More Money Podcast - 239 Financial Relief for Canadians - Preet Banerjee, Personal Finance Commentator & Author of "Stop Over-Thinking Your Money"

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

Many Canadians are feeling the financial effects of the pandemic and as a response the federal government as launched several financial relief programs to help out. To explain what the different programs are and how eligibility works, I’ve got personal finance expert and author Preet Banerjee finally back on the show! If you’re a longtime listener of the Mo’ Money Podcast, then you’ll remember that Preet was one of my first ever guests on episode 17 in which he talked about his book Stop Over-Thinking Your Money, and made sure I got life insurance and a will after our recording (it works because I did!). For full episode show notes, visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/239 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the Momany Podcast. This is episode 239 and I am your host, Jessica Morehouse. Welcome back to the show. I feel like I've been having a lot of guests on and I still have some more guests coming up who have been on the show before, but honestly, like years before. So if you're new, then this is new to you, new guest to you. But if you're a longtime listener, hey, thanks for staying around for like almost five years. We're almost at the five-year anniversary of the Mo Money Podcast, which is so exciting. But I wanted to have my pal Preet Banerjee on the show in case you don't know Preet. You haven't listened to episode 17 back in 2015.

He is a very well-known keynote speaker. He's a management consultant. He's a personal finance commentator, and he's also the author of one of my all-time favorite personal finance books, Stop Overthinking Your Money. The last time I had him on the show, he was one of my first ever guests. He was on episode 17, September 8th, 2015 is when that aired. Yeah, a long time ago. And we kind of mentioned it in the show too. When I originally started the podcast, my idea was, oh, I'll just have people over in person. It sounds better, better quality and stuff like that. And yes, when I didn't mess it up, because sometimes I was a technophobe. But he actually came to my old crummy apartment and

was so nice. And we did it live. And it's a great episode. Definitely check it out. Episode 17. Go to jessicamorehouse.com slash 17 to check that episode out. But I have him on this show because a lot has happened since 2015. And also a lot is happening right now. We're still in the middle of this pandemic. And a lot of relief programs in Canada have been created.

And he's been creating so much amazing content, especially videos on his YouTube channel about the different relief programs. So we are going to dive deep into the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, CERB, but no one else calls it CERB. So C-E-R-B, if you will. The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, It could be CECRA or just C-E-C-R-A. No one calls it CECRA. I'm sure no one calls it CECRA. The Canada Emergency Student Benefit, which is very new, C-E-S-B. I think it's just going to be called C-E-S-B. And then lastly, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, C-E-W-S. Q's, C-U's. No one's going to call it that. It's just C-E-W-S, Q's, C's, no one's going to call it that, so C-E-W-S. I always wanted to make these things happen. I really wanted a curb to happen and it never happened, just like fetch, right? Fetch is not going to happen. Don't make it happen. So it is what it is. So we're going

to dive deep into what is going on with all these things, how you can potentially benefit. And just like we just need someone who knows their stuff to really break this stuff down. Because if you've been reading the news as much as me and been on the government website, sometimes you just need someone like Preet to break it down for you really easy. So before I get to this interview with Preet, I just want to share a few words about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by PolicyMe. Unsurprisingly, there has been a big spike in people getting life insurance policies recently. And although being in the middle of a pandemic isn't great, one silver lining is that a ton

of Canadians are taking this as an opportunity to become more financially prepared for the future. So, what about you? Do you have life insurance? If you're single with no dependents or have built up enough savings to provide a sizable safety net on your own, then you actually don't need any. But if you do have dependents

and or don't have enough assets or savings to take care of them when you're gone, then this is me telling you don't wait a minute longer to protect yourself and your family. Luckily, since most of us are still self-isolating at home, you don't have to go anywhere to get an insurance policy if you use PolicyMe. They are a completely digital life insurance broker who can help you find out what kind of policy you need, compare quotes from Canada's top insurance carriers, and apply for an insurance policy online in under 10 minutes. To learn more and to find out

the latest info about getting life insurance during these uncertain times, visit policyme.com slash mo money. Once again, visit them at policyme.com slash mo money. Thank you so much for being on the podcast again, Preet. I thought I had you on the show twice, but apparently it really was only that one time. Was it only the one time? Yeah. I just resonated with you. You keep hearing that voice in the back of your mind.

