Get Ready for Another\nDebt Ceiling Showdown \u2013 <\/strong>On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen\ntestified before a Senate panel and delivered a message we\u2019ve heard time and\nagain over the last decade: the U.S. government is running out of room to pay\nits bills, and Congress needs to act to raise the debt ceiling to meet the\ncountry\u2019s obligations. The Treasury Secretary added that the pandemic and\nrelated spending has made it challenging to calculate when the Treasury would\nrun out of funds, but that the current date of July 31, 2021 (when the\npandemic-induced suspension of the debt ceiling expires) means Congress needs\nto act. This largely political song-and-dance has played out many times in\nrecent history, and Congress has consistently raised or suspended the debt\nceiling, often at the 11th<\/sup> hour. The risks of not taking action soon\nare the same as they\u2019ve been in the past: the U.S. missing payments to\nbondholders, Social Security recipients, or even Medicare\/Medicaid payments. A\nstrong economic recovery could boost tax receipts and provide a cash cushion longer\nthan the July 31 deadline, but Congress also leaves for recess from the end of\nJuly to September. Financial markets need a resolution on this issue soon,\nwhile the media is hoping for a showdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ___________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8 Costly, Financial Mistakes That You Can Avoid!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Living the ultimate retirement is the goal for many investors, but some may be wondering how to better plan for it. There is no definite answer, especially while investing in a volatile market like the one we\u2019re currently experiencing. It is possible, though, to better prepare for any given financial situation. ___________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n Higher Oil and Gas\nPrices Could Potentially Get a Respite \u2013 <\/strong>Crude oil prices (chart below)\nhave rebounded swiftly from pandemic lows, as demand returns to the global\neconomy and growth takes off in the U.S. and China. Oil prices have reached up\npast $70 a barrel, which marks a multi-year high and has put pressure on gas\nprices across the country. Demand has returned to the global economy and the\nU.S. faster than supply has kept up, hence the price pressures. Last year,\nOPEC+ cut output by 9.7 million barrels a day but have only retraced about 4\nmillion barrels of that production since. OPEC+ and its allies are meeting this\nweek to consider increasing the group\u2019s output further, likely to take\nadvantage of higher prices while also not flooding the market with supply.3<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Housing Market Shatters Records, But Showing Signs of Cooling \u2013 <\/strong>The U.S. housing market is all over the news, and we have covered it several times in this space. There\u2019s good reason for all the coverage \u2013 home prices continue charting new highs. In May, the median existing-home price crossed $350,000 for the first time ever, marking a 23.6% jump from the previous year. It was only 11 months ago that the median existing-home price topped $300,000 for the first time, underscoring the sharp price pressure as many urban workers migrated around the country and bought homes for remote work setups. Prices are also being pressured higher by persistently low mortgage rates, and a fairly drastic supply\/demand imbalance (where demand far outweighs the supply of homes). There are signs that the wave of activity in the housing market is starting to cool off, however. In May, sales of existing homes fell 0.9%, which was the fourth consecutive month of declines. The market is approaching a point where new homebuyers are priced out.5<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Workers Have the\nUpper Hand. Will It Last? <\/strong>The jobs market is roaring back to life, but\nthere\u2019s only one issue: there are not enough interested workers to fill job\nvacancies. This dynamic is giving workers the upper hand, at least for the\nmoment. Average weekly wages in leisure and hospitality \u2013 where hiring is\nrobust \u2013 were up 10.4% in May compared to February 2020, before the pandemic\nhit. Blue-collar and low-skill workers are seeing some of the biggest\nincreases. High school diploma workers are seeing faster wage increases than\nthose with a college degree. This shift marks a reversal of longer-term trends,\nwhich have seen wages and benefits fall as a share of national income over the\nlast few decades. Wage pressures and the unique setup where there are more open\njobs than workers willing to fill them may only prove temporary, however, and\nleverage could shift back to business once the initial surge of economic growth\nruns its course.6<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Retirement Mistakes\nto Avoid During Times of Uncertainty \u2013<\/strong> The future of the market is\ncompletely unpredictable, but keep your eye on the end goal – financial\nsuccess! Even in times of uncertainty, it is possible to stay focused on\nactions that can help guide your future investments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To start, there are common mistakes and habits that we believe can help some investors succeed while others fail. Don\u2019t fall prey to common investing mistakes! Workers’ leverage may not last, home sales slow down, debt ceiling deadline means political fight 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-9678","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\/9678","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=9678"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10368,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9678\/revisions\/10368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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While there are many unknowns at present, we believe there are eight common mistakes that many investors make when planning for retirement. In our guide,\u00a08 Retirement Mistakes to Avoid<\/em>, we outline these mistakes and how you can potentially avoid them.
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If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more, click on the link below to get your free copy:
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Learn About the 8 Retirement Mistakes to Avoid!<\/a>2<\/a><\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/3_pic1-4-1024x395.png\")
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To help you understand some of these mistakes and how to avoid them, we have created the guide,\u00a08 Retirement Mistakes to Avoid<\/em>.7<\/sup> In this guide, we provide our thoughts on what we believe are\u00a08 of the biggest retirement mistakes investors should avoid<\/strong>. If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more, click on the link below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"