Happy Fall Y’all as we say in West Tennessee. At the end of June, we were hoping for middle ground in the tug of war between interest rate hikes and inflation. The problem with the statistics we all hear in the news is that some of them are leading indicators (present) and some are lagging indicators (past). This causes the news media to pump out mixed signals as to the real health of the economy. There is no question that prices are dropping across the board for American consumers. Google search trends tell us that “how to become a real estate agent” was a top search query from January ’21 to January ’22. That should have been a clue. The easy money from selling real estate, cars, and recreational items is drying up for the time being. So, what does the future hold? Here are a few thoughts to keep us all in the boat and paddling forward.

Many “experts” on TV use economic forecasts to tell investors which direction the market is going. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller says high rates will cause a recession that will depress the stock market for years. Ray Dalio (another billionaire investor) says that it is the war in Ukraine and US-China tensions that could devastate the economy and our investment accounts. There are countless other gloomy forecasts, but they all have one thing in common: these forecasts are merely guesses.

After being halted for a year, RMDs are back! Those with traditional IRAs and who are 72 years and older must take annual required minimum distributions (RMDs).