Minds Over Money

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [15:10] And this week’s financial planning topic is Imagine the Possibilities. 🔮

📈 [0:51] The first headline, “Inflation Causes IRS to Raise Tax Brackets and Standard Deduction by 7%”, is an article that explores the recent announcement of adjustments to the tax brackets and some of the metrics used to determine tax deductions.

💰 [5:11] The second headline, “IRS to Make Largest Increase Ever to 401(k) Contribution Limit”, discusses the announcement that will increase the contribution limits on all retirement accounts due to inflation adjustments.

⚖️ [9:11] The Final headline, “Global Economic Growth is Weighed Down by Inflation and Rising Interest Rates”, is a deep dive into the recent economic data from the third quarter around the globe that is pointing to a definite slowdown if not a recession.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [11:38] And this week’s financial planning topic is Reducing the Pain from Required Retirement Withdrawals This Year. 💸

🛍️ [0:50] The first headline, “Retailers Kick Off Black Friday in October… Again”, is an article that explores how the major retailers Walmart, Target, and Amazon, are all starting Black Friday shopping events to tackle inventory surplus and lagging sales figures.

💰 [3:58] The second headline, “IRS Delays New Guidelines for Inherited IRAs”, discusses the recent ruling to delay the guidelines stated last year for how required minimum distributions are to be handled with inherited IRAs.

📈 [7:34] The Final headline, “Fed on Track for Another Large Interest Rate Hike After Jobs Report”, is a deep dive into the likelihood of another 0.75% interest rate hike at the Fed’s meeting next month with a resiliently tight labor market, wage growth, and persistent inflation.

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [17:35] And this week’s financial planning topic is How Retirement Income Guardrails Can Provide Peace of Mind. 🚧

💼 [0:45] The first headline, “Worker’s Changing Attitudes Tighten the Labor Market”, is an article that explores how workers are using their bargaining power provided them with the tight labor market to help negotiate higher pay and better working conditions.

💸 [4:26] The second headline, “How the Fed’s Rate Increase Will Hit American’s Monthly Budgets”, discusses the most recent rate increase from the Federal Reserve and how it will have trickledown effects on mortgages, car loans, credit cards, and other monthly budget items.

📈 [10:59] The Final headline, “Central Banks May Stoke Risk By Raising Interest Rates Together”, is a deep dive into the potential effects the tightening of monetary policy around the world will have on the global economy.

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [17:35] And this week’s financial planning topic is Focus on What You Can Control. 👀

📈 [0:45] The first headline, “As Mortgage Rates Top 6% More Borrowers Choose Adjustable-Rate Loans”, is an article that explores the recent increase in adjustable-rate mortgage applications as rates top 6% for the first time since November of 2008.

⚠️ [4:26] The second headline, “Dollar’s Rise Spells Trouble for Global Economies”, discusses the historic rally the U.S. dollar has been on this year, largely due in part to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases and how the rise in the dollar is affecting emerging market economies as well the central banks of developed economies.

🧾 [10:59] The Final headline, “High Inflation Brings Changes to Your Tax Bill”, is a deep dive into the potential changes to tax thresholds, retirement contributions, and tax brackets for the tax year 2023 due to historic levels of inflation.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [12:43] And this week’s financial planning topic is The Greatest Fear. 😨

🚢 [0:49] The first headline, “Ocean Shipping Rates Have Plunged 60% This Year”, is an article that explores the plunge in cost to ship a 40-foot container from Asia to the West Coast of the United States and how it relates to inflation and the rise in prices for consumers.

🚀 [3:43] The second headline, “NASA’s Artemis I Moon Launch is Delayed Further as Engineers Analyze Fuel Leak”, discusses the two recent delays in NASA’s first mission for the Artemis Moon program which seeks to put the humans back on the moon after more than 45 years.

💼 [8:11] The Final headline, “August Jobs Report Shows Labor Market Has Cooled but Remains Solid”, is a deep dive into the relative cooling that the U.S. labor market has been exhibiting over the last few months and what effect if any it will have on the Federal Reserve’s policy to curb inflation and find a “soft landing” for the economy.

