Has inflation really hit you hard these last 4 years?

[sage2021]

I don't understand how the stock market hasn't crashed with Biden in office. We have wars happening and it doesn't seem to affect the stock market one but.
Is what Americans paying such high prices for everything, especially groceries and electricity and gas helping the stock market at our expense (literally)?
All of a sudden my friends retirement account has gone downhill to almost nothing in the last 4 years. He, not I didn't account for inflation to happen years ago and he thought he'd be ok financially. But now, we are terribly worried about how (we're) going to survive when his retirement is gone!!
This is a frightening and very scary thought and something to lose sleep over.
It just crept up on us and we don't even buy anything except food, gas, rent, car insurance and phones.
We are scared 😨 and don't know what to do.
There's not even anything to cut back on.
Any suggestions?

[Makeushiver]

The stock market is usually an early indicator. It had a mini crash the first time Jay Powell said he was going to need to raise interest rates to curb inflation. We wound up with inflation and higher interest rates. I was in the market for the 2008 washout but I had smelled that coming and cash on sidelines. Made out pretty well by getting in when everyone wanted out. Now we've had 15 years of a bull market, much of it has been on smoke and mirrors, some due to disruptive technology but the market can't keep going up. One of the big reasons that I hear very few peeople discussing is this. The demohrapohic bulge of the baby boomers have been adding to 401ks and IRAs a lot in the past 15r year bull market. That has artificially kept market high because every paycheck was going into stock holding mutual funds. Many of them are retiring or retired. Just as the input into 401ks supported the market under the premise of a rising tide floats all boats, they arfe not just going to stop making contributions but, by law in many cases, will start taking distributions from those accounts which will exert downward pressure on the market. My advice- and I do this for a living- is this. Research stocks, ETFs or Mutual Funds whatever you feel most comfortable with. Most importantly, which sectors and industries look like they will have the greatest demand. Low interest rates are good for smaller capo companies because of their reliance on debt. Large caps usually have enough cash to survive. Metrics that I choose to use are top line growth shown on a balance sheet as revenue. I prefer revenue to profit, earnings because it's a raw # that accountants can't fuck with. If you want income earninng equituies I ignore, or take w/ grain of salt current dividend. It could look high because the price has plummeted which will show a high dividend but look at the history of dividends. Dividends can be reduced or eliminated any time but a company w/record of increasing dividends over the years. Analysts love what they call moats. A moat is the measure of whether the company is a brand - andisruptive technology, a patented drug or medical procedure, Something noi one else has. Company with a moat can set their prices. Apple had some for a while when iPhone 1st came out. Intuitive Surgical had one. Companies w/o a moat get treated as commodities which mean they have pretty much same thing competition has so they can really only compete on price. I prefer micro cap stocks because the good ones don't have prices driven up because every portfolio has them. Micro caps can go out of business so you need to pay attention quarterly at a minimum. I like water stocks water purification stocks. People are concerned about peak oil what will we do when oil supplies start dwindling. Not so many think about peak water. The third world countries now have the greatest population growth and the poorest access to clean water. When water supplies get competitive you will definitely notice and uit will make peak oil look like a cartoon. You can live w/o oil, buy a Tesla. No one can live without water. It would cause a political uproar if companies acted on water like they did oil,. Britain, US, Holland, France all chopped up Middle East, Venezuela, Mexico (Pemex) and every other oil reserve in the world. They have been slowly taken back but doing that with water would be unconscionable. I like outside US companies because US companie have the most correupt self-serving executives. When Trump tried to increase jobs by cutting corporate tax he never thought about the greed of CEOs etyc. The companies used the extra $ to buy back stock raising the price. Well at least that's good for shareholders, right. Guess who the biggest shareholders are with stock grants and options the execs, made a fortune w/o creating any jobs with their largesse. CWCO in Canada I liked but it got too popular, also SBS, Veolia (French). Sorry, way too much info to absorb. If you want to DM me with specific questions go ahead but that's about $500 worth of info you just go0t for free.