Hey, did you get your estate plan in order? Did you? I did. Yes, I did. I got life insurance. I have a will. Everything is good. Don't you worry.

And ever since then, I've been telling everybody to do the exact same thing and to pick up your book, because it really is such a great book that goes... It's the only book still that I found that really goes in depth about different types of insurance and life insurance. It's a timeless classic. It's a classic. I love your book. It's so good. I keep on recommending it. So it's so great. But anyway, since that time, which was so many years ago that I made you come to my really sketchy apartment, thank you for coming over. I can't believe I made you do that. Oh, that's right. You've bought a house now since then, right?

Townhouse. But yeah. Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure. Yeah. So yeah, now we've definitely upgraded. But now we can do this virtually. Because I realize, you know, it's very inconvenient to get people to come over to my house. So thanks for doing that back in the day. That was very nice of you. Yeah, no problem. My pleasure. Yeah. So a lot of things have happened since then.

It's been several years. You're killing it, as always. And you're taking this time during the pandemic to really educate people, which I really appreciate. Putting out so many amazing videos explaining what the heck is going on in our country and also what's going on with all these new financial assistant programs that keep on popping up every single day. And it's hard to keep up with everything. So appreciate you doing that. I love your videos. And well, I've always loved your videos because you've always been putting out some really great videos on everything. But I appreciate this because there's so much confusing. I've been getting so many questions about all these different financial assistance programs and some of the

situations I'm hearing. I'm like, like, it seems pretty clear in my view, especially with the curb or CERB or whatever you want to call it. Like for me, I'm like, the guidelines look pretty, I'm like, I get it. I think I know who qualifies and doesn't qualify, but I've been getting some of the most random situational questions. I'm like, I don't know. What are some of the most typical questions you've been getting about some of these financial assistance questions? We'll just kind of start like that. Yeah. I mean, it's weird. This has been going on for, I don't know, six weeks, but it feels like six months. And it's amazing how fast things change, including all the information.

And one thing that I think helps to sort of frame the situation as to why there's so many questions is that the speed and size of these programs are unprecedented. And so getting them out there, you don't have the luxury of, you know, taking a scalpel and really sort of fine tuning these programs. You have to take a saw and just get it done. And that means that there's a lot of people who fall through the cracks. There's also the process of actually enacting legislation. So when you hear about these proposals, oftentimes they start as just that proposals. And then to actually become a bill that's passed it's quite a rigmarole and it has to pass three readings in the house of commons then three readings in the

senate and then has to receive royal assent that's normally a process that takes you know weeks and weeks and months and months and in some cases they're getting this done in one day and um yeah there's a lot of legislation that changes once it goes through these readings and it's debated by parliamentarians. So what starts out as a proposal can actually end up being a little bit different by the time it's actually enacted. And that's been one of the reasons why there's been so many questions and confusions and lack of clarity because part of the strategy is float an idea out there and let's see what the feedback is from the business community individuals and see where all the things are that we've missed that need to be addressed. And then let's address them before I actually pass the bill. So the first thing that was kind of announced was that Canada emergency response benefit, the curb or serve, depending on, you know, whatever you like to, yeah, it's not sort of like written down somewhere. Here's the official pronunciation of this acronym. So that started. And actually,

before that, there was two separate measures that never saw the light of day and they got kind of amalgamated into this one comprehensive CERB benefit. So that was a source of confusion. And a lot of the questions that I've been getting have been surrounding, do you have the choice between employment insurance and the CERB? And there's some situations where the CERB pays a lot more than what you would have been entitled to with EI. But there are some cases where if you had the maximum benefit for employment insurance, the CERB paid a little bit less, almost $300 a month less. And so a lot of people thought, well, maybe I can just choose which one I want. And then depending on whether you were eligible for EI or not eligible for EI,

there was a slightly different portal to access and apply for those benefits. And that led to a situation where people applied twice by mistake, an honest mistake. They weren't trying to be devious. And they ended up with double payments on the first day that they got their direct deposit. So yeah, it's been just a lot of confusion about just the details of these programs. What I've actually been appreciating, because I made a video on it a little while ago, and it was before, it was just a day after people could start applying for it, and so many changes have happened since then.

