Planned Solutions

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, There are a wide variety of employee benefits offered by different employers. In many cases, the value of these benefits may add up to a large percentage of the employee’s overall compensation. Therefore, it is important to review these benefits as well as their tax benefits or consequences to extract as much value as possible to help...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The rate of inflation declined by two-thirds from a year ago when it peaked at 9.1%. The June inflation rate was just 3.0%, a 1.0% decline from May. The decrease in prices was led by a large drop in energy prices, while food and shelter inflation remained persistently high. However, the average inflation rate for many households that o...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The yield curve is currently inverted meaning short-term term deposits are paying a higher interest rate than longer-term deposits. So, why would savers commit to longer-term deposits at a lower interest rate? It all comes down to the expectation for the future path of interest rates. If rates are expected to fall in the future it may...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The S& P 500 earnings season is right around the corner. This could be a key earnings season for the stock market following the sharp rebound in earnings reported in the first quarter. Should earnings continue to rebound, and possibly exceed their peak from the fourth quarter of 2021, it may support the stock market rally that began in...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, Summer jobs for teens are often low-level and low paying. However, they can be an important springboard that can be used to start a career on the right track and jumpstart a financial plan. Therefore, it is important to be prepared to take advantage of the career skills and learning opportunities that a part-time job may offer. Also, O...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, We decided to outsource our lead article to Google Bard this week. Google Bard is Google’s Artificial Intelligence Chatbot. We found that the article generated was mostly accurate, although not completely (see notation in the article), which raises concerns about misinformation or false information when relying on artificial intelligen...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, Technology stocks have outperformed other sectors by a wide margin so far in 2023, helping to offset the large losses in Technology stocks in 2022. This has caused some investors to allocate a large percentage of their stock portfolios into this single sect or which may result in higher risks than they realize. Instead, investors may b...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The US economy grew just 1.1% in the first quarter, a lower growth rate than the prior two quarters. However, the report had a lot of positives with household spending up 3.7% and government spending increasing 4.7%. Meanwhile, investment expenditures were a drag on growth, down 12.5%, likely due to increased interest rates and the unc...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered its economic growth forecast in recent weeks but continues to predict positive growth rates for the majority of the globe. However, the expected pace of economic growth around the globe, as well as in the US, is fairly low compared to historical rates. This appears to be a middle ground...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, Picking the right credit card often depends on how a cardholder plans to use the card. For most people who pay off their credit card balances each month the interest rate charged by the credit card should be the last consideration. Instead, it is advisable to weigh the rewards that the credit card offers against the annual cost of the...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The recent bank run that caused three large banks to fail in the US this year is a classic case of a Prisoner’s Dilemma. A Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game theory concept that illustrates how the optimal strategy for participants may lead to a less-than-optimal outcome that leaves all involved worse off. Fortunately, the Federal Reserve in...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, With interest rates are significantly higher than they were last year, this is a good time for savers to review their cash management strategies to ensure that they are maximizing the interest rates they are earning on their savings. This may involve shifting money to account types that pay higher yields, comparing the rates that are o...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The US inflation rate declined slightly in January as goods prices continued to decline but services prices climbed. This will likely cause the inflation focus to shift from goods to services going forward as service prices will need to decline for inflation to return to its longer-term average. Within the services category, the cost o...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The Weekly Economic Index (WEI) is a high-frequency (updated weekly rather than monthly or quarterly) economic indicator that has a strong track record of predicting the pace of US economic growth. Currently, the WEI is forecasting slow economic growth but is not yet predicting a recession in 2023. However, the path of this index shoul...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, Consumer prices have been in focus for the past several years as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) reported above-average increases in prices. However, what has been lost in this data is the even larger increase in the Producer Price Index (PPI) which measures prices paid by businesses for raw materials. This has caused profit margins to...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, the passing of the Secure Act 2.0 has made several changes to the rules governing retirement accounts. Among these changes is the change in the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rules which extend the age at which retirement account owners will need to take distributions to age 73 in 2023. The Secure Act 2.0 also solidifies and expan...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, Foreign stocks have outperformed US stocks by 12% over the past two months. This represents a major shift from what has been a long and fairly consistent period of higher returns from US stocks. This recent shift in returns is partially explained by a weakening US dollar compared to other major currencies. However, foreign stocks also...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The US inflation rate declined to 7.1% in November, the fifth consecutive month of decline. While food and energy inflation remain high year-over-year, both show shorter-term improvement with the pace of the increase in food prices declining and energy prices dropping in four of the last five months. Meanwhile, services prices have inc...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The estimates of global economic growth have been revised several times in 2022 as the probability of a recession in the US within the next twelve months has increased to nearly 25%. It seems the best scenario is a period of very low economic growth, with the worst case is a period of economic contraction. However, this outlook for eco...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The stock market surged on November 10th in response to a better-than-expected inflation report. This has caused some to question how stock prices can be considered rational when prices sometimes swing by such large amounts in one day. The answer relates to the fact that investors are forward-looking, so they are constantly anticipatin...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The high rate of inflation throughout 2022 has resulted in large adjustments to a number of areas of the US income tax code. The number of tax deductions, the levels for each income tax bracket, and the income levels of tax credits are all adjusted upward for 2023. This will produce little change in tax rates for those whose taxable in...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, With the mid-term elections around the corner, there is a lot of noise about the risks that it could pose to the markets and the economy. Much of this is political rhetoric as both parties make their case for political power or attack the other in an attempt to get their base excited to vote. However, the data shows that midterm electi...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The level of margin debt (money borrowed to invest in stocks) was at high levels in late 2021 creating a concern about the high level of short-term speculation in the stock market. However, since then, the amount borrowed to invest in stocks has declined sharply and is now in line with the long-term trendline. This could be a sign that...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The US stock market was unable to resume an upward trend in August as the market stalled out at the 200-day moving average trend line. Now the market is trading between its long-term trendline and the low for the year in mid-June. While these trends offer some indication of the market trends for the remainder of 2022 it is likely that...

In this episode of the Planned Solutions Incorporated Podcast, The recent executive order creating student loan forgiveness of $10,000 or $20,000 for most student loan borrowers has created more questions than it has answered. Over time we should get more information on how this will be administered and the steps that borrowers will need to take to apply. However, there are some changes to student...