I believe the FED should keep raising, but not as aggressive.
I noticed the rate on my credit card went up again. This is on my credit union card, which is usually low (7.5%) but is now 10.5%. I don’t think there has been an increase to the savings account rate.
I don’t really care about this because I pay it off in full every month…so my interest is actually 0.
We have also told our kids that they should do this as well.
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It’s one of the best pieces of advice, which sadly, a lot of Americans, especially young Americans, ignore. Credit card debt has reached all time high:
Agree 100%. Don’t carry cc debt and pay the crazy interest rate. I did that some while in college just learning about cc’s and two years after college was the last cc interest I have paid.
Hopefully my children will follow suit.
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I don’t carry credit card debt either, but many Americans do and it is a sign of inflation when the rates change. I do like having my credit card at this credit union because if I make a mistake and am charged a fee, they will waive it. I do care about the rate because it is a sign of inflation.
Also the mortgage rates, the car loan rates, student loan rates all going up.
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I set credit card payments on autopay, reducing the risk of mistakes. Rather than choose a card that is forgiving of mistakes (I expect all quality cards would forgive an autopay error), I choose the no-fee card(s) with the highest cash back on my purchases, that also meets other basic needs.
I’ve never actually looked what the credit card interest rates are since they are not applicable my auto-pay situation. Checking now, I see the rates on the cards I use are 17.74% APR for purchase and 28.99% for cash advances (both with Citi, have same rate). I see that this is only slightly more than a year ago… an increase well short of the change in prime rate during this period.
I only had a balance on my CC when it was intro 0% interest for xx months when we charged 1/2 the price of my van on it as we didn’t have the ready cash. We paid the entire balance at xx-1 months, so free use of CC’s money for those xx-1 months. Drove the van for about 20 years.
Neither I, H not our kids carry any balance on our CCards. S has his on autopay and I mostly pay as soon as statement arrives. No finance or interest charges, just cash back and other benefits of card ownership.
Housing prices can come down in two ways. Nominal prices can drop. Or nominal prices can stay stagnant while there is significant inflation. Hence inflation-adjusted prices are dropping. Both may happen, but the latter is a lot easier for sellers than the former.
I got gas for $2.55/gallon last week so yea!
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You’re still paying. Diesal is still over 5 bucks a gallon–and you pay for that in everything you buy.
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I thought we were going to run out of diesel by now. I heard that somewhere. I know I did.
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Warren Buffet on inflation.
““Fiscal policy scares me more than monetary policy,” Buffett says.”
“It’s fun sending money out to people if you want to stay in office, if you want their vote,” Buffett says when asked whether too much government spending was a driver of inflation.
It doesn’t take a genius like Buffett to figure out that if you keep spending (and printing) money you don’t have, you would get inflation (the other factors are secondary). Fed may be accused of being negligent, but being proactive never was its strength with its practical political constraints.
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I was thinking he was referring to the last stimulus money passed in 2021. About the big debate of supply vs demand. Supply issues are largely solved. Inflation pressure will stay as long as people have savings. A few experts predict it will run out by July. We will see soon who’s right.
We bought a house pre-inflation, and were determined to stay indefinitely. Life happened and we had to move. Now we just purchased a house post-inflation, and our mortgage doubled for a comparable house. We just got poorer. But I’m stronger for it…I can carry the groceries in with one hand now!
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Powell spoke. The main reason for inflation was the fiscal stimulus.
Opened after review.