But a lot of the questions are really just about, am I eligible? And honestly, it's kind of nice to see so many Canadians being like, I want to make sure I'm doing it right. I feel like other people would be like, well, give me that money. But they're just like, I just don't want to get in trouble. Like that's the most Canadian thing I've ever heard of. It's true.

And a lot of this is sort of based on the honor system, because what they're doing is they're asking you to attest that you meet the eligibility criteria. So they're not actually doing the checks right now. But what that means is that they are going to do it down the road. And I have a feeling for especially the businesses, some of these support measures for businesses are going to be scrutinized a lot more heavily because there's a lot more money involved on a case by case basis. In some cases, some companies are going to get hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases, millions. And so they're going to really check those more closely. And it looks like there'll be penalties,

potentially fines for businesses, but for individuals, they're basically saying, listen, if we find out that you weren't in fact eligible, then you're just going to have to pay it back. But it doesn't look like there'll be any fees or penalties, assuming that there's nothing like, you know, grossly deviant about, you know, the behavior of people, which again, I don't think is the case. No, no, exactly. So that's what I've been telling people. It's like, if you aren't sure if you're eligible, just be prepared that you may have to pay it back at some point, maybe like when you file your taxes or something, we, we have no idea, but there's a lot of people too. They're like, ah, I got a, you know, double payment or

accidentally. And how do I pay it back? And there's literally no way to cancel it or pay it back right now that I can find. There you can actually, there's a couple of things you can do. So if you got a physical check, you can actually mail it back. There you go. And apparently on May, I think it's May 11th, there's going to be a function inside either your Service Candidate account or your MyCRA account where you can elect to be a function inside either your service candidate account or your my CRA account where you can elect to make a repayment and have it set up online. Right now, if you've got direct

deposit and you wanted to send back an overpayment and you know it was an overpayment, then there is a process. I forget the link, but it'll tell you what to put on the check. And you, of course, have to make sure that it's because you were making a repayment of the CRB and whatnot. So there is a process right now. But again, if you wait just a week or two, there's probably going to be an online process to make it a little bit more easy. Yeah, that sounds like a way better situation. So let's talk a little bit about eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. It has changed since it first launched to make it a little bit more accessible to people.

Do you want to kind of break down some of the key criteria for that benefit so people just have an idea? But what I also tell people is there is a section on the government's website where it's like questions and answers. Oh, my gosh, go to that because there's so many different situations that they answer your questions. Yeah, absolutely. So the benefit itself is $2,000 per four-week period, which is slightly different than per month. But that is kind of important when it comes to budgeting, especially if you're really on the edge. That being said, there are currently, I think, seven eligibility periods. You can qualify for up to four. And that's what it is now. Those could change if there's a second wave or what have you, who knows, right? All this might go out the window.

But as it stands right now, so it's $2,000 per four-week period for up to four of those periods, so up to $8,000 for the CERB. And now to be eligible for that, there's a couple of things that are required. In terms of age, there's no maximum age, but there is a minimum age of 15 in order to be what's called a quote unquote worker. income, either in the calendar year 2019 or the 12 months immediately preceding when you apply for the CERB. So there's a little bit of flexibility there. You have to have stopped working as a result of COVID-19. So there's a couple of ways that that can happen. That does not require that you get laid off. It doesn't require that you could be let go from your job. It may be that your employer doesn't have the money to pay you. So if you're not getting an income, even though you were kind of affected, but not let go officially, you would qualify. If you have to stay home because you are either sick or you're

under quarantine or you're taking care of someone, then you qualify. If you have to step away from work to take care of kids because daycares and schools are not open, then you qualify as well. So there's quite a bit of latitude as to who is covered. And those are kind of the main criteria. Yeah, no, those are great. Some of the situations and questions I've been seeing a lot of is people that are still working, but don't, because one of the criteria that makes you ineligible is you cannot quit your job. You cannot voluntarily leave your job. And unfortunately, it seems like a lot of people are like, I don't feel safe in my job. Or there's someone at home

