With election season in full swing, there’s a bit more chatter than usual about the economy. Lots of promises about doing this or fixing that, and lots of counter-arguments that said promises are…um, baloney. 💩 Yay politics!
But seriously, what impact will the election have on your personal finances? Let’s take a look and see what we can figure out!
Here are Five Fast Facts about the election’s impact on your finances:
- ‼️ Survey Says - The economy is almost always the biggest issue in any election, and that’s true again this year. One recent survey found that 75% of Americans have struggled to pay bills in the last six months, having to get second jobs, pausing retirement contributions, or skipping bills in order to keep going. About 74% of those surveyed said the cost of living/inflation should be the top concern for the next President, and only 31% think the economy is getting better. Gloomy Gus, anyone?
- 👀 Circle Back - Use the election cycle as a trigger to review your financial situation and goals. Once the election is done and we know who’s going to be in charge, you know more about what to expect and can make adjustments accordingly.
- ⛈️ Keep Calm, Save On - If you have a ready reserve of six months’ cash on hand or in an easily accessible savings account of some kind, you can weather just about any financial storm pretty well. Do what you can whenever you can to put some away to build that reserve so that elections affect you even less.
- 🙃 Separate Fact From Feeling - No matter who wins the election, the sky will not fall! Elections can cause some short term market volatility, but long term the stock market has grown on average with every possible combination of President and Congress. It’s been positive in 72 of the last 98 years, including 20 of the past 24 election years. Follow the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy’s most important advice: DON’T PANIC.
- 🔍 Perception Or Reality? - We tend to base our level of financial optimism on who’s in power. In 2016, the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency, Democrats were +18 on optimism and Republicans were -31. In 2017, when Donald Trump replaced Obama, Democrats were -20 and Republicans were +46. Don’t let perception alter your reality - just because your guy (or gal!) isn’t in office doesn’t mean you can’t manage your own finances well! Things might be different, but there are always options if you’re willing to go looking.
🔥Bottom line: We should all be engaged with our nation’s political processes. It’s not only a right, but it’s also a privilege. And we should absolutely debate and discuss the things that are most important to us, including economic and financial issues. Just be careful not to make things out to be a catastrophe when they really aren’t. You can make it work even if the other side wins, you just might have to do it a bit differently.
What do you think the election will mean for your finances?
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