Wallet Wednesday: Money moves to make before the end of the year

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -

The year is are more than halfway over, believe it or not, and one of the biggest stressors this year is money. Despite the pandemic, some Americans have managed to save money. Most attribute it to not going out and not traveling during the pandemic.

“I have clients that haven’t spent near as much money as they normally do because they haven’t been able to,” said John Vandergriff with Blue Ridge Wealth Planners.

Vandergriff said now is the time to take the next step to grow those savings.

“Maybe you move that money into a position where you have is accessible for something else or you’re in a position to maybe have a little bit larger emergency fund so you’re in a position to respond if we have more uncertainty,” said Vandergriff.

If individuals are not saving, its a good idea for them to look at where they are spending.

“Now is a perfect time for people to look at the way they’re investing and say okay I almost got a reset button from where we were at the beginning of the year,” said Vandergriff.

The uncertainty includes the pandemic, but Vandergriff said the election will also play a part.

“I think the presidential election is going to be huge when you look at the impact it has on the stock market. We’re already in a pretty fragile state where the market is going up even though the economic indicators we usually have in a positive market really aren’t there,” said Vandergriff. “The thing we tell people is markets don’t like change so, if there’s a change of hands in Washington, I think that’ll have an impact on the market. Even if Trump is re-elected that could be something we still have some impacts from.”

“If college football is able to go which we are planning to do here in the SEC. If that’s somewhat able to be normal I think that’s going to be a positive thing for a lot of the emotional and well being of the people here locally,” said Vandergriff. ”You don’t want to make short term decisions, even though it feels like the longest year of our life, we’re just 8 months into it. A lot has happened in those 8 months, but I think not being emotional, being able to still have a long term view of your goals and objectives is important.”

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