Show Description:
Jason and Alex started the show by taking a step back and reminding listeners and themselves why IDA’s team does not pick individual stocks and try to time the market. There are always unpredictable events that will happen with individual companies, such as Cox communication’s internet going down for multiple days unexpectedly. One of the biggest questions that clients and prospective clients have been asking is “What are you going to do to fight back against inflation?” Jason explained one of the main reasons that people are getting nervous about inflation is because the 10-year Treasury yield rose from approximately 0.5% up to around 1.7% in just a few months.
Jason and Alex discussed the amount of debt in the U.S. that has grown to over $28 Trillion after the latest stimulus package. They explained how inflation is a general increase in prices and a fall in the purchasing value of money. A few examples of items that would be negatively affected would be food, gas, travel, real estate, etc. Jason talked about the crippling effect of shifting back to a country that is dependent upon other countries for oil and gas production, and this will really hurt the trucking industry and other workers that rely upon affordable gas prices to provide for their families at a sustainable level.
Alex asked a good question to find out what investments perform well during periods of higher inflation. This is a crucial aspect of the financial planning process to ensure IDA’s clients are able to keep pace with the purchasing power through the strategic allocation of their investment strategy. Jason explained how gold and broad commodities, natural resources, hard (tangible) assets such as real estate, and certain types of inflation protected bonds historically have performed much better during inflationary periods. Jason even touched on Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general being a good potential inflationary hedge in the coming years. This is still a speculative asset class to an extent, but it could become a more important piece of the overall portfolio in the near future. Jason also explained that now more than ever it is crucial to be careful with the types of bonds to own because we have been in a great 40-year period of bond performance while interest rates have been coming down and have remained low historically. Alex and Jason talked about the importance of not only being well diversified on the stock side of the portfolio, but also being well diversified on the fixed income or bond side of the portfolio.
They stressed the importance of meeting with a Fiduciary adviser regularly, like the ones on the IDA team, especially at a time like this, to make sure that one’s financial plan is fully on track. Alex explained how now is not the time to have a large amount of cash in a client’s portfolio if a client’s main worry or risk is inflation.
In this show you will learn about:
- What should investors do to prepare for inflation?
- Impacts of inflation
- Types of investments that thrive in an inflationary period
- Stress testing an investment portfolio to prepare for inflation
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