who I don't want to infect. If I get the virus, can I, you know, get the CERB? And honestly, from what I see, I don't know if lots of those people qualify. Yeah. One, one question that I've been getting from a few people is, um, what if my employer says I have to come to work, but they are following a foul of the rules. They're supposed to have closed down. They're not supposed to do that, or they're providing an unsafe work environment. So this is where it gets really tricky. So what I've seen some people do is obviously contact an employment lawyer and they would suggest, okay, there's a process where you need to follow in order to follow the appropriate steps. First step is probably contact your employer and say, hey, listen, I don't think it's safe. Can I either work from home or can I take a leave? And they may agree to that. If they're being combative and

they say, nope, you got to come in and work or whatever, then there's actually a process where you basically make an official complaint. Someone has to come in eventually from the government to do an assessment to see if they're violating the workplace standards and whatnot. But all of that, you know, could take a long period of time. And so what I've been hearing people doing is they're saying, all right, well, I'm going to do what I can do to ensure that, you know, if they are not following the rules, I don't have the time to wait. I'm just going to stay home and apply for the CERB and they're getting their payments. The reconciliation comes later. And this is one of the issues of not having everything spelled out for every eventuality in every

situation is there's a lot of uncertainty. So some of them are just taking the approach that, okay, well, I'll keep in mind that I might have to pay this back. But in terms of wanting to be away from an environment, which I think is unsafe, I think I've taken the appropriate measures. I think I should be entitled to it. But they're hedging their bets by just sort of keeping in mind that they might have to pay that back down the road. So yeah, it's tough. It is really tough. I want to move on to a new benefit that I think is great because a lot of people that were falling through the cracks were students, which, you know, this is at the beginning of this is kind of reminded me of when I graduated

university. I'm like, you know, we were in 2009, not a great time, but it's different in that I was still able to find some work, not the work that I wanted, but it's like, if I wanted to get just a, you know, part-time job at a store somewhere, I could get that. You can't really do that right now because everyone is shut down. So students are really feeling it in a different way. But so now there's the Canada Emergency Student Benefit. It's not available yet as of the recording of the state, April 30th, but it will be. And I know there's already, you made a video this morning about some possible things. Do you want to kind of explain what this Canada Emergency Student Benefit looks like? Yeah. So perfect example of the legislative process.

So this started as a proposal, I think it was last week, and it has passed the third reading in the House of Commons as of last night. So they put out the press release at, I think, like 7.30 at night. And so now it has to go to the Senate, but the Senate doesn't sit again until tomorrow. Now, it seems that it is likely at this point that all the debate has taken place, and it's just a formality to get it passed through the Senate. So what's changed versus the original announcement? The original announcement was it would be a benefit of $1,250 per month for post-secondary students or eligible students for up to four months.

And there was an additional benefit for students with dependents. So if you had a kid, for example, or students with disabilities, they would have originally received $500 more per month. So it would have been $1,750 per month. Now, what they have changed since it's gone through the House of Commons is that additional benefit for students with dependents or students with disabilities will now be $2,000 per month. So it's a little bit more, but the base benefit is still $1,250 per month. So that's the main change. The clarifications that they've also provided, one of the biggest questions I got was, what about high school students who just graduated and are going to be post-secondary schools or were going to be post-secondary students in the fall?

