On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Roy Matlock, Jr. to the newsmakers line.
During the third hour, Matlock gave advice to the recently unemployed who have less than $1,000.00 in savings by stating that your job right now is to go get a job. He also touched upon how he’s been advising his million-dollar clients to do there Christmas shopping now and spend their money with local businesses.
Leahy: We are joined now Roy Matlock, Jr. Roy tough times. We need some good financial advice here for people that are in trouble.
Matlock: Alright then. I’ve got lots of it. I’ve got lots of advice also for the people that are doing good.
Leahy: Let’s take a look at this situation. What if you are a restaurant worker right now and you’ve been laid off and you have a limited amount of cash on hand? What do you recommend they do?
Matlock: I did a show this weekend and I went through and I said you’ve got to have a plan. Some people have families that are in a bad position. The first step is we are where we are. One of my friends who teaches martial arts talked to me and he said they accept where they are at quicker and then they act on it.
I think our number one scenario is here is where we are. We got dealt this corona hand. And I don’t know how bad it’s going to be or how long it’s going to last. But it is is what it is. Step number one is you accept it and you say OK I’ve got to deal with it. Once we do that then we take an action plan.
I said well, people are worried, what are you worried about? Your family? Your health? They think in terms of that. Then they are worried about their finances. They are worried about their jobs. The small business guys worry about their business.
I always tell people first starting out that let’s get a plan in place. The first step I would do is make sure everybody is together. Family wise. I had a family meeting Saturday and I did it with Zoom and had all my kids on there.
Leahy: You didn’t do it in person and you did it on Zoom to hold the family meeting which makes sense.
Matlock: Yeah because they are spread out. I would encourage people to get to Zoom.us its not an ad on my part. I’ve been using it for years and its free. You can have up to only 40 minutes and put as many people as you want up to 100 people at once up to 40 minutes.
Or you can do a one on one for as long as you want and it’s free. I think this is going to be the new way of the world. Anyway, I would go do that. Take leadership over your family to start with. The biggest challenge I have is my kids who don’t think this is that big a deal. I say, look you’ve got to together.
And then once we do that and then we start talking about money. I talk to my kids about here’s the deal and what we’ve got to do and that kind of thing. Getting back to what you asked. What do you do with people that maybe are like 50% of the population that has less than $1,000.00 saved and you may have even lost your job?
Leahy: So you have a little bit of cash but rents coming due on April first. What do you do?
Matlock: If you’ve got a mortgage the first thing I would if you know you’re going to have a problem what you do is call your lender and they probably will work something with you. I would get on the phone and do that. I tell people even if you are working right now that you are worried about your job potentially going away we need to do a survival budget.
There are two kinds of budgets. There’s the normal budget which we have fun and recreation and all that. Now we don’t have much of that anyway because we’re stuck at home. But the survival budget what do I need to do to stay alive. The first one is that I have to have money for food. I need to make sure I have enough money to spend it on eating. Spend it on housing. Don’t not pay your bills.
If you are in a position you’re doing that you do that. Then you go through and start looking at your budget. What is it I’ll have to have. I always tell people food, shelter, and you want to keep up your insurance up and be at a point where another disaster hits you. Then probably look at your automotive.
And past that, you don’t really need anything. There are budget forms on my website at roymatlockjr.com. They can download that and then fill it out. You have your normal budget then your survival budget. That would be my first starting point.
Then what I would do is I would look at if you are in dire straits right now I would make a list and get out a clean sheet of paper and say, OK, what can I do and what am I good at? What could I do to earn some money? What can I sell? Then I tell people to do this. Make a list of 20 things you could do to generate some cash.
You want to pay attention and read up on all the government things that are coming out. There’s going to be some money sent out. Not a lot but it’s going to be something. I would get on the phone. I would call everybody I know.
Hey look I need to make some extra money is there something that I can do? Do you have anything you need to get done? So I have clients whose accounts are down a million dollars. So they used to be at six million but now they’re at five million. And realistically they’ve been unaffected market-wise day today. I told them to spend money.
I would tell everybody right now to spend some money. Start buying your Christmas presents and all those kinds of things and do it locally. How about that? Do it with some of these local businesses that will allow you to have these businesses open later. Two or three months from now we want to help all the businesses. I’m going to spend money in places that will help those local businesses.
Leahy: After you and I talked the other day Roy (roymatlockjr.com) we got at the Tennessee Star and somebody called us and actually said hey I just got laid off along with a whole bunch of other people. Somebody in their 20s. What do I do?
And I remember that you told me that Dominoes Pizza is hiring. And Walmart is hiring. It’s tough. It’s really tough when you’re talking to somebody in their 20s. They are just getting started without a lot of cash on hand. Rent was coming due. Go to Walmart they are hiring. Talk to them. Go to Dominoes Pizza. Go right now and get a job. Spend your whole day getting a job.
Matlock: That is their job.
Leahy: Yes.
Matlock: Is to go get a job. Go cut somebody’s grass. I had the grass guy come by yesterday. I think what you have to do is think in terms of getting creative. Look at your skillset. What is it you need to do to improve your skillset too? This is a period of time where you are going to have some time. Learn something.
I always tell people you get paid for what you know. So you’ve got to know and do. So I would be thinking that way as well. It’s an interesting time but it will pass. And I always have believed this.
We are going to be fine. There’s a forward focus. You need to have a future focus. During this time we’re just going to tough it out and survive. That’s where I would go with people like that.
Leahy: The person that called us the other day and that they’ve just been laid off and what do we do. We said look go out and talk to Dominoes Pizza. They are hiring. I called the Dominoes Pizza in this person’s city and asked are you hiring.
And the manager said yes. And I said will you hire this person? And they said yes? It turns out this person ended up getting two job offers. Dominoes was one of them. And he’s working today.
Matlock: Yeah. What I think people need to remember is that a majority of the people are still working out there. Still earning money. A lot are working from home but people are still working. I’ve got a house that we are rehabbing right now and I got a guy working over there last night.
The reality is that there are people still working. But they are working from home so there are a lot of opportunities that have been created as a result of that. People just got to be up in the survival mode and really check that out.
Some of the other things too are the reality is that who knows? People will die. And you may get sick. I would encourage everybody if you haven’t look at your beneficiaries on your insurance…
Leahy: Now would be a good time.
Listen to the full third hour:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
