QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Charity, good behavior, amiable speech, unselfishness – these by the chief sage have been declared the elements of popularity.” – Burmese Proverb
TECH CORNER
The Federal Reserve announced a pause in interest rate hikes during the September meeting last Wednesday, therefore, the federal funds rate remains at a 22-year high of 5.25% to 5.5%. However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a press conference, “We’re prepared to raise rates further if appropriate and keep rates higher for longer.” The stock market really didn’t like his comments. Since the announcement, the S&P 500 is down -3.8% and the Nasdaq is down -4.3% as of this Wednesday morning, September 27th.
With the threat of the government shutdown looming, the auto workers strike, oil approaching $100 a barrel and further bad economic news, the markets are starting to suspect this won’t be a soft landing for the economy. Our data is saying a worse scenario is already baked into the cake.
If you think inflation is getting under control look at what car insurance premiums are doing. Auto insurance prices increased +19.1% from August 2022 to August 2023. From July to August alone, car insurance prices climbed +2.1%. So far in 2023, auto insurance rates on average have increased +11% year to date.
SOURCE: Caring.com
On a different topic, please read this important information:
This situation just happened to one of our clients. Only a little over half (56%) of American parents have a will and/or a living trust document. Even when parents do have estate planning documents in place, adult children are mostly uninformed about where the documents can be found and what is written in them. Over half (52%) of adult children don’t even know where their parents store their estate documents, and 58% don’t know the contents of the documents.
If this applies to your situation, “now” is the time to have the “conversation”.
SOURCE; US Bureau of Labor Statistics, S&P Global
