Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo: Protecting Purchasing Power and Beating Inflation

Pet medical inflation is outpacing human healthcare costs and core CPI. Lucas and Luna break down why veterinarian prices rose over 8% year-over-year through May 2026—driven by consolidation in veterinary practices, specialized equipment debt, and a shortage of qualified vets. They look at what pet owners can actually do, including pet insurance trade-offs and the rise of preventative care subscri...

Episode 81 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo: Lucas and Luna reveal how 'shrinkflation' is hitting your grocery cart harder than official CPI data suggests. They break down a real-world example—a bag of coffee that dropped from 12 ounces to 10.5 ounces while the price stayed the same—and explain why the Bureau of Labor Statistics struggles to capture these hidden price increases. Lucas brin...

Episode 80 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo explores an overlooked inflation victim: life insurance premiums. Lucas and Luna break down how persistent inflation has pushed up the cost of term and whole life policies by 8-12% in 2026, using real data from the May CPI report and recent Fed signals. They explain the mechanics — higher claims costs, rising bond yields, and insurers repricing r...

Episode 79 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna uncover a stealth inflation vector: major home appliances. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says washing machine prices have dropped 12% year-over-year, but the actual cost per wash cycle has climbed because of mandated efficiency features and repair complexity. Lucas walks through a specific example: a typical front-load washer tha...

Lucas and Luna dive into a hidden inflation casualty: travel rewards programs. With CPI at 334 and the ten-year breakeven inflation rate at 2.20 percent, the purchasing power of your miles and points is quietly being devalued. They break down how major loyalty programs have been increasing the number of points needed for award flights and hotel stays by 15 to 25 percent over the past year, effecti...

Episode 77 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna dive into a hidden inflation victim: homeowners insurance premiums. With CPI still sticky at 3.1% year-over-year as of May 2026, and the Fed holding rates at 3.63%, home insurance costs have surged 15-20% in many states, far outpacing general inflation. Lucas breaks down why—rising reinsurance costs, climate-driven catastrophe los...

Episode 76 of Inflation and Your Money. Lucas and Luna dig into a specific inflation blind spot: the restaurant menu. Most of us think we notice when prices go up, but restaurants have been using a subtler strategy — shrinking portions, reformulating recipes, and shifting menu mix — to conceal the real inflation hit. Lucas walks through data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that 'food a...

Episode 75 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo looks at a surprisingly vulnerable spot in your budget: pet insurance. With pet medical costs rising at more than double the rate of human healthcare inflation, carriers are jacking up premiums aggressively. Lucas and Luna break down the specific data — including a 23% average premium increase in 2025 alone — and explain why the standard inflatio...

Episode 74 examines silver's recent collapse as an inflation hedge, down over 10% in a week as gold stumbles too. Lucas and Luna unpack the industrial demand shift, the role of interest rates, and whether silver's dual identity as both a monetary metal and an industrial commodity makes it a risky bet right now. They reference real-time data: silver trading near $58.50, the 10-year breakeven inflat...

Silver has historically been considered an inflation hedge alongside gold, but in the current cycle it's getting crushed. As of June 25, 2026, silver futures are down over 12 percent in the last five days, while gold is down about 4 percent. Lucas and Luna dig into why silver is suddenly failing as a store of value. They look at the industrial demand collapse from solar and electronics manufacturi...

Episode 72 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna unpack a hidden inflation vector: property taxes. With home values up and local budgets under pressure, mill rates are rising faster than CPI. The hosts walk through how a $400,000 home in a typical suburb saw its tax bill jump 8% year-over-year, even as assessed values rose only 5%. They break down the lag between market value sp...

Episode 71 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna uncover how streaming services have quietly raised prices by 25% since 2022, far outpacing official CPI for 'recreation services'. They dig into Netflix, Disney+, and Spotify's pricing strategies, the shift to ad-supported tiers, and why your monthly entertainment bill is a stealth inflation vector. They also reference the latest...