Yes, they do get covered with this criteria that they have now clarified. So if you had graduated high school and you were intending on enrolling in post-secondary school in the fall, you would be eligible to apply for this CESB. So what's interesting is that the Senate sits tomorrow, May 1st. May is the first month that you're eligible for it. So once they pass the legislation, then they have to set up the portal. So you're going to probably apply a little bit after the fact and get it paid retroactively. And where this addresses people who fell through the cracks is there are a number of students who didn't meet the income criteria of the CERB. Or initially, there were some people who had seasonal employment. And technically, with the CERB, you were supposed to have stopped

working as a result of COVID-19. So if you had a summer job lined up that didn't start by the time it was canceled, you didn't technically stop. So you got caught in this little bind there. So they've made adjustments to that for the CERB, but then you still have students who didn't meet the income requirements. So this CESB is supposed to address a lot of those situations. So one of the biggest questions I get is, can you get both the CERB and the student benefit? And the answer is no. The CESB is only for those who are not eligible for the CERB. Exactly. There's no double dip in here. One question I've been seeing a lot too, and I think I even got this question from my mom because she works in a high school with a lot of international students. Does this cover international students? From what I've seen, probably not. No. So for the CESB, I took a look at the bill, the actual text of the bill, and it says that you have to be a Canadian citizen. So that would preclude international students for the time being. However, the wording of the bill does provide flexibility for changes in what they call prescribed information. So prescribed

information is things that are actually set out elsewhere. And so some of these criteria can still change. So the wording of the bill, as far as I can understand, I'm no lawyer and no constitutional lawyer by any stretch of the imagination. They've worded it such that they have the ability to have more qualifying periods down the road. And I think they're thinking, you know, if there is a second wave or if this lasts longer than we think, then maybe three or four months isn't enough, right? So they're making some changes in the text of these bills now to account for the fact that they just don't know exactly how this is going to pan out. Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm personally impressed how fast they were able to set everything up, especially looking at what's going on in the States.

Obviously, different populations, we have a much smaller country, but I'm kind of like, I'm glad that these things are in place and they kind of happen so quickly because this whole situation has happened very quickly. I mean, it's April 30th, and I feel like at the end of February, I was like, eh, it's not so bad. And I'm like, oh my gosh, things escalated quickly. It feels like March 60th. I know. That's what it feels like. It's just, it's wild that like in February, I was still planning, I was supposed to go on a trip to New York. I'd be in New York

right now for a trip. And I was like, oh, I might still go. That didn't happen, obviously. Oh my gosh. So, so anyways, thanks for clarifying that. I think that's going to be helpful. I think this is also just like a reminder to, because these things are updating, I feel like daily what I do, how do you keep in the loop with all of these new changes? For me, because I'm a millennial, I go on Twitter and I'm like, what's going on Twitter? And see what's going on. And typically I feel like lots of the Trudeau's like announcements, like the videos or the live streams are on Twitter now, which is actually helpful. How do you stay in the loop of all this kind of stuff? Yes. So the daily press

briefings by the prime minister happen at 1115, pretty much every single day without fail. And so right around that time, they will kind of float out, all right, here's what we're going to talk about or whatever. And so some of the parliamentary reporters are the ones that I pay the most attention to because they're there in the press gallery or remotely and they are following it and they're posting live updates. So yeah, so generally the parliamentary reporters are the ones that I follow most closely when the 1115 daily press briefings are coming out because they've got the journalism background, they're very accurate, they choose their words very carefully because one of the problems is when you take a look at all the replies to the parliamentary reporters, there's so much misinformation that gets added to the conversation by people who are not parsing the texts clearly or concisely. So precision is very, very important when it comes to these measures.

And it's so easy for this to have like a big broken telephone game going on. So I see so much misinformation out there. And, you know, people, they mean well, they don't mean to inject misinformation, but they do. And so, yeah, so I stick to the parliamentary reporters. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. I'm not looking at like the tweeters of whoever. I always try to find credible sources, like the CRA's Twitter. Such an exciting Twitter account. Yeah.

Department of Finance is good. The official backgrounders that they put out are, you know, as good as you can get. And then the director of communications of the prime minister's office. He's pretty good at replying to, replying to even lowly people like myself. Well, that's helpful. Okay, so there's two other kind of financial programs that I want to kind of get into that I feel like haven't, at least for me, I feel like gotten a lot of attention compared to CERB and CESB. So there's the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance. Now this is actually interesting to me because

my husband rents a studio and the person who, or he like sublets it and then the owner or the guy who runs it or whatever, he's renting it. And so basically no one's allowed to go in the studio because we all have to

be social distancing. So this is like really effective. He's paying rent for something he can't go to. And so it looks like they're going to be able to take advantage of this, which is great, saving so much money. But do you want to kind of explain what is this Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance, CACRA, as I like to call it? I'll explain what it is, and then I will tell you how it's not being as well received as you might think by the business community. Yeah. So here's what it is.

