Ep 43: Manufactured Anxiety or Worth the Worry?
RetirementOn This Episode
We all know that the media can add drama to stories because their business model can depend on creating as much fear and anxiety as possible. Let’s test your knowledge with these financial statements to see if you think they’re a significant issue or just fear-mongering.
Takeaways
On today’s Saving With Silverman podcast, Mark Silverman CFP® shares some financial statements to see if you think they’re fear-mongering or actual issues to be wary of.
Social Security is going broke and they’re going to have to cut everyone’s benefit.
Social Security is not going broke. The government can and does print money. They’re not going to cut everybody’s benefit. What I think you will see is they might up full retirement age in a few years. It’s 67 right now. Maybe they’ll make it 68, 69 or 70. People are living longer, so that makes sense.
If anybody’s not going to go broke it’s the government because they can print money. Money might not be worth as much because we’re starting to see hyperinflation. You want to make sure you’re making the best decision you can with Social Security.
Don’t take Social Security early just because you think it’s going to go broke.
The national debt is out of control and tax rates are going to go through the roof at some point.
The national debt is out of control, and tax rates are going up. We’re seeing that. They've steadily increased, and I think we’ll see a significant increase in 2022. Tax rates are going up. That’s just a fact.
Climate change is a serious problem and our economy needs to be overhauled in order to deal with it.
No, our economy doesn’t need to be overhauled. It’s a world problem, and we’re not going to solve it alone. There are a lot of pieces to this problem and we don’t know all the answers yet.
When the federal government raises interest rates the economy is going to grind to a halt.
While we may have gotten used to low-interest rates, when they inevitably are raised will the economy grind to a halt? Low-interest rates are great if you are buying a house, but they can hurt investors. If interest rates were to rise substantially this could affect the national debt. For this reason, Mark doesn’t see interest rates being raised dramatically.
A stock market crash is coming.
There is a lot of anxiety around this subject. The market has seemingly been doing great for a long time, even the pandemic didn’t affect it too much. Realistically every day we are closer to a crash but that’s just how it goes.
You can’t time the market and if you wait on the sidelines too long you may be missing out on money. You’ll just want to make sure your assets are diversified and fit for your circumstances.
If anybody’s not going to go broke it’s the government because they can print money.
- Mark Silverman, CFP®
The Layout
Listen to the entire episode to hear more. Click on the timestamps below to skip to a particular segment.
1:00 – Social Security going broke?
2:47 – National debt out of control?
3:34 – Climate change a serious problem?
4:43 – Economy grind to a halt?
5:49 – Stock market crash coming?
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