Episode 70 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo. Lucas and Luna dive into a hidden inflation casualty: used car trade-in values. While headlines celebrate falling used car prices, Lucas explains how depreciation is accelerating for many models, and why that matters for your personal inflation rate. They reference recent CPI data, the ten-year breakeven inflation rate at 2.23 percent, and the s...

Episode 69 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo examines a critical blind spot in most household budgets: medical costs are rising far faster than headline inflation. Lucas and Luna break down the latest CPI data, showing that medical care services are up 6.2% year-over-year versus core CPI at 3.1%. They explore how this gap affects deductibles, out-of-pocket maximums, and the real value of He...

In this episode of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dig into why college tuition has become a stealth inflation battleground. With CPI running at 3.3% year over year as of May 2026, tuition inflation is clocking in at nearly double that rate at 6.2%. The hosts break down the specific drivers: administrative bloat, the decline of state funding, and the pricing power of elite un...

Lucas and Luna break down why rent is rising faster than CPI in 2026, and how homeownership—specifically a 3.5% FHA loan locked in 2020—has quietly become the best inflation hedge for millions of Americans. They examine the divergence between owner's equivalent rent and actual shelter costs, the Fed's new rate regime under Kevin Warsh, and why buying a home in 2020-2021 is outperforming gold and T...

In this episode of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna unpack how the annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is calculated using CPI-W, a measure that tracks spending patterns of urban wage earners and clerical workers. As of May 2026, the all-items CPI stands at 334, but the CPI-W tends to run even higher because it weights gasoline and rent more heavily. Wit...

Episode 65 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo digs into a surprising inflation fighter that's hiding in plain sight: your employer-sponsored retirement plan. Lucas and Luna explain how TDFs (target-date funds), stable value funds, and even the humble company match are responding to the current inflation environment in ways most savers miss. With CPI at 334 and the ten-year breakeven inflatio...

CPI says inflation is cooling, but your landlord didn't get the memo. In Episode 64 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna drill into the specific disconnect between official shelter inflation measures and what tenants are actually paying. Using May 2026 CPI data (shelter up 0.4% month-over-month, owners' equivalent rent at a 5.2% annualized pace) plus a real-world case study of...

Episode 63 of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo digs into Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities ETFs and why they're outperforming in the current rate environment. With the Fed's new hawkish posture under Chairman Warsh and the 10-year breakeven inflation rate slipping to 2.25 percent, host Lucas and Luna explore how the iShares TIPS Bond ETF (TIP) has delivered a 5.2 percent year-to-date re...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna dig into a specific number: auto insurance premiums have risen 22% year-over-year, far outpacing overall inflation. They explore why repair costs, parts shortages, and reinsurance pricing are driving the spike, and what listeners can do about it — from usage-based policies to raising deductibles. No vague advice, just concrete strategies grounded in today's rate env...

In this episode of Inflation and Your Money, Lucas and Luna explore why one specific category—used cars—continues to see price increases even as headline inflation moderates. They break down the structural supply constraints in the auto market, the shift in consumer behavior post-pandemic, and why the typical inflation hedges might miss this pocket of persistent price growth. Using May consumer pr...

In this episode of Inflation and Your Money with Fexingo, Lucas and Luna dive into how persistent inflation is changing the calculus for homebuyers and homeowners. With CPI at 334.0 and core CPI at 336.1, the Fed holds rates steady while Chairman Warsh signals a less accommodative stance. The hosts break down why adjustable-rate mortgages are making a comeback, how inflation expectations embedded...

Lucas and Luna break down why Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities are outperforming other inflation hedges as the Fed holds rates steady and breakeven inflation dips. They analyze how TIPS real yields have turned positive for the first time in years, what that means for bond ladder strategies, and why the five-year TIPS auction saw record demand. With the 10-year breakeven falling to 2.26%, th...

In this episode, Lucas and Luna break down how persistent inflation is quietly reshaping how you should think about your grocery budget. With CPI still elevated at 334 and core inflation sticky, they discuss why traditional couponing and bulk-buying may no longer work. They dive into the concept of dynamic discounting, the rise of private-label brands, and how retailers are using AI to price items...