial market's wheelhouse. Yeah. So, even though he's had so much experience, I mean, so much has happened in the week. It'd be very interesting to know if his thoughts have changed, Eddie. It would be interesting. I think Andy might be trying to reach back out to him to find out, but I don't know. Yeah. He might be busy dealing with what's going on. Yeah. No, it's fascinating. I mean, I read some of the transcript of the conversation. And for me, as someone who is, I'm literally all week have just been telling people to not panic and to calm

down. And then there's no one besides maybe my husband who's telling me to do the same thing, because it's like now I feel like I'm just taking on all the anxiety of the people that are like going crazy around me. So kind of honestly reading his transcript was, and also doing more research about what's going on, like not the crazy headlines, but from like people like, you know, the Motley Fool and stuff, people that are level headed that have kind of experienced a lot of different market corrections and crashes. I found it actually kind of nice and a relief. Like it did, it made me calm down. So I'd highly recommend anyone read that transcript if they're panicked, because you may feel a little bit better. I feel like Warren Buffett has pretty much seen it all.

And so if he's not screaming, this is the apocalypse, maybe we should all calm down. For sure. Absolutely. And let's not forget the Great Recession felt like that too. That didn't feel good at all. But, you know, eventually we recovered and we still are waiting to see what kinds of moves that our government will make that might help to stem what's going on. So there are a lot of unknowns, both good and bad. So people should just, yeah, don't panic, just stay calm and don't look at the balance. Yeah, exactly. I'm curious because, you know, Cashier, kind of the personal finance hub that you're a part of is for kind of younger people like millennials and stuff. Should younger investors act or do anything differently than, say, someone in their 50s or 60s kind of approaching retirement? Or is it kind

of the same advice? Not exactly. Older investors who are nearing retirement, if they're overweighted in stocks, that could be very difficult for their retirement plans. The other thing that's going on out there, it's hard to find a good conservative investment that yields pretty good returns because treasury yields have been tanking so much. So one of the things that I have heard is that older investors looking for those better conservative investments might want to look at five-year CDs because there's some online and in credit unions that are offering five-year CDs that have 2% or so yield. So that's more than what you're seeing with treasuries. Yeah. So it's one thing. I was talking to my mom yesterday and my parents

are nearing retirement age. And yeah, we had a conversation like, what are you doing? And it's a very different than to what I'm doing. Obviously, she has more cash in the bank, a bigger emergency fund, because they're about like five or six years before retirement. So it's a different situation than someone me with, I have a lot of time ahead, decades. So I can kind of do the opposite where I'm dumping a ton of money into equities because I have that long runway. And I personally believe I have faith in humanity that we're not all going to die and things will improve. I think that's the one thing. People sometimes can't focus so much on all the investing advice they've gotten for so long, which is like, this is the time to continue

investing. This is how you can actually build significant wealth is in these times of panic, basically, because they're so kind of afraid of, yeah, like you said, the health pandemic that's going on and all the kind of uncertainty around that. But for me, I like to be on the positive, not think that we're approaching a zombie apocalypse. I like to think that things will improve. We don't know when. So it's good to be prepared, which is why we talked about the emergency fund again and not taking unnecessary risks if you don't know what you're doing. But otherwise, again, don't panic because pretty much every piece of personal finance content I've seen in the past week has said the exact same thing.

Don't panic because you're never going to make a good decision if you're going off of those emotions. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And one of the things I wanted to also stress is that this is also a time for those of us who are blessed and have, you know, say money to put into equities or do have emergency savings and have much more financial security than some of our other neighbors and friends that we can step up as well during this time. This is also a social crisis. So I have a few tips for people. For example, if you pay for hired help, like nannies or caregivers or housekeepers, and you're not using their services at this time because of what's going on, still send them a paycheck. Still pay them. They need that money too. Their kids might be out of

school because of closures. They're probably seeing less money coming in. So that's one way you can help others during this time. Definitely check in with your elderly family and friends and neighbors to make sure that they are able to stock up. And then reach out to people in your network, whether people you work with, other parents at your kids' schools, neighbors. Again, not everybody has that emergency savings. So maybe just touch base with them to make sure that they're doing okay and offer assistance if you feel comfortable. Yeah, that's actually really a great idea for lots of people. I think a lot of people are thinking just about themselves and kind of getting into that kind of survivor mentality of like,

