She didn't have you find
yourself digging a little deeper
to pay for everyday things.
Now inflation is at a 30 year high,
but there are some things you
can do to ease of pressure.
Little Christian chat with author
and CPA Chris Fur on what you need
to know about inflation and how to
prevent it from wearing you down.
Chris, we are happy to have you here
to talk and help us better understand
what's going on with inflation.
It's at a 30 year high and this graph
shows really several different measures
of inflation which to somebody like me
can be very difficult to understand.
But you have an easier measure called
the Big Mac index. What is that?
Well, sure Kristen,
you know they have so many
different statistics for inflation.
It's almost like they're trying
to confuse us on purpose.
So if we make it more simple.
We look at just the price of the Big
Mac when the Big Mac came out in 1967.
It costs $0.45.
Wow by 2000 the price was $2.39 and by
2020 it was $4.95 for the same Big Mac.
Nothing has changed so inflation is the
constant erosion of the value of your dollar.
A dollar today buys a whole
lot more than it will a year
from now or two years from now.
Simple
and flat. Is that alright?
So there does seem to be that many different
things that are driving inflation.
What do you think drives inflation?
Well, I think the biggest driver
of inflation right now is the
government printing money.
Since the pandemic started,
we have been printing $120 billion
each month or $1.4 trillion annually.
That's unsustainable and and the
negative consequences of COVID-19
they've printed so much money.
If you look at the entire history
of the United States. 245 years.
All the money that we've printed,
we've printed 40% of it in
just one year in 2020.
So even though politicians are saying
it's transitory and it might end,
you have people like the Chief
Financial Officer of Kroger said that
he expects inflation food inflation to
be another 2 to 3% higher this year.
So are you going to believe someone that
has a vested interest in telling the truth?
Or are you going to believe
politicians that might you know want
to muddy the waters a little bit?
I know who I believe.
I mean the statistics and just
the amount of money printed in
2020 is crazy, So what can we do?
What can Americans do consumers do to
offset inflation and the impact of it?
Well, Christian, I think the number one
thing that especially the middle class should
do because their salaries are not really.
They're going to stay the same
unless we try to change them.
But the cost of everything
is going to increase.
So the first thing they should
do is go in and ask for a raise.
Now is the best time that I've ever
seen to ask for a raise because there
are 10 million job openings and seven
million people on unemployment and
not all of those are looking for work.
So employers are really struggling.
We see how wanted signs everywhere.
So now is the time to go in
and get yourself a race.
The second thing that people should do
is they should try to have their wages,
tide to inflation and the way to do that
is just go into your boss and say listen,
I love working here.
I want to stay here but the only way
I can survive as a family is to have
my salary keep up with inflation.
So I'll try to have your salary or
your your wages indexed to inflation
to change at least once a year,
if not every six or three months
to try to keep up with that.
You know,
third thing that people should
really focus on is investing wisely.
Doctor Michael Fink of the American
College of Financial Services said
that a 5050 portfolio of treasury
bonds and stocks, like the S&P 500.
Produces 75% less income than
it did ten years ago in 2011,
so we really want to look at assets
that have historically held their
value during periods of high inflation.
These are hard assets that have
an intrinsic value separate from
the value of a dollar like gold,
silver real estate.
You know, crypto currencies are
very very strong right now,
but even things like art,
Rolexes and collector cars they
have value regardless of what
the dollar is going to do.
Alright, so many ways to offset that
is it you mentioned the salary is
that kind of like a cost of living
raise that we the the phrase we hear
it would be cola or cost of living
adjustment or cost of living
increase is something that you want
to have tide to you tried to your
salary so that you can keep up.
You have taught me so much this morning,
Chris, I appreciate you and thank you for
helping us better understand inflation.
My pleasure, Kristen.