In 2020, the world economy was negatively affected by the coronavirus pandemic which led to many Americans losing their jobs and many companies to suffer financially. In order to stimulate the economy, the government passed the Cares Act, a 2.2 trillion stimulus package, that will send stimulus checks to qualifying Americans. (Friedman) “Stimulus checks are intended to stimulate the economy by providing consumers with some spending money. When taxpayers spend this money, it will boost consumption and drive revenues at retailers and manufacturers and, thus, spur the economy.” (Halton)

As the curious person I am, I wanted to find out more about the different ways people used their checks given the situation we are in. I was inspired by the casual conversations I’ve had with my friends about what we did with our stimulus checks. After hearing all the different responses, I wanted to dig deeper, so I decided to conduct a survey.

I conducted an open-ended survey using the convenience method, by asking the people around me, and using my social media such as instagram and snapchat to attract participants. I first informed people this survey is only for people who received stimulus checks. In the survey I conducted, I asked for a person’s demographics such as name, age, gender (optional), and occupation. The reason for asking for demographics is I was hoping there would be a difference among certain groups. I was predicting females would spend more on shopping compared to males, older age groups would save their money and people working higher paying occupations might use the money for personal reasons rather than financial. I then asked the golden question, “What did you do with your stimulus check?”

I took my responses, recorded them and categorized them:

This pie chart represents the data collected from the survey.

The pie chart above represents the data recorded and categorized. Responses were sometimes mixed, for example some people put  the money towards savings and towards investings. I used the majority of how they used to money to put it into a category. 50% of participants said they saved their stimulus check. This category mainly consisted of college students who said they were saving the money to pay tuition. I noticed the rest of the participants who saved their money were of older age groups (50+). 25% of participants use the money to pay off some form of debt. This included using the money to pay off credit cards, a car payment, utility bills and rent. 12% invested the money either into their own businesses and careers or bought stock. And lastly, 13% said they used the money for personal reasons such as shopping, taking a trip and getting a medical procedure. 

Overall, there wasn’t too much of a difference in demographics when categorizing the data. Everything seemed even. I was surprised by my data and happy to see most people making responsible decisions with their money during a time like this. What did you do with your stimulus check? Comment Below!

Pages Cited:

Friedman, Z. (2020, April 19). Everything You Need To Know About Your $1,200 Stimulus Check. Retrieved September 07, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/04/13/stimulus-check-everything-need-know/

Halton, C. (2020, April 16). Stimulus Check Definition. Retrieved September 22, 2020, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/stimulus-check.asp