Stimulus Checks: ‘Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran Sounds off on How You Should Spend It

There has been much discussion over the stimulus checks that the government has sent out to many Americans already (if you have not received yours yet, it is coming in due course). As you’ve likely already heard, most Americans will be receiving a one-time $1,200 check if they have not already. Obviously, there are many ways in which you can spend this check, but Shark Tank‘s Barbara Corcoran has expressed what she believes is the most important thing one can do with it.

According to Corcoran, the best thing one can do with their stimulus check is to actually not spend it. The Shark Tank star told Grow that those who receive the check should save it if they are able to do so. As for her reasoning behind this suggestion, she explained that the purpose of this payment is to have it just in case you fall on an extremely hard time. For many, given the different ramifications caused by this coronavirus crisis, that time could very well be now.

“The most important thing to do with your stimulus check is to not spend it. It should be saved, because that’s exactly what it’s intended to do, to put you through a hard time,” Corcoran told the publication. “You should be thinking of it as something to fall back on.” Elsewhere in her interview with Grow, Corcoran explained some other ways in which individuals can better themselves with this stimulus check.

“If you have a lot of credit card debt, it’s probably a very good use of the check to pay it down. Especially those cards with very high interest rates because they’ll eat you alive,” Corcoran said, before noting that people should not use this check to spend frivolously. “It’s not a Christmas present that you just go out and you spend on what you feel like doing.” Not only did the TV personality share that one can utilize this check to pay off some credit card debt, but she also suggested that you can use it to work on developing a new skill during this time.

“Now’s the time to take the courses online, develop your skills and make yourself stronger, because what you really want to do here is repackage yourself for a new economy,” she shared. “I know a photographer who has a very good visual sense, lost all of his photography work, so he educated himself to be a photo editor and he has his resume out there, not as the photographer he was a month ago, but as a photo editor. And he’s already getting work.”