The Inflation Buster Budgeting & Investing Plan.

​The Inflation Buster Budget & Investing Plan.
6 Ways to Beat Inflation Now.
 
Household Debt Hits an All-Time High as the Savings Rate Sinks to Pre-Pandemic Lows.
Inflation is taking its toll. Americans have burned through all of their stimmy checks and then some. Financial safety nets are disappearing at a very rapid rate.
 

​Household debt has soared to an all-time high of $16.15 trillion.

Fortunately, defaults remain sparse, largely because there was a long pause on evictions, student loan payments and foreclosures – most of which are gone or on their last leg. However, that is a backward-facing statistic. With housing costs taking up more than 35% of the budget of Americans under the age of 40 (50% or more for renters), according to the National Association of Realtors, that doesn’t leave much room for transportation, food, health insurance, utilities and gasoline. Some basic needs are getting put on a credit card – not a sustainable way of living.  According to the New York Federal Reserve Board, “Credit card balances saw their largest year-over-year percentage increase in more than twenty years,” at 13%.
 
Will credit card companies start to see defaults, or have to put more money aside and take a hit on their earnings? If that is the case, Visa and Mastercard might get slammed the hardest by investors, as both companies still have very elevated price-earnings ratios, at 28 and 29, respectively. Email info@NataliePace.com with Credit Card Stock Report Card in the subject line to receive an updated document.
 
Just as importantly, while students may appreciate the gesture of having $10,000 forgiven on their student loans, for many it’s a rounding error on the total. Student loan debt is at $1.6 trillion. College debt is responsible for so many Millennials delaying their first home purchase, and for intergenerational housing being as high today as it was in the Great Depression. Clearly, teens need to be better informed about the best path to the career and life of their dreams. (There are ways to get a better degree for up to half of the cost. Keep reading.)
 
The Inflation Buster Plan
We often think we just need to earn more income, and all of our problems will be solved. However, in an inflationary world, we also have to be creative and smart about reducing our expenses. It’s not a matter of just cutting out café lattes and avocado toast. (Few of us are really shopaholics.)
 
Below are 6 ways to stop making billionaire companies rich, and to live a richer life. You can get additional information on each point in my bestselling book The ABCs of Money and at our Investor Empowerment Retreats.
 
 
Rethink & Retool the Big-Ticket “Basic Needs” Expenses

1. Housing
2. Health Insurance
3. Energy
4. Education
5. Transportation
6. Retirement Plans and Brokerage Accounts

 
Here’s additional information on each of the 6 areas mentioned above.
 
Rethink & Retool the Big-Ticket “Basic Needs” Expenses

1. Housing. Families that maintain their wealth over the centuries plan 100 years in advance and educate their children in financial matters. Royals don’t buy their own castles. Rather than making the landlord rich, or purchasing real estate that we really can’t afford at an all-time high, what happens when the family comes together to address unaffordable housing? Is there a win-win situation that can be created that keeps the money in the family? Learn more in this videoconference, in the Real Estate section of The ABCs of Money and at our Real Estate Master Class (to be held online on Oct. 15, 2022). 
   
   
2. Health Insurance. If you’re healthy and you’re spending an arm and a leg on health insurance, you’re making the health insurance company rich. There are many benefits to getting a high deductible health insurance plan with a Health Savings Account. For most Americans, this would save thousands annually. (For some, it could be tens of thousands of dollars.) An HSA is also our best long-term health care plan. Learn more in the Thrive Budget section of The ABCs of Money and at our Investor Empowerment Retreat (to be held online on Oct. 8-10, 2022).
   
   
3. Energy. Many of us are spending thousands on utilities and gasoline. There are many ways to reduce our electric bill by 80% or more and to almost eliminate our gasoline bill. The savings of adopting smarter energy habits is substantial – adding up to $4,000 or more for the average person. Rather than thinking of heating, lighting and fuel as fixed expenses that are beyond our control, it pays (a lot!) to find creative solutions for our energy needs. The cleanest (and cheapest) energy is the energy that we don’t use. This is another area that we cover in our books and online retreats.
   
   
4. Education. Education is the highest correlating factor with income. However, with $1.6 trillion in student debt, clearly the math isn’t working out to the benefit of everyone. That has a lot to do with the skyrocketing costs of higher education over the last two decades. There are ways to get a better degree for half the price, and to have a college fund that compounds in our childhood and teen years to cover the costs we do incur at the university. Be sure to read The ABCs of Money for College and start your plan when your child is born.
   
