Three ways COVID-19 reshuffled our finances

The U.S. economy ground to a halt in March 2020 as state after state issued lockdown orders and shut down businesses to blunt the spread of the coronavirus.

A year later, mask-wearing is commonplace, the phrase “social distancing” is now in the dictionary, elbow bumps have replaced fist bumps and hugs are still on pause.

The tumult of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted our financial lives in ways big and small, too. The big: Many businesses are still temporarily closed, while countless others have closed permanently or are on the brink of doing so, and millions of people are still out of work.

Less acute is the way the coronavirus has influenced how we interact with money, both physically and philosophically. People are being more intentional about how they spend their money, learning what they can do without (sometimes the hard way) and forgoing cash in favor of more contactless payments.

Here are three financial trends we can chalk up to the coronavirus pandemic.

1. Cashless payments

Cash is dirty. Like, covered in bacteria and food and feces dirty. That didn’t bother us much prior to the pandemic. But now, in an effort to minimize contact with germs (namely, the coronavirus) businesses and consumers are ditching cash in favor of credit cards and digital wallets. Payment services quickly pivoted to follow suit. Case in point: Venmo.

Before the pandemic, Venmo was an app you used to split the bill at happy hour or pay your roommate for the electricity bill.

Now, you can scan a QR code at CVS to pay for your hand sanitizer using Venmo.

Digital transactions may be more hygienic and convenient, but cashless payment systems typically require a credit card or checking account and, therefore, aren’t easily accessible to the 7.1 million American households who don’t have a bank account.

That’s why major cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco and