What's up! It's episode 70 of Payne Points of Wealth. The year is starting off with lots of uncertainty about the Fed. What are they going to do with interest rates? You've got every firm out there predicting that it's going to be apocalypse now with interest rates being hiked seven, eight times, heck even nine times! Who knows! But what does that mean for the markets? Is the economy slowing? Is it slowing too much? Are we going to see that recession that we're hearing about every single week? We're going to tell you exactly what our playbook is to invest and what you should be thinking about, and how to allocate your portfolio. On the Tipping Point today, we're going to talk about a lot of things that we hear you say, (that you shouldn't be saying) when you're trying to be financially independent. We're going to point it out and get you on the right path to financial independence.

• No one wants to catch a falling knife [1:17]

Keep in mind that correction is merely that, it's not a substantial change in the direction of the economy. We just had really good numbers come in from November and December in housing and retail sales. About 170 companies have reported earnings so far for the quarter and 77% have beat analysts' expectations. That GDP number came in a lot higher than anybody anticipated. So the economy is still very, very strong. Short-term volatility doesn't necessarily equal exactly what's going on in the economy. Keep your eye on the prize. Don't let all this noise get you out of your long-term portfolio. 

We probably look at over 50 portfolios a month. It's very typical to hear people say a lot of the same things. “When will I be in good enough financial shape to retire?” “Can I afford this?” “If I only had a million dollars I’d be able to retire comfortably.” Are these phrases right? Are they wrong? Part of it is probably that people just want to hear someone say that it looks okay because when it's just you, left to your own devices self-talk sometimes can you put us in a really negative place and we don't see the big picture. 

People are afraid to sit down and do planning because they don't want to know that the answer is bad. More than not, even if you're not there yet and you can't be financially independent tomorrow if you just start you're going to get there sooner than you think. 

• The median home price in 1960 was $11,900. In 2021 the average new home price was $453,000! 

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