how do I stockpile all the toilet paper? I don't know. I've been seeing this all on Twitter. I experienced it when I was at the grocery store yesterday. I was literally at the grocery store at 11 PM. It's a 24 hour grocery store is usually dead. It was so busy. And of course, there was absolutely not one toilet paper roll in the whole place, which I personally don't understand. I would be more concerned about like maybe get some food, but whatever. Priorities are different, I suppose, than mine. But so like, that's the thing. It's important to obviously prepare yourself, but also see if you can lend a hand to your neighbors, your friends, your family and check up on them. Because I'm sure the reason I wanted to do this episode is because there's so much

panic going on. And I feel like because we're also like told to self-isolate, that doesn't mean that you can have to stop talking to people. I'd say this is a great time to like give your family or friends a phone call and see how they're doing. So you can maybe, you know, talk about what's happening and feel a little bit better about what's happening. You're not alone in this. Definitely. It's interesting how you have to self-isolate to help people by not spreading this disease because nobody knows who has it. So this is a very community-driven response. So there's the financial aspect to it as well. Yeah, we're all in this together. And if you can help out a little bit with opening your wallet, that helps somebody a little bit, relieves a little bit of worry and anxiety in this time.

It's going to make you feel good too. Exactly. And I'd also extend this to if you are going to a store or grocery store or whatever, be kind to those salespeople, those customer service frontline workers, because everyone I've talked to, they're like, I have never seen anything like this. And they're still being paid the same minimum wage or whatever. So be kind, be nice, do what you can to kind of ease their load. I can't imagine what they're going through. Oh my goodness. It must be so hard because they're also seeing so many people and they're probably worried

about their own health as well. Well, that's the thing. Like they actually are putting themselves at risk because there's so many people they are interacting with daily. And for me, I mean, maybe it depends on where you're living, but you know, I was at the grocery store again yesterday and you know, the people weren't wearing masks or like gloves or anything so I'm like hmm maybe we're not at that stage maybe I am just thinking about that movie I just

watched I'm panicked a little bit about all that kind of stuff but you know again it's just like be kind of conscientious and mindful of what's going on and and who's out there kind of you know really not being able to isolate because these people obviously can't stay home because this is their livelihood. They have to work outside the home. Yeah, exactly. It's rough. I didn't know if you wanted to talk any about travel either, because that's a huge deal. I would love to talk about travel because yes, that is another big consideration. Like for me personally, I have a couple trips booked in May and I'm like, I'm not sure. We'll see how things go. But I'm like, I don't know. I don't know if they'll happen. So what do you say to people that have maybe some trips booked? I know there's like some people that are, for me now, I'm just like, I don't think I would do that.

Like, you know, kind of taking advantage of some of these, you know, cheaper kind of all-inclusive trips to Mexico and stuff. Like for that, What are your thoughts on people taking the advantage, quote unquote, of like the cheap travel right now? Is it a good idea at all? To tell you the truth, we're not even reporting on it just because we think there's an ethical problem doing that. Not that I'm saying people shouldn't get deals. I'm just saying we don't want to capitalize on what's obviously going on. Remember, we don't know how long this is going to last when you're booking these deals. The travel restrictions are ever-changing. Like I said, my reporter has to update this story every single day, sometimes twice a day.

We are at warning three when it comes to travel to China, South Korea, Iran, and 26 countries in Europe, which means avoid non-essential travel. And that's for everybody. That's not just for the elderly or those who are more vulnerable and have chronic conditions. And then everywhere else right now is alert level two. So you're taking precautions. And again, older Americans and those most vulnerable should reconsider their travel plans. So that's, that's out there. And in your case, yeah, I've had, you know, many people call me and ask, what should I do about this trip coming up? Airlines and hotels are doing a lot in terms of offering cancellation of change fees and things like that, making rebooking a lot easier without being charged. So I would just call those providers to see what's available to you. You also, do you want to go on a trip if you're feeling worried and anxious about it? Are you really going to enjoy that trip? So think of it that way. What's the point of a vacation if you're worried about either getting sick or spreading a disease or getting stuck in an area and not being able to come back?

