[AustinTrkJunkie]

Originally Posted by qba335i

I am WFH. The cold Chicago weather and being stuck in a condo was pretty painful so I decided to spend 3 weeks in AZ. Rented a house with a pool, went hiking pretty often and was playing golf every day. with a 2 hour time difference (work on CST schedule) this felt like a mini-vacation. I will probably do the same thing next month (maybe different location).

So far Work is pretty stable, but busy. Some of my friends already took substantial cuts (salary/bonus/benefits).

Yeah, have a lot who lost their jobs - IT/Ops - back in early March but who are still out of work

Scary times for sure

[premier3is]

I work from home anyways so the work aspect has remained the same. The worst is the kids in the neighborhood are out every day all day and during my meetings I can hear them yelling and screaming outside, I'm sure my clients can pick it up on the phone lol.

But on a good note, it's nice to see kids still playing outside like I used to in my younger days vs. them sitting on video games and iPads and iPhones all day. But man.... can we chill on the screaming and yelling please??!!!!

[AlpineWhite_SJ]

Originally Posted by BzsBimmer

I guess I'm in the other camp.
The last two recessions I did that.. I paid off my loans with the cash I had on hand... and missed out on buying some really good investments, whether it was property or stocks.

I agree that paying off debt makes sense... I guess if you have the disposable income to pay off the debt and still have money aside for emergencies, sure (credit cards excluded or anything with high interest).

With these low rates and uncertainties, cash is king vs paying off something that is depreciating fairly quickly and has the potential to be extremely hard to liquidate if cash injection is needed fairly quickly. Everyone has their own priorities and financial vision.

Sure, it all depends on your time horizon, appetite for risk and additional funds on hand. In my case, I’m taking funds from single stocks which are riskier but happen to be trading at all time highs and moving it into a lower, but less risky guaranteed return, which has the added benefit of lowering my needs for cash flow for fixed expenses. I’ve got plenty in another bucket of funds for emergencies and purchasing assets at depressed prices. Actually overweight on cash or cash equivalents at the moment, but I’m not working so not too concerned about it.

Paying off a car and recasting the mortgage reduces my burn rate on what i budgeted for taking time off and would actually allow me to put more money into investments when the time comes.

Also, we tend to hold on to our cars for much longer than average so depreciation isn’t really a concern. By the time I would be looking to get rid of it, it’s usually not even worth selling. Donated the last one to charity for the tax deduction.

[Rmtt]

Originally Posted by BMWGUYinCO

Major bummer - I lost an employee two weekends ago due to Covid-19 complications. He was 43 years young.

He was diagnosed with Covid several weeks ago, and then week before last said he was feeling better and put in a full week (had been working remotely since first week of March). Then all of a sudden - I learned he was dead on a Sunday, just like that.

That sucks man. We have had two here that possibly have it. Over Mother's day weekend, they were around family and found out later that evening that one of the other members of their family has been tested and it came back positive.

So we caught them before they came in. They have been tested, and will wait it out at home "paid" for two weeks...then tested again while we await the results. Neither are showing symptoms.

I tell my employees.....what you do outside of work affects your job indirectly. I called my Mom on Mother's day and left her a present at her door. But she and my dad are high risk. Why can't others get this??

Plus talking with my daughter yesterday, they are seeing more and more younger people with this stuff coming into the hospital.

[saeyedoc]

Originally Posted by AlpineWhite_SJ

Sure, it all depends on your time horizon, appetite for risk and additional funds on hand. In my case, I’m taking funds from single stocks which are riskier but happen to be trading at all time highs and moving it into a lower, but less risky guaranteed return, which has the added benefit of lowering my needs for cash flow for fixed expenses. I’ve got plenty in another bucket of funds for emergencies and purchasing assets at depressed prices. Actually overweight on cash or cash equivalents at the moment, but I’m not working so not too concerned about it.

Paying off a car and recasting the mortgage reduces my burn rate on what i budgeted for taking time off and would actually allow me to put more money into investments when the time comes.

Also, we tend to hold on to our cars for much longer than average so depreciation isn’t really a concern. By the time I would be looking to get rid of it, it’s usually not even worth selling. Donated the last one to charity for the tax deduction.

I'm about saving cash right now. I have enough to pay all of my bills, but my income has dropped about 80% (Ophthalmologist, just reopened). I arranged for 3 month forbearances on my mortgage and car loans, so I don't have to borrow on margin from investments or sell when they are low if things go south again. Once income stabilizes, I'll just pay those off or add onto the end of the term.

[AlpineWhite_SJ]

Originally Posted by saeyedoc

I'm about saving cash right now. I have enough to pay all of my bills, but my income has dropped about 80% (Ophthalmologist, just reopened). I arranged for 3 month forbearances on my mortgage and car loans, so I don't have to borrow on margin from investments or sell when they are low if things go south again. Once income stabilizes, I'll just pay those off or add onto the end of the term.

Hope business picks up quickly for you. I actually was waiting on new lenses in old frames from my eye doc and didn’t get a chance to get over there to pick them up before the lockdown happened. They finally were able to arrange for contactless pickup. Pick a time, they unlock the door at the appt time and they have your item on a chair/stool for you to grab. They lock back up once you’ve grabbed them until the next pickup window.

[saeyedoc]

Originally Posted by AlpineWhite_SJ

Hope business picks up quickly for you..

We've been able to ramp up to pre-COVID patient numbers very quickly, not letting any employees go really helped. We still get no shows, but not much more than before. The cleaning slows us up a little, but other than that, it's actually nice to have less people in the waiting room (we don't allow other unless they need to assist the patient).