What You Can Expect From The Stimulus

Two trillion dollars. That’s the amount of money in the stimulus package approved by the Senate and awaiting approval in Congress.

If it passes the House, how much of it can people in Connecticut expect to get? The answer is not simple, although it’s money, experts say people are counting on.

“It’s been pretty catastrophic for large segments of our population and this is really designed to provide some relief to those folks,” said Denis M. Horrigan, of Connecticut Wealth Management.

Horrigan explains the massive stimulus package could provide a needed boost to businesses and individuals. Here’s how it works.

People who made $75,000 or less, receive $1,200. Married couples with household income less than $150,000 get $2,400 and there’s an additional $500 per dependent child.

Those are the maximums. For every $100 exceeding those amounts, $5 will be deducted. The numbers will be based on the adjusted gross income of your most recent tax return. If 2019 hasn’t been filed yet, 2018 will be used.

The stimulus bill also provides assistance for those who had no income or relied solely on social security. To be eligible you must have a valid social security number.

The stimulus money will be distributed primarily by direct deposit and could be in people’s accounts is a short period of time.

“The IRS and the Treasury will have the ability to push that cash into people’s bank accounts within three weeks,” said Horrigan.

Realistically, Horrigan says the economy will take much longer to completely rebound. He doesn’t expect to see growth until at least the third quarter and doesn’t think things will be completely normalize for a year.

“I think all of this is designed to build a bridge from where we were to hopefully where we’ll get to in several weeks,” added Horrigan.

As the virus continues spreading across the US, with hundreds of new cases confirmed every day, the stock market remains unstable. A stock market rebound however, could come once the spread slows, according to Horrigan.

“You could see the stock market recover from here when we get on the other side of kind of that tipping point of new cases,” he said.

In the meantime, experts advise sticking to your long term investment plan and not making any rash emotional decisions with your money.