American Consumers\nare Shifting Spending Habits \u2013 <\/strong>Remember\nthe time last year when U.S. households only seemed to spend money on\ngroceries, toilet paper, personal computers, tech for home offices, Pelotons, and\nhome improvement projects? Well, a decisive shift is on, in what the Wall Street Journal <\/em>dubbed \u201cThe Great\nAmerican Cleanup.\u201d Instead of buying goods suitable for life at home, American\nconsumers are spending money on goods and services needed for re-entry into\ncivilization. Deodorant, teeth whitener, haircuts, swimsuits, perfumes,\ngrooming products, and travel gear are among the categories seeing a surge in\ndemand. With roughly 50% of American adults vaccinated, there is a growing\ndesire to \u2018get back out there,\u2019 which means cleaning up and spending money in\nclose-contact services. Think restaurants, live music events, bars, and other\nforms of entertainment. This shift in spending is great news overall, but it\nalso leaves many economists and business owners with a new question: is\nconsumer spending in new categories like travel, entertainment, and personal\ncare going to come at the cost of spending in other areas?1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ready to Retire? Let\u2019s Help You Make It Happen!<\/a><\/strong> To help you do this, we are offering readers our free guide\nthat provides a step-by-step blueprint to potentially help you build a sound retirement\nportfolio. This guide offers you a checklist of the most important\nfinancial, tax, and investment considerations for new retirees, with detailed\nexplanations to help you prepare for this new stage in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest, get our\nfree guide today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Download Zacks Guide, Thinking of Retiring Soon? Here are 4 Things to Consider First<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n ______________________________________________________________________________________________<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Checking in On the Red-Hot\nHousing Market \u2013 <\/strong>In April,\nthe median price of a new home was $372,400, which marks a 20.1% jump from the\nprevious year and also marks the biggest annual gain since 1988. Existing home\nsales have seen similar patterns, with the market lacking supply relative to\ndemand. As you can see from the S&P\/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index,\nprices of all homes have risen at a rapid clip over the last year.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Strong home buying demand could be rooted in multiple causes\n\u2013 ultralow interest rates, millennials entering the market as first-time\nhomebuyers, and wealth gains coming from the stock market and other\ninvestments. Homebuilders have not been able to keep up, and lack of inventory\nat this stage in the cycle may be causing home sales to ease. By some\neconomists\u2019 measures, it could take years to shrink the nationwide deficit of\nhouses, which is further complicated by rising costs of building materials like\nlumber. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Is There a Coming\nCommodity Shortage? <\/strong>Commodity prices have also been rising over the last\nyear, with the prices of precious metals like cobalt, copper, nickel, and\nlithium seeing strong gains over the last year. But even with higher prices and\nbetter profits, miners have been balking at investing big dollars in new\nprojects. The rationale behind investment hesitancy is that mining company\ninvestors are pushing for higher dividends instead of new investments,\nconsidering many companies burned through cash during the last bull market in\ncommodities. In other words, shareholders are asking for a little profit-taking\nin the current environment, versus new investment. This has led to concern that\nthe global economy could experience a shortage of metals later in this\nexpansion.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Planning to Retire Soon? Here are 4 Steps to\nConsider First<\/strong> \u2013 If you\u2019ve been thinking about retiring, but are\nhesitant or do not know where to start, here are some steps to consider! To\nguide you through this new phase, we\u2019ve created our new guide to help you\nreview your financial situation so you can make any adjustments necessary to\nkeep your plans and lifestyle on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to\nunderstand your retirement options, get our guide, Thinking of Retiring\nSoon? Here are 4 Things to Consider First.<\/em>6 <\/sup>Simply click on the\nlink below to get your copy today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Households spend on going out, home inventory shrinks and prices rise, precious metals shortage may lie ahead <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-private-client-group","category-steady-investors-week"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10385,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9627\/revisions\/10385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Planning your retirement may be a new, unfamiliar step that you take in your life, but you should still feel as confident and assured as possible when doing so. The market can cause investors, especially those who are nearing retirement, to worry about the day-to-day highs and lows. One way to successfully build your retirement portfolio while minimalizing anxiety is to make thorough plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/6_pic1-1-1024x395.png\")