What does tariff turmoil mean for your money?

Since President Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs for countries worldwide, markets have been in turmoil, and fears have grown about prices increasing and a recession looming.

Jill Schlesinger, CBS News business analyst and host of "Jill on Money," has been looking at what this means for your money and what you should do with your investments and spending.

Make sure your ‘big three’ are set

Before you think about investing, make sure you check off Schlesinger’s big three:

What should you do with extra cash?

Once you check those boxes off, use extra money to pump up your retirement contribution or invest, Schlesinger says.

You can keep putting money into the market, but if you’re worried about existing investments:

“We wanna try to refrain from doing anything too significant because the reality is, we don't know how long these tariffs are gonna be in place. We don't know what the impact will be,” Schlesinger says. “And at the end of the day, whether it was the .com crash in 2000s, the financial crisis in 2008, COVID five years ago, markets will come back over the long term. The key is you've got to have a long-term time horizon.”

What should you do if you’re about to retire?

Don’t make risky investments with retirement money, Schlesinger says.

“Retirement is such a very specific thing because it's like you think it's this moment, but it lasts many, many years,” she says.

Is it a good time to curb spending?

“ I think that it is a very good moment — instead of obsessively checking your investment accounts, your retirement accounts — to concentrate on what you can control,” Schlesinger says. “So review your family spending. Maybe you should delay any purchases that you are planning to do until you have a better idea of the economic outlook.”

Thomas Danielian produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Allison Hagan adapted it for the web.