At the end of the day, what it's supposed to do is reduce the rent that a small business tenant pays by 75%, which sounds amazing, right? Having your rent reduced by 75% so you're only paying one quarter of what you would be. So that sounds great. And the mechanics of how it works, it's a three-way agreement. The landlord basically has to apply for the program. And the way it works is they apply, the government will pay basically 50% of the rent. The landlord has to agree to reduce the rent by 25%. So the landlord gets 25% less. They get 25% of the rent from the tenant. So the tenant pays 75% less. They only pay 25% of what they normally pay. The government essentially is paying the 50% balance and the landlord is eating 25%. So they have to agree to that. And the qualification criteria is that the small business had to have suffered a revenue loss of 70% or more. So that invalidates a number of businesses who were very eager about this rent relief. And it's also subject to the landlords

applying. So ultimately, it looks like the landlords have the decision. And there was a poll that I just saw this morning that surveyed a bunch of small business tenants. And they said, have you met the criteria for 70% drop? And they're like, not quite. So they're invalidated. And then they asked, what do you think about your landlord? Are they going to apply for the program? And I forget the percentage, but a not insignificant number said, no way are they applying. And then a large number said, I am not sure if they're going to apply. So it's one thing to meet the criteria. It's another thing to actually get access to the program if it's dependent on someone else. And so, you know, this is kind of like a cynical way of thinking of things.

But if you are a landlord and you want to pay a little bit less rent, maybe you just want to negotiate your own agreement where it gets paid back later. In this case, you're just getting a reduction for a certain period of time and you're sort of eating it. Those 50% loans from the government, by the way, are forgivable. That's one of the key factors as well. And you also have to agree to not evicting your tenant during the time that this agreement is in place. So it sounds great. And I think that the businesses that can take advantage of it are going to be happy. But the snafu that these businesses fell into is, as you described, if you are mandated not to be open and you still have to pay rent, that rubs people the wrong way. So they feel like they're really stuck in this bad situation.

So it remains to be seen how many people will actually be able to take advantage of this program. Again, I think it was a poll from the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses. They surveyed a number of their members, and it was a surprisingly low number of people, small businesses, who think that they'd actually be able to take advantage of that. Okay. So it exists, and it may work for some people, but not for a lot of people. Well, hopefully they also maybe update that or create something new that does kind of help the people that aren't applicable to this program. And the last one is the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy.

Q's, Sue's, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, this is probably one of the biggest programs or supports that have been introduced by the government. The total bill is, I think it's $847 per week per employee if they're eligible. So there's a couple of tests, eligibility tests in order to be eligible for this program. And that is a revenue drop as well. And so the way it works is you need to have seen a 15% drop in revenues in the month of March, and then 30% for April and May. It's a bit technical in how it works. If you qualify for one period, you automatically qualify for the second period. So it's possible that you only qualify for the revenue drop in one month, but you get two months worth of wage subsidy. There's also a varying amount of subsidy depending on the type of employee that the wage subsidy is going to.

So if it's an existing employee, you can actually get 100% of their wage subsidized up to 75% of what they were making before, there's no requirement that they actually be working. So you can actually rehire them, put them on paid leave, and just give them that money. And in fact, if you do that, there's an extra incentive in that the employer-funded contributions to like EI and CPP are also 100% refunded to the business. So it's almost like they're saying, listen, just rehire these people, give them a little bit more than what they would have got on the CERB, and we'll cover the EI and CPP contributions you would have been on the hook for. So it's an amazing program.

