June 2020
Curated by: Coretta, Founder and Principal of Urban Money, LLC; B.A. in Economics and M.S. in Urban Policy/Planning
In this issue:
Letter from Coretta - Black Lives Matter
Congress still CARES
Student Loans Forbearance + Your Credit Score
Future of Retail
What's New
From Coretta:
The Urban Money Project was built with an agenda for creating wealth equality; but we can’t solve that problem without addressing racial injustices. Black America is grieving. I have spent several weeks pulling together content to share with you yesterday #BlackOutTuesday, yet all of it seems irrelevant when the only thing that the collective ‘we’ can think or feel as of late, is sheer grief. We’ve experienced a tremendous amount of trauma, in a short period of time, amidst a pandemic, and with little to no economic security.
David McAtee. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Aubrey. Christian Cooper.
100 days. 5 incidents, 4 deaths. We are tired. We are in pain. We are human.
Please read the rest of my letter, as I publicly pledge my stance on how much Black Lives Matter.
And when you’re ready, (at the risk of appearing tone deaf)… your curated money matters awaits:
Home-Ec(onomics)
Congress is at it again. CARES Act (Pt. 5)but call it a wishlist, if you will. The House Dems asked for another stimulus check, extended unemployment benefits, funding for first responders, and rent and mortgage moratorium. Meanwhile Sen. Majority Leader McConnell is far from interested and the extra $600 UI will adhere to its initial end date of July 30.
Tip: if unemployed or furloughed, ramp up your efforts to live below your means.
Student Loan Forbearance + Your Credit Score
Forbear your payment they said, it won't affect your credit they said… Turns out, if you took advantage of forbearance payments on your federal student loan due to COVID-19, credit agencies took notes. These remarks have a negative effect on your credit score, causing it to decrease a few points.
So, now what? Check your credit report, if it hasn't self corrected, reach out to all 3 credit agencies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
Future of Retail: op-ed
Christmas in July is moving to September? 2020 has been a complete time warp.
Amazon led the way (and crashed their site) with Black Friday in July (AKA Prime Day); and just about every e-commerce retailer had to follow suit. How can you have a regular old sale when the competition is giving deep discounts? But wait, having a massive sale in July made total sense for a major retailer.
Black Friday (after Thanksgiving) is the biggest shopping day of the year. With consumers spending, and retailers clearing inventory to make way for Spring items, its a win-win strategy. Applying that concept to July to make way for Fall inventory… double genius.
So whats going to happen with Black Friday in September? As far as I see it, large companies have three options:
Retailers keep their Black Friday in July to move the inventory that they were stuck with due to the Coronavirus shut down. This would finally give them the advantage on Amazon with Q2 sales, but that comes with a risk of not having the inventory to compete in September.
Everyone moves to Christmas in September, but with the dates so close together, that could potentially cannibalize on the long-standing Black Friday.
Innovation. Everything will be different. Since income and demand would be different, consumption would be too.
Ultimately, retailers would need to be super strategic about how they proceed While the world may be on pause, there are two seasons that American consumers will never put on hold: Summer and Christmas. People will get creative on how to move forward, and retailers can shape or follow.
What’s New
This month we’ll host our first ever Monthly Meetup; a free online event where we chat about money in a safe space. Don’t forget to register as space is limited!
Also, tickets are available for our Achieve Your Goal Workshop; where we apply businesses principles to help create good-enough personal money choices.
SOCIAL IMPACT
PRIDE month is here! Celebrate your love and support for the LGBTQ community!
Juneteenth. Honor the day slavery ended, June 19.
We’ve come far on both fronts, but there’s still work to do.
Bonus! Managing Anxiety
We've all been through A LOT, making mental health even more important during these times. Journaling, exercising, meditating, and/or therapy are all effective tools.
Tip: When you feel good, write yourself a love note! When you're not feeling so good talk to someone.
Headspace launched a program to support the unemployed, sign up!
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