Bloomberg economists have estimated that the average household in the U.S. will be spending upwards of $433 more per month in 2022 than they did last year. This is a minimum of $5,200 per year if you make no changes to your style of living. If your budget has little room for additional expenses, you will need to make some difficult decisions about your budget.
You’re likely reading about an “impending recession,” which sounds kind of scary, especially for those of us who remember the Great Recession of 2008-9. The question right now is: are we already in a recession, or just experiencing another bump in the roller coaster?
Over the last year, and really since the start of the pandemic lockdowns we saw a pattern emerge. Cultural Trends were spreading like wildfire through society. With the help of Facebook/Meta, Instagram and Twitter hierarchical diffusion seemed to be on steroids. Hierarchical Diffusion is the spread of an idea from persons or nodes of “authority” or “power” to other persons and places. We entered the era of “influencers”, and they were talking about everything under the sun but especially investments.
If you are a small business owner in the State of California and do not carry a retirement benefit plan for your employees, the deadline for the CalSavers Program is quickly approaching. If you have 5 or more employees and do not currently offer a workplace retirement plan you must register by June 30, 2022.
Financial Planning is often a term used colloquially to mean managing one’s money, but it isn’t exclusive to saving and implementing market strategies. It is also safeguarding those assets for the future through analyzing special financial needs (death, disability, job loss, monetary windfall), taxation implications, medical/health planning, and liability concerns. Most professionals offer a couple specialized services but not all.
Inflation causes prices of goods and services to increase. Consumers can purchase fewer goods per dollar, input prices go up and revenues and profits go down. If economic growth accelerates very rapidly, demand grows even faster, and producers raise prices continually. In all, this action, slows down the economy so that supply & demand can recoup and become stable again. So, we understand on a base level what this does to our pocketbook but what does it mean for our savings and investments.
Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is the investment in companies that promote ethical and socially conscious ideals such as environmental sustainability, justice, corporate ethics and/or advocate against discrimination. This can be accomplished by either specifically including companies that are making positive impacts and/or can exclude others that are making negative or questionable impact.
Human Capital refers to the monetary value of a worker’s experience, skills and working years available. Employer/state sponsored disability is inadequate or, at best, a limited solution to risk of loss of the ability to work. With that in mind it is important to acknowledge that every household faces the potential of unexpected disability or death and the loss of income associated with that. In order to mitigate that risk, individuals should consider certain additional insurance products to protect against loss.
Insurance is the base of the financial pyramid, creating a solid foundation upon which you will build your wealth. It provides protection against any unforeseen event that can potentially jeopardize your long-term goals. The most important idea to understand about insurance is that it is pure and simple the best way to protect yourself against the risk of loss. If you do not put anything aside for your financial protection you are exposing your plans to risk.
Cryptocurrency is a digital based currency that is used to buy and sell goods but also trade for profit. I’m sure, most of you know someone who has invested in some version of cryptocurrency. They work using technology called blockchain, a decentralized technology spread across many computers and manages & records transactions. Most of the appeal of blockchain tech is the security.
