Welcome to a new week here on the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. I’m your host Ashley Micciche, co-owner of True North Retirement Advisors, an independent financial advisory practice managing $340 million in client assets. I’m a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and I started this podcast because I love helping people just like you gain clarity and make a plan for the retirement you envision. 

The theme this week on the podcast is: Inflation Is Still Getting Worse! What To Do Now

As I sit down to record this week’s episodes, gas prices are still climbing to record levels, I just paid $19 at the grocery store for a normal size package of chicken breasts, and the Fed just raised interest rates by .75% - the most aggressive increase in nearly 30 years, as a desperate attempt to bring inflation down.

I’m very frustrated with the Fed, Janet Yellen, and others with the power to squash inflation for being so ignorant and flat-footed. Rates should have started rising in 2021 when inflation started to pick up. They would have had a longer runway to increase rates gradually, which would have bettered the odds avoiding a recession, which now seems all but inevitable.

According to a Newsweek article from June 16th, “the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta shows the economy on course for zero percent growth in the second quarter of 2022, and the trend from the data would suggest that the economy is on course for a contraction.

This would put the U.S. into an official recession—defined by economists and policymakers as two consecutive quarters of falling GDP.”

That’s because GDP growth was already negative in the first quarter of 2022, so we are possibly already a few months into the current recession. Many of you are nodding in agreement. Never have I seen so much consensus about a coming recession among CEOs, CFOs, economists about the direction of the economy heading south, where a majority now believe a recession is unavoidable…and that was before the Fed took aggressive action this month raising rates by 75 basis points. 

We still find ourselves in this high inflation environment, which we have little control over. Couple that with stock and bond markets that are in the doldrums, and a seemingly unavoidable recession ahead, and you have a recipe for serious financial stress for many Americans.

So this week, I’m going to help you take control over these current circumstances that seem so hopelessly out of control. I’ll share with you important steps that you can take today that will help you be resilient in this high inflation environment, and keep your financial stress to a minimum. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche...and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast.

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance