Keen On Retirement

As good as it feels to be exiting the pandemic and enjoying a relatively normal summer, the ongoing economic fallout from COVID-19 and the levers our government pulled to accelerate recovery have a lot of folks worried about inflation. Those fears spiked recently after the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices rose by 5% during the month of May, the biggest jump since 2008. Those numbers are ringing alarm bells for some of our older clients who don't like being reminded of 1970s stagflation as they're nearing or beginning retirement.

In recent months, my two daughters have given me a personal perspective on just how hot and how competitive the real estate market is right now. Both decided to buy homes in the Kansas City area, and both had to make unsuccessful bids on multiple houses before they were able to close on their new homes. The thought that millions of families all over the country are trying to navigate these same issues is quite a turnaround from just a decade ago, when folks were hesitant to buy houses in the shadow of the Great Recession.

Longtime Keen on Retirement listeners might remember a running gag where Matt Wilson and I would joke with our co-host, Steve Sanduski, about all the bitcoin we suspected he was hoarding. At the time, bitcoin had just emerged from one of its periodic freefalls and was starting to seep back into the general public’s awareness.

A few years ago, I was intrigued by the many news stories I was seeing about the new “tiny homes” helping homeless veterans around Kansas City. I reached out and connected with the Veterans Community Project, and the more I learned, the more impressed I was by the impact that the VCP is having. One number really stood out: over 90% of the veterans whom the VCP work with are able to get back on their feet and reacclimate into society.

One year ago, despite lockdowns, skyrocketing unemployment, and major market volatility, my team at Keen Wealth was cautiously optimistic. We believed that most of the economic disruption our country was facing was a temporary and necessary response to battling COVID-19. And we believed that once vaccine development started progressing and the country started reopening, jobs would come back, the economy would roar to life, and the markets would respond in kind.

Folks on opposite sides of the political aisle don't agree on very much these days. But one area where Republicans and Democrats have found some common ground is the need for Americans to take more responsibility for their retirement planning. Corporate pensions are disappearing. Social Security won’t cover the bills. And many young folks face uncertain long-term prospects in our new decentralized post-pandemic workforce.