And again, there's different eligibility criteria. If you are, for example, a business owner and you think, oh, you know what, I'm going to use this subsidy to hire my cousin or my kid or whatever. You can't necessarily do that. There's some pretty strict criteria around it, but it's a massive program. Yeah. No, it sounds good. And one of the things I've been seeing online too is I think people that don't maybe understand the program too much, especially employees, are like, oh, I don't want to get my wages, you know, subsidy, or I don't want to continue working. I want to be just getting this benefit from the CERB. But it sounds like this might actually be better, potentially. You may be able to make a little bit more and still not work, potentially, if your employer's

like, no, I'm just going to put you on paid leave. Yeah, absolutely. So with the CERB, you're getting effectively $500 per week. That's taxable. If you're to get this wage subsidy to the employer who then passes it on to you, you get up to $847 per week, plus whatever they wanted to pay you on top of that out of their own pocket. So that's a substantial increase versus what you would have gotten on the CERB. And if you have an employer that says, yeah, I'm going to put you on paid leave, then absolutely you'd be better off.

Well, wow. That's, I think, a lot of helpful information. Obviously, there's more information on the Canada.ca website that I highly recommend people just look more into. But, of course, your YouTube channel is also a great resource because you're putting out so many great videos. And, of course, you have your amazing book, Stop Overthinking Your Money. When are you coming out with another book? It's been a while. It has been a while.

You know, I am due. I have to, God, I got this pesky dissertation for school I'm trying to finish. Still? Like, I feel like last time I talked to you, maybe it wasn't that long ago. No, no, it probably was. I've been procrastinating quite a bit.

So when that's done, because that'll probably be, I don't know, 60 or 75,000 words. Oh my gosh. Which is like a book quite a bit. So when that's done, because that'll probably be, I don't know, 60 or 75,000 words. Oh my gosh. Which is like a book and a half. And then after that, I think I'll sit down and write a book or maybe I'll take a break. I don't know. Maybe take a break before your next book, but I'm excited for whenever that next book is going to come out because I really liked your first one. Thank you. Yeah. No. So before I let you go, is there anything else you want to share with any listeners that have been interested in some of these financial programs or might have a question for you? What are some of the things that you want to make sure people know before I let you go? I mean, it's important to keep on top

of the news. So, you know, keep listening to your podcast for updates. If they have questions, you know, Twitter, YouTube and what have you. I don't really have. I'm horrible at self-promotion. So I'll just do it for you. Follow Preet. He's the best. Thanks, Jess. You're welcome. You're welcome. Well, thanks so much for taking the time to join me again. I'll have you back on once you finish that second book, whenever that happens. A couple years. A couple years. A couple years.

I'll give you a couple years. Okay. And I'll bug you. Well, thanks so much again. And yeah, hopefully see you soon. And I'll be following you on the Twitter and the YouTube. Thank you. And that was episode 239 of the Momenty Podcast.

Make sure to check out the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 239. Also, check out Preet. Follow him. You can find him at Preet Banerjee on Instagram and Twitter. You can find more information about him on his website, PreetBanerjee.com. Make sure to grab a copy of his book that I couldn't stop talking about. Still a huge fan all these years later since he put it out. It's called Stop Overthinking Your Money. It is so, so good. It is just so good. Also, take Preet's advice and make sure that, especially right now during this crazy time,

you are protected and you have life insurance, you have an estate plan. Make that a priority in your life. I have a few things that I'd like to share with you. So stick around. I just have a few words that I would love to share about this episode's wonderful sponsor. This episode of the Momoney podcast is supported by Policy Me. We're experiencing some uncertain times. I hope you're doing okay during these uncertain times. I can't wait until these uncertain times are over. Any of these phrases sound familiar? Because I swear I hear uncertain times at least five times per day, which doesn't help trying to stay calm and not feel like everything is out of your control. Listen, I know we're in some uncertain times, there it is again, but the truth is there are some things we can control. And right now is actually the best time to take a good look