   
5. Transportation. Before we move to the boonies to purchase a home we can afford, it’s important to think about transportation and all of the extra costs that might accompany rural living. Driving pollutes the air, but can also be hard on our mental health and joie du vivre if we spend too much time in gridlock traffic. How can we reduce our reliance on gasoline and single-occupancy vehicles, leading to thousands of savings in our family budget, while contributing to a healthier planet, and start accumulating equity in our own home (instead of making the landlord rich)? The patient buyer is more likely to be pleased with the purchase. Developing the homestead blueprint that is right for you is a central theme in our Real Estate Master Class (and in that section of The ABCs of Money). Every soul has her own geography, and the commute (time, cost and distance) is part of the mix.   
   
   
6. Money While We Sleep. While we keep more of our money with 21st Century budget choices, we should also adopt time-proven, modern investing strategies. During recessions, keeping your money can be the best Return on Investment (while most around us are at risk of losing more than half of their wealth). Buy & Hope is a last-century strategy that has investors hoping and praying during the bull market that they crawl back to even. (It took 15 years for the NASDAQ Composite Index to recover from the Dot Com Recession.) Our easy-as-a-pie-chart investing plan with regular rebalancing (1-3 times a year) earned gains in the Dot Com and Great Recessions and outperformed the bull markets in between. This is something we teach in our Investor Empowerment Retreats. The next one is Oct. 8-10, 2022. Call 310-430-2397 or email info@NataliePace.com to register now. 
   
   Bottom Line
   Today’s world doesn’t add up. The only way we can get ahead is to adopt a smarter budgeting and investing plan, where we stop making the billionaire corporations rich at our own expense. This will lead to thousands of dollars in budget savings, could potentially save our nest egg and future, and will definitely allow us to live a richer life. We wouldn’t expect to read without learning the ABCs, and it is equally important to learn The ABCs of Money that we all should have received in high school. This is the foundation we need to build our dream-come-true life. For a small investment, we can learn to save thousands of dollars annually and hundreds of thousands (more or less) in our investing plan. Call 310-430-2397 or email info@NataliePace.com to get started now.
   
   
   
   
   If you're interested in learning 21st Century time-proven investing strategies for protecting your wealth and managing the bear market from a No. 1 stock picker, join us for our Oct. 8-10, 2022 Financial Freedom Retreat. Email info@NataliePace.com to learn more and to register. Click on the banner ad below to discover the 18+ strategies you'll learn and master, to get pricing information and to read testimonials Get the best price when you register with friends and family. Register now to access your free 4-part Protect Your Wealth Now webinar that will get you started immediately.
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Join us for our Financial Freedom Retreat. Oct. 8-10, 2022. Email info@NataliePace.com to learn more. Register with friends and family to receive the best price and a free 4-part webinar (which you can access to protect your wealth now). Click for testimonials & details.

Natalie Wynne Pace is an Advocate for Sustainability, FinancialLiteracy & Women's Empowerment. Natalie is the bestselling author of The Power of 8 Billion: It's Up to Us and is the co-creator of the Earth Gratitude Project. She has been ranked as a No. 1 stock picker, above over 835 A-list pundits, by an independent tracking agency (TipsTraders). Her book The ABCs of Money remained at or near the #1 Investing Basics e-book on Amazon for over 3 years (in its vertical), with over 120,000 downloads and a mean 5-star ranking. The 5th edition of The ABCs of Money was released on September 17, 2021. 
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Natalie Pace's easy as a pie chart nest egg strategies earned gains in the last two recessions and have outperformed the bull markets in between. That is why her Investor Educational Retreats, books and private coaching are enthusiastically recommended by Nobel Prize winning economist Gary S. Becker, TD AMERITRADE chairman Joe Moglia, Kay Koplovitz and many Main Street investors who have transformed their lives using her Thrive Budget and investing strategies. Click to view a video testimonial from Nilo Bolden.

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Check out Natalie Pace's Apple Podcast.
Watch videoconferences and webinars on Youtube.

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Important Disclaimers
Please note: Natalie Pace does not act or operate like a broker. She reports on financial news, and is one of the most trusted sources of financial literacy, education and forensic analysis in the world. Natalie Pace educates and informs individual investors to give investors a competitive edge in their personal decision-making. Any publicly traded companies or funds mentioned by Natalie Pace are not intended to be buy or sell recommendations.

ALWAYS do your research and consult an experienced, reputable financial professional before buying or selling any security, and consider your long-term goals and strategies. Investors should NOT be all in on any asset class or individual stocks. Your retirement plan should reflect a diversified strategy, which has been designed with the assistance of a financial professional who is familiar with your goals, risk tolerance, tax needs and more. The "trading" portion of your portfolio should be a very small part of your investment strategy, and the amount of money you invest into individual companies should never be greater than your experience, wisdom, knowledge and patience.  

Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, NataliePace.com does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. Opinions constitute our judgment as of the date of this publication and are subject to change without notice. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. Securities, financial instruments or strategies mentioned herein may not be suitable for all investors.