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [15:40] And this week’s financial planning topic is Don’t Just Do Something – Stand There! 🧍

🚚 [0:45] The first headline, “Warehouse Bottlenecks are Snarling U.S. Supply Chains”, is an article that explores the logistics bottlenecks that are plaguing inland transportation networks as the supply chain struggles continue in the U.S.

🛰️ [3:57] The second headline, “Data Storage is Reaching the Limit of Physics”, discusses how the advancement of digital data storage is butting up against the limits of physics and how engineers are proposing new ideas to keep up with the appetite for digital data storage.

📉 [10:14] The Final headline, “A Different Take on the U.S. Economy: Maybe it Isn’t Really Shrinking”, is a deep dive into comparative data sets of gross domestic product and gross domestic income for the first half of the year that might suggest the U.S. economy is in more of a stall than a recession.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 2 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [11:26] And this week’s financial planning topic is Dangers Avoided: why having a professional financial guide is worth it. ☠️

📱 [0:49] The first headline, “Spam Texts are Surging. Here’s How to Avoid Being Swindled.”, is an article that explores the surge in robotext spam that opens recipients to potential identity theft and how to protect yourself when you receive one.

📈 [3:44] The second headline, “Fed Officials See Need for Continued Interest Rate Increases, But Less Certainty Over Destination”, is a deep dive into the minutes from the July Federal Reserve policy meeting and what we can expect of future interest rate hikes and policy changes.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [11:26] And this week’s financial planning topic is Why You Should Consider Roth Conversions. 💸

🛍️ [0:49] The first headline, “U.S. Consumer Sentiment Improved in August from Early Summer Low”, is an article that explores the University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index and how it shows consumers have gradually gained confidence over the summer when it comes to the economic conditions in the United States.

📈 [3:44] The second headline, “Social Security Benefits are Heading for the Biggest Increase in 40 Years”, discusses how the Social Security Administration is likely going to increase benefits for disabled people and retirees by roughly 9% due to inflation, the largest increase since 1981.

🧑‍🏭🧑‍💼🧑‍🍳 [6:21] Our final headline, “Labor Shortage is a Vexing Challenge for U.S. Economy” is a deep dive into the current labor shortage and how it is a challenge not only for consumers and businesses but also for the Federal Reserve and their attempt at reducing inflation and increasing unemployment without sending us into a recession, or what is known as a ‘soft economic landing’.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [11:24] And this week’s financial planning topic is Avoid an Aimless Retirement. 🎯

🎟️ [0:49] The first headline, “What the $1.3 Billion Mega Millions Jackpot Reveals About the Economy”, is an article that explores the correlation between an uptick in lottery ticket sales, outsized lottery jackpots, and economic uncertainty.

💻 [3:41] The second headline, “Direct to Consumer Sales are Fueling Supply-Chain Tech Growth”, discusses how the boom in direct-to-consumer sales, in large part due to shifting shopping trends resulting from Covid-19, is providing supply-chain tech companies fertile grounds for growth.

📈 [7:04] Our final headline, “Snapshot of Jobs Market as It Reaches Pandemic Recovery Milestone” is a deep dive into the current jobs market as it has recently gained back all of the 22 million jobs that it shed at the beginning of the pandemic, the recovery has not been even for all industries.

Hope you enjoy it!

📰 On this week's episode of Minds Over Money, I go over 3 headlines from last week that directly impact the economy as well as potentially impacting your own investment portfolio. [17:13] And this week’s financial planning topic is Don’t Give Up the Ship, How to Maintain Course During Stormy Economic Conditions. ⛵

💸 [0:52] The first headline, “Consumers Have Powered Through the Pandemic and Inflation… Until Now”, is an article that explores how U.S. consumers were able to power through two and a half years of pandemic and now decades high inflation due to reduced costs early in the pandemic and historic government stimulus, but not any longer as inflation has eaten into their spending power and a recession looms on the horizon.

🏙️ [5:30] The second headline, “The Microchip Era is Giving Way to the Megachip Age”, discusses how the microchip industry is innovating new ways to combine a stack of microchips, much like a modern skyscraper, in order to advance processing power to make our gadgets faster and more efficient.

📉 [12:10] Our final headline, “If This is a Recession We Might Not Know for Months” is a deep dive into the National Bureau of Economic Research’s criteria for a recession and why even if we are currently in one we might not know for months.

Hope you enjoy it!