[sage2021]

@Makeushiver
Man! 😎 You really know a lot about this and it's because you have a brilliant mind and do this as your occupation - which most people couldn't do that kind of work. It takes a certain someone to know how to make the system work for you instead of against you.
We are old people and don't know jack diddly about this stuff. All I know is that we are in serious trouble!
His money that he has left is in bonds and that's all I know and when it's gone, it's gone and that will be very soon and now I am learning here it's going to get worse. 😔
Thank you for offering me an invitation to DM you but I don't even know what to ask 🤷🏼‍♀️

[LiamS95]

Fuel will be coming down in price now that Trulp will be finishing the oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. Supporting the auto makers will help too as the infrastructure is not available for electric vehicles in general. When fuel comes down so will food and everything else thst needs to be transported.

[Lliam]

Yep. It has hit my wife and me. The prices on restaurants, groceries, goods, fuel, utilities, and labor have gone way up and I doubt if they will ever go back down again.

Our monthly income is no longer enough to cover our expenses even though we live pretty thriftily.

The company that manages our IRA has done a good job and our savings have increased with the stock market. But I have to keep dipping into it to pay our expenses.

[sage2021]

@Lliam
My friend had an IRA but the stock market kept going down after Biden became president. I thought it might crash.
So his financial advisor recommended that he put his money in bonds, which isn't affected by the stock market. And he said he would even make some money with bonds - which didn't happen this year.😞
Unfortunately, back in 2009 a lot of people lost their jobs and he was one of them.
He was old enough to start collecting his Social Security early, but really didn't have a choice.
He also was paid by the State for being my disabled son's caregiver. That supplemented some of what he was making when he was working. It just wasn't enough to get by so he started getting money out of his 401k.

Fast forward to 2024 and now it's almost all the way gone!!

[TheRealPepperPotts]

I'm really sorry to hear that you are struggling. I think many people are and it will get worse before it gets better.

I invested some of my cash savings into renovating my home to hedge against inflation and force appreciation. That way, I didn't have to sit around and watch my savings lose value every month. Real estate is the best long term inflation hedge, and I know that housing will always have value, even if the housing market had a setback in the next decade.

I expect a recession with Trump in office. Not because of Trump, but because the economic policies of the previous president tend to show up during the term of the next president. Interest rates will be forced down again in order to stimulate the economy, causing inflation to rise. I would recommend buying bonds before that happens to guarantee some returns over the next five to ten years.

The economy had a recession during COVID, but the effects were mitigated by the government stimulus checks. Now it's time to pay the piper and it's probably going to be a bumpy ride. Covid was 2020 and it's coming up on five years. The rough timeline of market ups and downs is ten years, give or take. Since the previous market was artificially bolstered, it wouldn't surprise me if the effects were delayed and the next drop was a little sooner than ten years. Just remember that when the market crashes, it's time to invest cash because everything is on "sale".

I really hope things improve for you; just keep your head on and don't panic! <3

[sage2021]

@TheRealPepperPotts
Thank you so much for all of the help and information.
When Biden became president, for a while there, the stock market was going down, down, down, and we got scared that it was going to crash.
So we took his money out of his 401K (it was called something else but I can't remember what?) and put his money in bonds for safekeeping in case the stock market crashed. His financial advisor said he would even make some money with the plan he's on now. But when I spoke to the financial advisor last week, he said he didn't make any money in 2024 😔

We don't own any property.

It's how much groceries cost the last 4 years that hit his retirement account so hard. He hardly buys anything but milk, juice and bottled water and a tall can of coffee and one or two other items and that's about $200 plus he pays someone $50 for going grocery shopping for him because he has medical problems that don't allow him to lift hardly anything. And I can't do it either.
If you multiply that by 4, well, that's a big chunk of change!
I asked in my question why was the stock market steady and rising during the last 4 years?
I don't get it.🤷🏼‍♀️

[Bricealan]

@sage2021 Hi sage, I started to do that some time ago, when I want all electric. Solar and a Tesla storage battery. No gasoline any more with the Tesla, no natural gas with electric heat, and no electric bill except to pay off the solar.

