Unlike your tax refund—which is a portion of your salary being returned to you—no one is likely to wag a finger at you for getting a stimulus check. But that doesn’t necessarily make it easy to figure out what to spend your stimulus money on.
If you’re looking for good uses for your stimulus money, here are several strategies that can help you make the most of your money.
Put it someplace safe while you decide
Getting an unexpected $1,400 is the kind of financial boon that is both smaller and larger than it seems. It’s a small enough windfall that you can easily spend it all without even noticing until it’s gone. But it’s a large enough amount of money that you will kick yourself when you accidentally spend it without thinking.
That’s why your first order of business—if you don’t already know exactly what you plan to do with that IRS stimulus check money—is to put it somewhere you can’t fritter it away by accident. The taxpayers receiving a paper check may want to deposit that bad boy directly into a savings account, while anyone getting their stimulus via direct deposit may want to transfer the money to a savings account as soon as it clears their checking account.
The longer it stays in your checking account, the more likely it is that it will be spent accidentally. And the whole point of an unexpected windfall is to enjoy it—or at least let it make your life better.
Be kind to your future self
This is the point in the article where every financial writer is duty bound to advise you to pay down high-interest debt with your IRS stimulus check. And that is excellent, if boring, advice. If you are struggling with high-interest credit cards, student loans, or any other debt that makes you feel like you’re drowning, using stimulus money to help dig yourself out of that debt hole is a fantastic idea.
