Oct 27 - Michael Hoeflich, CFP - Thoughts on the Economy

Michael Hoeflich, CFP spoke on Thoughts on the Economy
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Michael said that he is no economist and his presentation comes from his point of view as a financial planner.

There are many forces that effect the economy and each one individually, as well as in correlation to each other, can have vastly differing effects.
Points:

• Unemployment has been one of the key issues hampering the growth of the economy
• The job market, until fairly recently, was rather bleak – leading to a generation of boomerang children returning home to live with their parents until they can find meaningful employment.
• The rising cost of healthcare, and the debate about how we as a nation are going to pay for it.
• Questions over capitalism’s place in certain sectors of the economy, such as healthcare
• The U.S. voter is wary, worried and waiting for solutions from Washington which seems unable to accomplish much.
• The Fed’s imminent need to raise interest rates to provide the flexibility it will need to combat future headwinds, which is offset by the need not to cause unintended impacts in developed and emerging international market
• Until this most recent correction in the markets, US markets have been very smooth this year, despite the struggling economy, raising serious concerns about the sustainability of the trend.
• Currently, Congress has a very short period of time to make decisions around the national budget and debt ceiling, which is projected to be reached next week.  Talks continued late into the evening last night around a compromise bill that has been agreed upon by Congressional Leaders and the White House, but has caused division within the GOP which has left some uncertainty whether the bill will pass.
• The recent precipitous drop in oil prices and its impact on the energy sector have been far reaching, with both positive and negative implications throughout the economy.
• Questions about both the efficacy and potential vulnerability of the technology that drives our financial markets continue to re-emerge
•  And questions about if and how the US might help to bring some measure of stability to the global markets persist
•  All of these are occurring at a time when we are trying to build confidence to level supportive of economic expansions

And at a time when we are wondering?  Is there light at the end of the tunnel?
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Each of these issues is complex in and of itself.  Combine them together: and how does the average person decipher it all.  As a financial planner, I know that we must be prepared for the inevitability of change.  The economy will change, the markets will change, regulation will change, tax laws will change, even our own financial goals and objectives will change.  We need to tune out the noise and focus on what is relevant, and more importantly what we can control and plan for.  We need to tune out the noise, and focus on what is relevant, and more importantly what we can control and plan for.  In this era of instant access to information on the internet and through our smartphones, and 24/7 media coverage of all things financial, it is easy to become sucked into the hype around the day’s events and to make decisions that are not in our own best interest.  The truth is, however, it’s not different this time…. The issues are the same and we’ve dealt with them before.

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