Yeah. Well, that's, I think, my concern. That's why I certainly don't have plans to do any, you know, international trips. It's so funny too. Well, it's not funny, but it's just like, wow, good timing, I guess, that we, me and my husband, literally were planning a trip to Italy in June. We didn't buy the tickets. We were still like mulling it over, like, that we, me and my husband literally were planning a trip to Italy in June. We didn't buy the tickets. We were still like mulling it over, like, should we, shouldn't we? And then this all happened. We're like, good thing we didn't buy those tickets because it was going to be like through my credit card that had points. And I don't know if they would have been refundable. So that happened. But otherwise, like it's, it's one of those things, like you said,

do you actually want to travel right now? Like, is this actually a good idea? Maybe see how things kind of play out. A lot of people, like you said, there's all these kind of travel restrictions popping up of, you know, don't do any unnecessary travel. And I think that's, if we're also being told to kind of self-isolate and work from home, maybe right now isn't the best time to go to Mexico for an all-inclusive vacation. Exactly. Make it a staycation. Yeah, have a staycation, which is funny because it's definitely interesting from my perspective. I mean, I already work from home, so this doesn't change too much in my day-to-day. However, it's interesting seeing a lot of other people that do work in offices that are now working

from home. And I think a lot of people are actually kind of hopeful that this may be, you know, turn into something when this is all over that they still have the opportunity to work from home. Because I know this has been something that especially younger people, it's like this is what they want. But a lot of maybe more, you know, corporate companies don't like their, you know, employees working from home. And now they kind of have no choice. We'll see what happens with all that. Oh, yeah. I think that's an excellent point. And just, you know, this is really stress testing companies capabilities when it comes to how many people can work from home and we don't lose productivity. And if they see, oh, look, we sent everybody home and we still

did pretty good. I think they'll definitely be a lot more open to the, that arrangement. Exactly. So before I let you go, what else, like, I know no one has a crystal ball, but because you have been reporting on lots of different things for a very long time, what do you kind of see could potentially happen in the future or just some things that people should think about? I know. Big question. I think people need to just have a plan if this lasts longer than they think. I think people have in their heads like maybe two weeks. There's going to be a lot of disruption. And so when you stock up, maybe you're like, okay, how much do I stock up on? And then what's my plan of going back to stock up? There's just so many moving parts. If things go longer and you see more problems in the stock market, I think you should just really just tune it out.

I think that the stock market can be a distraction from what's the real problem right now. So the stock market is a symptom of what's going on. And I think you might see... I wish I knew. Yeah. I mean, that's the truth. It's like, who knows? We don't know. But I think, yeah, a key takeaway, like you mentioned, is be prepared. I think a lot of people, and I used to be like this like two weeks ago, I'm like, I'm not worried about it. And now I'm like, okay, I'm a little bit more cautious. I'm a little bit more in tune with what's happening. I think it's important just to have a plan and be prepared, like you said, and not panic at the same time. But I feel like those

kind of go hand in hand. If you're prepared, you'll panic less. Oh yeah, for sure. You would. I mean, I felt better after I already, after I stocked up on my food. Um, my parents are actually on a driving trip and they're coming back as fast as they can. And so I went and bought food for them, um, while they were gone. Um, so just doing those things where you take a step forward and getting better prepared will ease your anxiety a lot. And stay in touch with people, you know. At least we have social media and we can pick up the phone. I know that hasn't been done in a long time, but you can do that. So you don't feel as isolated either. Exactly. Exactly. You're not in this alone. So you don't feel as isolated either. Exactly. Exactly. You're not in this alone. Hopefully you feel a little less alone from listening to us chat on this podcast, but yeah, don't, you can self isolate, but don't

not talk to people because believe me, you will go crazy if you just read headlines or read Twitter by yourself in isolation. Yeah. Yeah. Put down Twitter. Yeah. Twitter is no good. Every day, it's just cancel everything or pandemic or it's never good news. Look for some nice, upbeat movies to watch. Yes, exactly. Not contagion. Yeah. Maybe don't watch that movie. Watch something a little bit more upbeat. Well, thank you, Jana, so much for taking the time out of your busy day to chat with me about what's going on. I really appreciate it. Where can they find more information about you and check out Caché? Well, Caché is at caché.com. It's C-A-S-H-A-Y.com. And so we have

some stories that are coronavirus related there. And just, you know, like I said, educational tools for your everyday finances. You can also keep up with us on Yahoo Finance. There's a personal finance hub. And we are writing every day many things, most of it coronavirus right now. But we also like to keep up on all trends that have to do with personal finance. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Thank you. And, you know, stay safe and be well. And that was episode 232 of the podcast with the wonderful Jana Heron. Make sure to check out her articles and just the wonderful resources

available to you for free on Yahoo Finance's website. Also check out cachet.com. Again, she mentioned there's a ton of great resources and articles on there as well. Make sure to check her out. Also on Twitter, follow her at Jana Heron. Her last name is H-E-R-R-O-N. And make sure to just take some of our advice. Check out the show notes. I've written down a lot of the most important things that we talked about. Some of the important tips you just need to be like, what did you say? What should I do? What are some actual items I should be doing?

