A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Jun 29, 2020

How Are Americans Spending Their Covid Stimulus Payments?

Sensibly. JL

Daniel Perez-Lopez and Charles Bee report for the US Census Bureau:

The majority of adults in households that received a stimulus check from the government used it or planned to use it on household expenses. Adults in households with incomes between $75,000 and $99,999 were more likely to use their payments to pay off debt or to add to savings, compared to households overall. 87.6% of adults in households with incomes of $25,000 or less planned to use their payments to meet expenses. 80% of these used it on food, 77.9% on rent, mortgage and/or gas, electricity, cable, internet and cellphone.(58.2%) spent it on household supplies and personal care products.
About 85.5% of respondents to the U.S. Census Bureau’s experimental Household Pulse Survey said they had received or expected someone in the household to receive an Economic Impact Payment or stimulus check.
The majority of adults in households that received a stimulus check from the federal government say they used it or planned to use most of it on household expenses.
Adults in households with incomes between $75,000 and $99,999 were more likely to use their stimulus payments to pay off debt or to add to savings, compared to households overall.
The responses were collected June 11-16, week 7 of the survey sent to 1,172,900 households by email and SMS text messages; 73,472 households responded.
According to the latest survey results released today, 15.7% used their stimulus check to pay off debt and 14.1% planned to mostly save it.

Who’s More Likely to Save Their Check?

Adults in households with incomes between $75,000 and $99,999 were more likely to use their stimulus payments to pay off debt or to add to savings, compared to households overall.
Over a third of adults in those households reported that they would use the money to pay off debt or add to savings.
In contrast, 87.6% of adults in households with incomes of $25,000 or less planned to use their stimulus payments to meet expenses. 

How Are They Spending It?

In households that spent their stimulus checks, respondents reported using the money for a variety of expenses, and many reported spending it on more than one thing: About 80% of these respondents reported using it on food, and 77.9% on rent, mortgage and/or utilities, including gas, electricity, cable, internet and cellphone.
More than half (58.2%) of such respondents reported spending stimulus payments on household supplies and personal care products. About a fifth (20.5%) reported spending the money on clothing.
A smaller share (8.1%) said they spent or would spend the stimulus on household goods like TVs, electronics, furniture, and appliances or on recreational goods like fitness equipment, toys and games.
These reports indicate the importance of the stimulus payments to help cover basic expenses such as housing and food.

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