planning an airtight strategy with your finances, debt, spending, and lifestyle during rocky economic and covid surging times

Americans are facing a cloudy economic future with inflation on the rise and a recent surge of a new sub-variant of COVID-19 has left many skeptical as to is the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Although many have forgotten about covid, Covid-19 has not forgotten about us. Inflation plus a hovering recession is to be expected after a government-mandated shutdown of businesses, retail, and trade. Projections by “The Federal Open Market Committee” last month say, “Economists expect the federal fund to be gradually raised beyond 3.5 percent by the middle of next year being at the upper limit of projections.”  a survey by Bloomberg of the 525 respondents: 48 percent expect the US to fall into recession next year.” “And Deutsche Bank” is the first bank to predict a forecast of a recession for 2023. worldeconomicforum.com 

The shut down globally of production, retail, businesses, and food distributions for months will cause the rise of inflation regardless of what some speculate. In addition to a turbulent two years Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prodding countries to slap sanctions against Russia the hardest since the Soviet Union era, blocking GDPs already in high demand, creating the perfect storm for inflation.  

I can not stress more now than ever for households to plan an airtight strategy with their finances, debt, spending, and lifestyle. Now more than ever we should be keeping track of household spending and saving habits. When it comes to spending money in order to stay afloat counting cents of one’s self especially in the upcoming months and even into 2023.

As for the economic forecast for the future. Economists originally predicted the pandemic would eventually cause the rise of necessities such as food and basic needs, However, they did not plan for a war on top of a post-pandemic society.  Therefore, in their original prediction of 2024, we would see inflation has been drastically side-lined now to the present day.

These times are a grim reminder of the 1980s during the Reagan Administration the time before that was during the latter half of the 1960s when inflation started to rise high. Back then in 1981, it was much higher than today, peaking by November of 1982 where Inflation reached an all-time high of 14.6 percent. “US Economy,” balance.com 

Americans will have to pivot reassessing their spending habits, and taking on an overall conservative approach to their household finances.

Inflation seems to be on an accelerated track heading towards nationwide economic and financial instability. In December of 2021, there was a 6.4 percent rise in inflation with monthly increases since then.

January 2022 6.8 percent. February 3033 7.1 percent. March 2022 7.5 percent and April 8.3 percent the highest since 1981 and the highest 12-month jump in 41 years. Food inflation is expected to hit 9 percent by the end of 2022 says, “The Bank of America.” However, judging by the rate inflation has risen month to month we may very well hit that number as early as summer 2022. 

The Global economic outlook is uncertain, countries worldwide have not had the chance to recuperate from the pandemic by restoring production of GDP, shipping globally has been stalled and China has had another surge of Covid19 sub-variants. The rise in Covid cases in China has caused the government to shut down the country once again halting the production of products that are in such dire need.

polls say president biden needs to prioritize america first

The Biden Administrations’ focus should be on combating  Covid-19 and fighting inflation prioritizing citizens of the United States first and foremost, which seems to be the unanimous census. There are a variety of actions that the White House and Congress can take as we discussed Covid-19 and inflation. Prioritizing domestic needs first before abroad has Americans questioning if the Biden Administration is focused correctly on the supply and demand along with inflation adamantly correct. Although President Biden has fast-tracked the production and distribution of vaccines and medication, has he addressed child care and health care cost reductions as promised during his campaign enough or at all.

Analysis Christine Roman with cnn.com  Business, recommended these options to lower the stress of inflation on Americans. Roman stated, “dropping Trump’s China tariffs on some goods like clothes and bicycles, US just temporarily lifted the steel tariff on Ukraine.” 

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on May 18, 2022, that the Section 301 tariffs “impose more harm on consumers and businesses” and “aren’t very strategic in the sense of addressing the real issues” with China.  The hill.com  

“Many feel it is time to end the Jones Act to blunt energy prices, allowing non-US vessels to carry shipments of oil. Address the labor shortage by giving work visas to immigrants, Congress will have to approve that as well.” 

