Back in 2020 the government promised that if they got re-elected everyone could receive some funds called the BC Recovery benefit. Individuals could receive up to $500 and families could get $1000. This was promised to be deposited into people’s accounts before Christmas. While some people actually got it swiftly it seems like the majority of applicants never got anything.
I applied on the first day where the site was constantly crashing due to an excess amount of applications. I didn’t get any funds but did receive an e-mail stating that they got my application. Fast forward months later and I finally got a notice recently that my application has been approved and hat it will be deposited. From what I see it did get deposited into my back account.
It makes me wonder, this money I believe in theory was supposed to act as a way to help keep the economy going due to so many people losing their jobs and having less to spend on. That made me think, if you are currently managing your finances very well to the point where these funds can be treated as an emergency savings or investment what would you do with in? In the spirit of helping small businesses as an example would you go out of your way to spend this $500 to do so?
For example, I don’t usually dine out as cooking your own meals saves so much money. But if you were like me would you actually use this $500 to go to restaurants with everything said? Or would you just do the safe thing and save it as we all never know when we may desperately need it due to how unstable everything is?