I get $$$ from Boeing, and Ford Aerospace for my time there, so, so far, I am not impacted by the current economic mess.

[Anonymous]

Somewhat. I say somewhat because I only work 7 days every two weeks, so a tank of gas gets me through about 2.5 weeks. We used to eat out a lot, but the prices of takeout these days is ridiculous. Which in all honesty we shouldn’t be eating out as much so that’s not really a bad thing. Grocers are somewhat high, but the good thing is we don’t have a mortgage or even a lease. My wife’s father purchased her house some 20 years ago so he took care of that before I even let her. We’ve been together for 16 years. Our biggest expense is the car.

[sage2021]

@Anonymous
Yep! The darn 🚗 car expenses will eat us alive.
It's not only gas, but car insurance for an old man is expensive! Plus the upkeep and maintenance as well.

I think I will check and see if he can get more affordable car insurance somewhere else. He's been with the same insurance company for more than 20 years and they raise his insurance every year 😶

[lightbulb27]

Yes but we were in a good position and assets went up, so it hasn't changed our standard of living... yet.

Man, stuff is really expensive though... got that right... the food, insurance and stuff you've got to hav $ for.

Biden when came in said "pay more" to employers. trouble is, those whom retired don't get that unless are working. SS doesn't go up that much. They've been cheating SS people by understating inflation.

[Lynx122]

I'm lucky Switzerland hasn't had much inflation. Our National bank is very good at their job :) They don't just give the government money whenever they want it.

The only thing you can really do is buy gold or stocks or a house to protect yourself from inflation. But you have to do that before you lose all your money of course. Once you've lost it there's nothing you can do except get more money.

[exitseven]

Yes, the stock market took a nose dive almost as soon as Biden took office. It has finally recovered to where is was when Trump was president. However if somebody has a million dollars in their retirement account when Biden was elected that million dollars is worth maybe 800,000 if that.

[FunkyMonkee]

Sure has!! 4 years ago, I could've gone to the store with $5.00 and bought a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread and a pound of butter and still have change left over! Today, I go to that same store with that same 5 and I have to choose which of those 3 items I want the most because they're all at least $4.00!!

[Likes2drive]

Food seems to be the biggest increase since inflation and buying materials for a home, taxes keep going up regardless and insurance. No wonder old people are getting skinny

[Dongie]

Have you considered going back to work?
SS just took $358 from me so as soon as this heart thing is back to normal I'm going back to work.

[sage2021]

@Dongie
Why did SS take money from you? Are they going to do that with all of us old folks on SS?
We are going to get a 2.5% increase for SS cost of living raise that we will see on our January check. It's not much but it's better than a sharp stick in my eye! 👁️

[Dongie]

I've appealed it. The guy on the phone couldn't say why. He just spewed some bs, and I cussed and slammed the phone down.

[sage2021]

@Dongie
Well of course they can't tell you that they gave you money to the illegal alien's!! Cause that's probably what they did with it.
Ya know, in the old days when we had the old dial telephones☎️ or push button one's like this cool red phone, slamming the phone down on them actually hurt the person's ear so there was satisfaction in doing it.
But not so with a cellphone because if you slam it down, it'll break!

I sure miss the old days and slamming the phone down on people.

When I was mad at the person on the other line I would say "Well listen to this"!! And I would slam the phone in their ear. Hehehe 🤗

[Dongie]

Yeah, that was my reference, but I just actually pushed the damn button so hard I knocked the phone out of my hand.

[alice55]

No it''s ok, it didn't changed much, I always been poor so

[Ironco]

You never should have voted for Biden.

It will get better now.. it really will.

[sage2021]

@Ironco

Hell! I didn't vote for Biden!! Where did you get that from? 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Ironco]

Sorry, I might have mixed you up with someone else. Not too many 70 year olds out here. That's not a slam by the way. Just mixed you up with an other person.

[LiamJHayden]

I can see it but my margin is enough that I do not feel it.

[LiamS95]

You can thank Biden and Kamala for that.

[eagle1951]

like a brick