There's so much noise out there about the world, economies and overall impact the Covid-19 virus will have for us now, and into the future.  It's such an interesting time, literally quite like nothing this generation has seen, for the most part.  A lot of the news is coming at us a such a rapid pace it's hard to process it all at once, especially in the world of business and finance.  Which leads us to the topic of personal finances and "what am I to do?"  This is a question that is both fair and relevant for a Financial Advisor to answer.  In a perfect world, you've saved enough in a separate savings account to cover 6-9 months worth of essential expenses (hat tip to those that have).  You've accumulated a diversified portfolio of investments that have a much lower impact than overall markets, you're part of a Defined Benefit Pension Plan, and lastly, you're not sick with the virus.  So, in a perfect world, you've made your preparations well in advance. 

However, we don't live in a perfect world and not everyone could not have seen this coming.  So, that leads us to "What am I to do?"  Investors, for the most part, are human, and subject to our emotions getting in the way of a sound investment strategy.  We may 'panic' and sell everything at first sight of a downward trend, or we may get a false sense of investing genius because we got lucky with an investment that went up 20% in one day.  Most of us are in the middle.  The one thing we can count on is that things will get better, they always do.  It's just that things will be different moving forward.  Think about 9/11, and how that changed the way we boarded planes.
 

So, we need to stick to our plan, or formulate one.  That means that we may have to buckle down a bit on expenses (which is easy if you're quarantined) or may have to dip into our savings a bit more than we thought.  We will have to look at government benefits that are available to you through their emergency plans.  We will need to look at all possible avenues of income, if that is available to you.   This will pass, and the world will be a different place after it does.  But you also need to have confidence in your plan by not panicking out of quality investments, be reasonably opportunistic (eg. don't take too much undo risk!), and use the help of a professional. 
 

Most importantly, we need to stay safe for our families, do as the experts tell us to do, and wait it out.  Maybe after this is done, we will be more self reliant, or someone will have developed an app to keep us working even more productively at home.

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