It’s pretty hard to avoid talking about the elephant in the room – the dreaded coronavirus pandemic. Within a week, I went from thinking everyone was overreacting, to quarantining my family indefinitely. We haven’t left our house in over a week, and honestly, I am feeling a little freaked out at the prospect of even going grocery shopping.
Fortunately for our family, my husband worked from home before the pandemic started. So in that regard, nothing much has changed. We also homeschooled our children before the pandemic started. Once again, this is another non-issue for our family. However, we aren’t used to being confined to our home. My kids had swim lessons, parkour, nature classes, speech therapy, choir, Spanish lessons, and play dates every week. There was rarely a day when we stayed home the entire time. Some of my children are taking this change in pace harder then others.
I am naturally an introvert, who likes staying home. Although I am a little bored some afternoons, this change hasn’t been a trial for me personally. In some ways, it has improved parts of my life. We are going for walks everyday. The kids and I have been spending more time playing games and doing puzzles together. We aren’t spending money frivolously – no extra trips to the grocery store, no eating out, no money on gas.
Since we had extra money in our checking account this past week (and lots of extra time on our hands), John and I decided to each open a Roth IRA. We deposited $250 into each account. The stock market has been in free fall lately, so I am obviously nervous about this new adventure. It has been interesting watching the money in my account zig-zag up and down.
As is often the case, John and I had different opinions about how our IRAs should be managed. I wanted a more hands-off approach, using a robo advisor. John, on the other hand, wanted to actively select his investments. So, we opened two completely different types of accounts. We plan on watching how each account grows, and reassessing this time next year. John will be writing a more detailed post about our IRAs in the coming week.
I hope you are staying home and staying safe. Take care.