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and won't pressure you into buying anything. If you aren't sure whether or not life insurance is right for you, take their free 5-minute life insurance checkup to find out how much coverage you need or don't need. To learn more and find out the latest info about getting life insurance during these uncertain times, visit PolicyMe.com slash Mo Money. Once again, check them out at PolicyMe.com slash Mo Money. Okay, so the first thing I'd like to share in case you do not know, if you're not on my email list, which you should be, JessicaMorehouse.com slash subscribe, get on the list. Because I sent out now it's like every two weeks because it's just, I blame the pandemic, but really probably just laziness. But I recently

shared in one of my newsletters. And also if you're subscribed to my YouTube channel, you also already know this, but I have updated my free budget spreadsheet and made a full video tutorial on how to use it. So you can check that out. Actually, if you just go jessicamorehouse.com slash budget, you can find it there, download it, watch the tutorial. But if you are like, I need to get my act together, I need to get my money together. And you want to start by making yourself a good old budget, start tracking your spending and your net worth. I've got a spreadsheet that includes all of it in one beautiful place. And I think it'll be really helpful. I've honestly been like tweaking this thing for years. I feel like I've just got the, you know, I found out the

right kind of way to put it all together. I think it's personally, I feel like it's the best it's ever been. It's one of, I think personally, personally, if I'm going to be honest, the best budget spreadsheet that you can download for free. So just check it out. It's also in my free resource library on my website that you can check out, which I should mention, I have a free resource library on my website that you can check out, jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe. If you go to the main website, jessicamorehouse.com, you can find information on the homepage about there, make an account. You can download all my freebies for free by making an account. What else do I have to share for free with, you know, by making an account. What else do I have to share with you? Also, I've been getting a lot more people entering

my Facebook group. So great because this is a great time to, you know, make an online or be part of an online community because we cannot physically hang out together, which makes me so sad that around this time every year, I usually host my Millennial Money Meetup. I've done it for the past three years and I can't do it this year because we can't be together in person. So maybe I'll do something digitally. We'll see what happens. But yeah, we'll have to put the pause on that event and see hopefully maybe in the near fall. I don't know. I don't know when this is all going to fix itself. Probably not for a long time, but we can hope we can hope. But anyways, long story short, I have a Facebook group that you may want to join. And there's a lot of amazing people and sharing articles and

asking questions. And, um, you can go just more house.com slash Facebook group or facebook.com slash groups slash money life bounces where you can find information about all of that. And lastly, before I let you go, I am still taking new financial counseling clients. I have a lot of clients right now. I'm still taking a few more until I kind of reach my personal capacity. It's been such an amazing experience helping so many different people in different situations. And if you are looking for some guidance with your own personal finances, I can help you with that. So you can sign up for a free discovery call. Get me on the phone with you to chat and see if my services are right for you. If I can help you with your situation,

jessicamorehouse.com slash financial counseling, or I think if you go slash discovery call, if you just go to my website, there's also a counseling page where you can find more information or you can just email me straight up, Jessica at JessicaMorehouse.com. I can give you some info about that. But I feel like no matter what, if you work with me or not, someone else, I also have a full recommendations page on my website. So if I'm not the right fit, there's other fee-only planners that I have a list for if you want to check them out. But I feel like this is the time that we should all be really just taking a beat and taking our money seriously. If you don't have a plan, if you don't have an emergency fund, if you don't have

life insurance, if you don't have an estate plan, if you have no idea what's going on with your money, if your money is really making you stressed out, then this is the time to do something about it. This is it. This is your wake up call, I think. So do something about it. This is it. This is your wake-up call, I think. So do something about it. I mean, I know this is so different than what happened with the 2008 market crash and the subsequent recession. However, honestly, I took that as my kind of wake-up call to be like, girl, you need to know what the difference between a checking account and a savings account is. You need to know this stuff. You need to figure out how not to be a broke student anymore because you're not a student anymore. And that's what inspired me to start reading blogs and books and really immerse myself in this world of personal finance. And it changed

my life. It changed my life. I used to be so worried about money all the time. And now I'm not because I have a plan. I know what I am doing. I know where my money is. And so I want you to feel the same way if you don't feel the same way. So take this as you're me telling you, let's do something about it. If you don't feel good about your money, let's feel good about your money and get to work. Okay. That is it. I will most likely be back on Friday with another Money Minute episode. If not, then there just won't be anything up up but most likely there will be some news something I want to talk about come Friday and so look out for that but thanks for listening to this episode I'll see you back here on the podcast very soon have a good rest of your week

this podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.