Check that out at jessicamorehouse.com slash 232 for that information. I have a lot more things to share with you. So do not go away. I just have a few words to share about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by Ufile. There are only two undeniable truths in life, and one of them is we've all got to pay taxes. So why not take the pain out of it and join the over 1 million Canadians who choose to use Ufile to get their taxes filed online with ease. To name a few of Ufile's most notable features,

they've got Autofill My Return, in which you can automatically download information from your tax slips directly from the CRA to save you time and avoid mistakes. They also have Carry Forwards, in which you can import your previous year's information and pick up right where you left off. They also offer free telephone and email support

if you need help or have a question. And since they are CRA net file certified, when you file your return with them, you can get your tax refund in as few as eight days. To learn more and to get your taxes filed sooner so you can enjoy that tax refund, visit ufile.ca. And to get a special 15% off, make sure to use code Mo Money. Once again, that is ufile.ca and make sure to use code Mo Money to get 15% off. Okay, so first and foremost, even though a bunch of craziness is going on right now, and I'm sure it's going to continue for a while. I don't know. I'm recording this kind of extra outro, whatever. I'm recording this outro on Sunday, March 15th. And I just feel like I need to tell you dates because everything changes day by day. So that's just

what's going on. But tomorrow, which will be Thursday, I will be releasing another bonus episode because guess what? Even though we're going through all this nonsense, it's tax season. So we need to talk about taxes. So I have Jerry from YouFile. You may remember him from the first season of my show. He was on episode 44 back in 2016. Crazy. He is joining me back on the show to talk about taxes, some important tax credits you need to know about, some important things you need to know before you file your 2019 taxes. Also, I've got a special promo code, as you heard in the little spot for you file. If you are ready to get going, make sure to obviously use my promo code MoMoney to save 15% off with you file. But anyways, join me tomorrow to learn more about taxes and not nothing. Well,

we do actually, I think we do mention the pandemic a little bit, but join me tomorrow so you can learn about taxes and for a little 30, 40 minutes, actually, I think it's a longer episode than that. You will not have to think about what's going on. You can just think about taxes. Doesn't that sound nice? Doesn't that sound nice compared to what's going on? Also, I just want to let you know, if you feel kind of like isolated, if you feel like you're going through it, I highly recommend that you join me in my free Facebook group. There's a lot of amazing people in there. We have been chatting. We've been supporting each other, getting through this, a lot of great questions about what should I do in this circumstance or that circumstance. So make

sure to check that out at facebook.com slash groups slash money life balance. Also, if you want to stay in the loop of all the things that I've got going on, all the new content, of course, I'm going to be making a lot more kind of news related or timely content just because of what's going on right now. So make sure to sign up to my email newsletter, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe. Also, if you are interested in figuring out what should I do with my investments, I've been getting so many DMs and messages and emails and questions. And the thing is, I can't just tell you, hey, this is what you should invest in, or this is, this robo-advisor is better than one. I can't, like, that's just,

your questions are amazing, but there's so much more you need to know, quite honestly, before you can make those decisions with confidence and the right knowledge. So you're making the right decisions for yourself. So that is why I built my investing foundations for Canadians on Leiden course. It is completely online. It is on demand. You can do whenever you want. Check out some of the reviews from past students. But if you do want to start investing or if you want to feel better about what you're doing with investing or switch things or whatever, you need to know the basics. So one way you can do that is to sign up to my investing foundations for Canadians course. There's a link in the show notes, but also you can just check out more information about it at JessicaMorehouse.com slash investing foundations. Okay. That is it for me. I

will be back here tomorrow with Jerry talking taxes. And of course I will be back Friday as well with another money minute episode. Thank you so much for listening and supporting the Mo Money podcast. I really, really appreciate it. And also for anyone who's listening from like last week, when I, I think the past couple of weeks I did like, Hey, if anyone wants to hang out with me in Edmonton, it comes, I'm going to be speaking there. Unfortunately, obviously that was canceled. I am no longer going to Edmonton or anywhere ever. I am living in my house and never leaving. So hopefully I'll be able to hang out with you. New friends in Edmonton. Again, once everything is, you know, good again. Hopefully that won't be that long from now, but who's to say? Who knows? Who knows what's going on? Anyways, stay safe.

Don't panic. Be prepared and just know that you're not going through this alone. We're all going through this. So yeah. Okay. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Have a good rest of your day. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.