“Have Congress extend the child tax credit to low-income families struggling with the rise in gas and food.” 

Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi notes that “Congress could also get serious on addressing the low supply of rental homes and rent growth, which has been a big driver of inflation.” cnn.com 

“Bottom line, inflation will not recede in earnest until we are on the other side of the pandemic, and global supply chains iron themselves out and the economic fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine fades away,” Zandi said. cnn.com 

Christine Romans goes on to further say, “We have witnessed energy world order breakdown with the war in Ukraine redrawing the oil map. Even with all this unrest US job market is the strongest it has been in 50 years. There are 115 million jobs, wages are up. With the rise in food and basic necessities, employers have to counter the inflation with higher wages in order for

households to meet their monthly overhead. Consumers are still spending however it is hard to find certain items.” cnn.com 

Momentarily we should take a look at what the Biden Administration has effetely changed. He approved cuts in the federal budget deficit and unemployment is the lowest in 50 years. Unfortunately, inflation is the transitory faze coming out of a pandemic. 

As per the report by springer.com “The early impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on business sales,” During the government-mandated closure we saw all sectors disrupted, movie theaters, salons, warehouses, meat distribution, grain production, and distributions, and businesses across the country had their supply chains interrupted even with government programs and stimulus the effect has cost us far greater than some are willing to admit. Active businesses affected by the lockdown saw on average a 17 percent sales drop. Accommodations lost 91 percent in sales however online sales were up by 180 percent. Active businesses plummeted from 15 million in February of 2020 to 11.7 million by April 2020. By June of 2020, there was a whopping 1.2 million in sales loss a substantial loss of income resulting in permanent business closings. 

When a country experiences such a significant loss of income and supply chain interruption while still struggling to catch up to present-day daily output, there will be a backlash on the economy no matter how hard those businesses and government parties fight to catch up. It is a domino effect regardless of how hard one tries to stop a domino from falling inevitably they all fall. 

polls and data conducted tell the true story

The Economy is strong in other areas however, voters’ perception is always more important than data that tells the real story. In the end, the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates will make payments on homes, cars, and credit cards higher. Hammering families’ budgets spread nationwide pain leading to dooming Democratic popularity. A CNN poll, conducted by SSPS, “April 28 – May 1, 2022 majority of Americans think Biden policies have hurt the economy while 8 in 10 say the government is not doing enough to combat inflation.”

Half of the population disapprove of the way Biden handled the run-up to the war in Ukraine. Strategy for handling the pandemic is also low 41 percent approve and 49 percent of Americans disapprove. “Biden has stalled on bringing down the cost of child care and health care, one of his campaign promises,” pbs.org 

However, it is still our responsibility to have a sense of overspending our cents. Here are some recommendations by nerdwallet.com “How to forge ahead against inflation.” Start by reassessing your spending habits, it is hard to stay within your means take a look at how you are spending your cash flow and where can you cut back.”

Take on new debt at a bare minimum. In fact, I advise you to not take on any additional monthly payments until the economy levels out.

Become a sales shopper. Maximize loyalty and rewards programs. Be strategic with savings. Adopt conservative spending habits temporarily without the items you just don’t need. Rather make sure all your essential needs and monthly payments are covered. Excessive shopping, expensive game memberships dining out often and subscriptions that add up during the month are helpful places to start cutting back. nerdwallet.com 

There are ways to protect yourself through investments. Reports show that investing in these four products are inadvertent ways to redirect finances to more productive investment. Buy physical gold and silver. Invest in other currencies example is cryptocurrency. I for one have just started navigating the murky waters of cryptocurrency and I must make a disclaimer, research, Crypto or blockchain is not a simple equation but rather complex, difficult to use and support is lacking significantly, as per my experiences. However, as I become more informed on the system and fundamental ground for the development of crypto I have found it to be user-friendly once I educated myself on this new innovative system. 

