You're in the news every day. You have a good pulse of what's going on in America. Where do you see the future looking like? Inflation seems like it's out of control. Seems like there's just a lot of chaos going on. We're printing money left and right, but yet the confidence level in the economy doesn't seem to be strong. Where's your thoughts? And you're not giving investment advice. No one in this audience is going to hold you to something. But what are you feeling in your heart? What do you think is going to happen next year or two?
Expectations for the Future
Yeah, well, I think gas prices are going to go higher over the next six months. I think food's going to go higher. There might be a food shortage later in this year. I don't know that that will last multiple years. But once you start getting behind, you start getting behind, right?
And I think as far as the stock market goes, I'm reading a lot of news. A lot of analysts believe there's going to be a slight recovery and then possibly a bigger drop. That one's hard to know what's going to happen. But I do think that we're going to enter a recession. There could be stagflation where product prices go up and wages do not. And so people are just kind of stuck for a while until prices can come back down and then people can start to earn more money.
The Limitations of Fiscal Policy
You can't print $6 trillion without repercussions. Like 40% of all the money circulating was printed in the last 24 months. It may even be higher than that now. These are not political things, right? Trump dumped a lot of money to get through the pandemic. Biden has dropped a lot of money to get through the pandemic. It was probably all too much money, but that's a whole different conversation.
Managing Personal Economies
I do think that we're in for some harder times. And for me, I have a lot of confidence just going forward because of the programs that I can offer to people where I can show them, hey, here's how to get into something that it's not going to hit home runs, but it's a base hit every year. You get enough base hits compounding in your favor, and next thing you know, you've got a nice pot of money that isn't going to be taxed, that you have liquid access to.
I don't know that we're heading for like a Great Depression or anything like that. But the political fighting is probably the worst it's ever been. I don't really have a lot of confidence in either political party, which again, can you control the US economy? No. With the right education and tools, can I control my own economy? Yes. And that's where I try to focus my clients: what can you do to control your spending, your savings, where you put your money, how much 401k you contribute to, how much life insurance?
Looking Forward with Confidence
These are things that are within your control. Everything else, it's chaos. It's out of your control, right? And then eventually things will start to smooth out and start to go back up. If you have an indexing plan, it's not bad in an index universal life or indexing. You can do a lot of things. Because the data shows us you usually have a double-digit bounce back later, right? And so it all ends up working out in the end. But not participating in the losses saves you a ton of money and heartache. Not having that emotional breakdown.
Like I know people—I read every single day in my comments—what should I do about my 401k? It's losing. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't have enough time to educate these people. The best I can do is a general video. But so yeah, I think we're heading into some rocky times. But again, I just try to really stress with agents and with my own money and my own mental health and then my clients, you can control your own economy. Doesn't mean it will be perfect. Doesn't mean it's going to be a home run. But you can at least get your arms around it with a plan that you have confidence to move forward into the future with.
Conclusion
Such a beautiful answer. And that can be what we look forward to in the midst of unknowns, because there is a lot of unknowns. I love you said this twice. You can't control the US economy, but you can learn to control your personal economy. I think it's great. And I think it's a wonderful mindset.
Financial confidence comes from your ability to produce income. It doesn't come from, oh, I knocked it out of the park with Dogecoin. Those are like little blips, but like this ability to consistently produce income, consistently produce a return on your money and see it compound and grow in your favor. Now you just need time. That's the beauty of it. It gives you a little bit more control, more control than the rest of the society has. And that gives you more calm and peace than the rest of the society has.
