Speaking of:
If anyone on the forum is getting put into a serious jam with this shit – and I know some people are really worried about it – please message me. I got financial padding, and we may not have met in person but you guys are friends and I want you to be okay. And you know I will circulate any gofundme like a motherfucker.
So much this. I have gotten so many BS fake “here’s what we’re doing to protect YOU our valued customer” emails that do not include anything about paid sick leave. But my favorite yarn company and separately my LYS both independently put out statements about what they’re doing to protect the community and the FIRST bullet point is that all their employees have (and have had) paid sick leave. It is disgusting that big companies who can actually afford it aren’t looking in the mirror and deciding that this is the right thing to do and just doing it.
The owner of my LYS also posted that she has a giant surplus of TP from having a subscription delivery that has really added up and she posted on fb that she would sell it at fair market value to anyone who needed some (a lot of stores are out here) but would only accept payment in the form of a gift card to a local business and then provided a list of a ton of local businesses. I thought this was brilliant. Pointing out that small biz owners are being impacted by this and showing people that they can buy gift cards in lieu of shopping right now as a show of solidarity if it’s within your means. I did a post on my consulting biz’s social media yesterday about non-financial ways to support your friends in small biz (liking/commenting/sharing their content on social media, talking about what they offer to people who might want to buy from them, subscribing to their email lists, etc.) Many of my business owner friends are either freaking out, or figuring out how they can get creative with all that’s going on.
My grandparents are insisting on continuing with their plans to road trip to the beach and I just have no words. They’re both in their 80’s, Grandma has severe emphysema/COPD and Pap is no spring chicken so if they get this virus I doubt they’d survive. Especially not with Hometown’s limited medical resources. I’m hoping my uncle (who is supposed to be the driver on this road trip) can talk them out of going. Pap keeps Fox News on all day and says this is all a hype so that’s not helping. I guess I’ll find out later today if they’ve left or not.
Whoa. The president of the US just suspended all interest on federal student loans.
(Can we just forget to turn the interest switch back on afterwards?)
Target, CVS, and Walgreens in the US will have drive-thru testing, though no statement on what people are supposed to do if they don’t drive.
Is this the same reality? Or did we jump to an alt universe?
Wait, has it officially happened? I know there’s been some considerations, but…!
I mean, the president is taking what sounds like a radical step but in the short term it won’t have a huge impact. Much less than, for example, suspending due payments since many folx income is under threat.
Additionally, don’t worry, the president also bought a bunch of crude oil from his lackeys while it’s on sale.
Live press conference right now. National state of emergency. Lots of big businesses up what they are doing.
They’re building a website.
Damn.
I mean, bonus money for me, but that is a STEP.
I’m curious, do you know how much it will change things for your own loans? Do you know about how much it interest you would accumulate, over, say, the next few months? (also obviously feel free to not answer).
Duuude when do I not want to overshare financial information? It’s my favorite. (I usually do percentages on journal mostly because I am well aware that my raw numbers could make some folks uncomfortable or feel bad – but if someone asks, dude yeah, lemme get them deets.)
My minimum is $453.66; I pay $473.66 every month and sometimes throw a little extra at it. Every month I pay roughly $133 in interest, of which $70.05 is interest on federal loans. (The rest is private.)
Two months of no interest on federal loans is basically around $140 in the kitty, which I’m okay with having right now.
I timed the market! $100 to my rrsp
And I went to the grocery store and it was so cool. I’ve never seen shelves empty like that…I know some places do it for blizzards and hurricanes but we don’t get that level. Smacky and I are well stocked on chips and smoked gouda now. My relatives are looking for the right cat food since it was sold out. if not I order something online.
I just got to tell the wife of the future president of my company that saying “why does all this shit keep coming from China” is kinda racist.
I pushed back. I reminded them that mad cow disease came from Europe when people fed cow brains to their livestock which is disgusting.
“It’s not racism. It’s FACTS. H1N1 too!!”
I feel like crying.
I guess, it’s still not clear to me if your ~~ accrued ~~ interest on student loans will be waived, for just interest won’t accrue for the period and you still have to pay past interest. That was NOT clear.
They just announced that schools in my province are closing for 3 weeks, starting mar 23. Bigger kid’s teacher is texting to ask if I should keep him home this month as well because of his health stuff. The prime minister is issuing travel advisories.
If you can exit that conversation, I think that would be the thing to do for your mental health. 
Ehhhh yeah. In that case, I make the same size payment but pay off more principal? Which will help in the future with lowering interest. Maybe I’ll work that out later an intellectual exercise.
Do you want me to enquire about getting you home to them?
She walked away.
We can chat about it later over dinner.