The Government Shutdown and the Importance of a Financial Plan
As financial planners, one of our top priorities is to encourage our clients to have a funded emergency account. So far, after 22 days of the government shutdown, we’ve not had a single communication from federal worker clients affected by the current shutdown. And that’s with hundreds of clients in DC and Maryland. We trust it’s because of our advice.
Where do our clients keep their emergency funds? There are several options that we list:
- Insured savings account
- Insured Certificate of Deposit at bank or credit union
- Insured, high-yield money market at an online bank
- Treasury or Federal Money Market inside their individual, joint or trust brokerage account
What do all of these accounts feature? No volatility. We call that Bucket 1. In Bucket 1, you have your emergency fund and up to three years of withdrawal needs. Since the stock and bond markets have not been down for three years since 1926 you don’t have to worry. Not having to worry about the markets is a unique feature and helpful for sleeping at night.
If you’re not one of our clients, we encourage you to contact us and see how financial planners who don’t sell securities or want to manage your money deal with stressful situations in advance by having a full financial plan in place and updating it once or twice a year. That way, you’ll be in a position to not have to call us for frantic advice.