Invest in positive cash flow like real estate and rental properties. Find high-interest-bearing savings in checking accounts. You may lock into a couple of years but with growing interest, your money is making you money inevitably. Along with the above, take advantage of the stock market. Stocks have lowered making them more affordable but always think of long-term investing when you buy traditional stock. nerdwallet.com 

The new normal now is living with covid-19

Our new normal is living with a virus that continues to mutate into sub-variants taking an exhausting toll on civilization. Priority one is addressing the unwanted elephant in the room, Covid-19. In order to harness the virus citizens are going to have to come to terms with vaccinations as a preventative measure and medication once infected. There has been worldwide resistance many speculating side effects and hard criticism towards pharmaceutical companies for producing a vaccine in a year but no cure for HIV or Cancer. However, there is a reputable explanation for the accelerated production of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Here are the facts, reported by “USA Today,” the vaccine for Covid19 was not developed overnight but, in actuality depends on research dating back nearly 100 years. Coronaviruses were first encountered in April 1930, when a strange respiratory disease ravaged poultry farms across North Dakota and Minnesota, killing tens of thousands of baby birds, “The Scientist reports.” Unsure of what exactly this illness was, veterinarians Arthur Schalk and Merle Hawn of North Dakota Agricultural College, called it “infectious Bronchitis off baby chicks,” the viral agent later named infectious bronchitis virus. 

Further scientific research into IBV and recognition that it was not like influenza A, the flu known to cause bronchitis, would transpire over the next 30 years. Scientific research taken in 1947 and 1968 on mice would later be classified as coronavirus a name derived from its appearance – the spike proteins casting a halo around the surface, much like the sun’s corona – on electron micros coping imaging. usatoday.com 

SARS was the first attempt at a human coronavirus vaccine. This was classified as a disease that caused the acute respiratory syndrome. Researchers concluded it was a coronavirus, likely to have jumped from animals to humans. Taking 15 years of research to identify bats as a potential animal source. From there a number of vaccines were created and tested on animals provided to be quite promising. usatoday.com 

Scientists already placed the groundwork and “when the Chinese put up the Covid19 sequence on BioRxiv in January, our community of scientists looked at it and said, Yeah, we got this because we knew how to do it. “It was all about plug and play based on all that experience,” said Scientist Hotez.  usatoday.com 

Creating an understanding of the research and experience that went into developing the vaccine spans a century therefore, Americans and citizens worldwide should not be so quick to express boycotts without the full spectrum of development that was applied to the Covid-19 vaccine. In all fact, the covid vaccine could very well be the doorway to a pandemic-free society.  

The final ruling reported by usatoday.com was “Accelerated commercial-scale production of Covid-19 vaccine doses prior to FDA clearance, called at-risk manufacturing when early results appeared promising. Finding suitable vaccine targets for HIV, cancer and the common cold has been more difficult in comparison as these diseases have either elusive or highly variable targets.” The final thought is, that if you’re not vaccinated and have reservations researching your concerns will help understand and eliminate those fears. Keep in mind that Doctors and Scientists do have a list of those with certain blood complications and for women who are in the first or even second trimester or looking to become pregnant, there are restrictions. I always recommend speaking with your doctor first voicing your concerns before taking medications or administering any vaccine.

With Covid-19 once again mutating to two new variants and inflation continuing to rise as well with all the statistics, research, and data citizens long for life to go back to normal.

As reported by “Time” on May 11, 2022, “Unfortunately, in a rush to return to normal, our society has once again shown that it lacks the consideration to do what is right. That has profound implications for the most vulnerable in our society, including Black people other people of color – and, in the case of Covid-19, pregnant people, older and immunocompromised individuals, babies too young to be vaccinated, and others.” Time goes on to say how those who carry the strongest burden of the disease such as the health care providers who tend to the sick should be front and center when it comes to decision making centered around covid. These individuals have the academic and clinical work which means those who have experienced the greatest burden are those most powerful in the say of alleviating it. “We have ignored the fact that we are in this together.” time.com  

On May 4, 2022, the United States released data stating that over 1 million Americas have died from the virus Covid-19 than in 40 years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is also more than the number of American deaths from World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined. abcnews.go.com