How Do Interest Rates Influence Your Money?

Neela [00:00:04]:

Hey there. Welcome to the If Money Were Easy podcast, the show where we teach you how to expand what’s possible with your money. We’re your hosts, Neela Hummel and Mary Beth Storjohann, certified financial planners & Co-CEOs of Abacus Wealth Partners. Today on the show, we’re going to talk about interest rates are decreasing. What does that mean for your money?

Mary Beth [00:00:26]:

So many questions.

Neela [00:00:27]:

So many questions. Do you think people are as excited about interest rates as we are?

Mary Beth [00:00:32]:

No, no.

Neela [00:00:34]:

I would agree with that.

Mary Beth [00:00:35]:

Unless they’re looking at it from a mortgage perspective. And even that those which we’ll discuss are not moving too much, impact-wise. Yeah.

Neela [00:00:45]:

People start paying attention to interest rates when it comes to savings accounts and shopping for a mortgage.

Mary Beth [00:00:52]:

Right? Yeah. So from like the broad public perspective, that’s my thought. I think there’s also like the investment lens of it. And so if you do have any type of financing with variable interest rates, then there are those that are paying attention. But you know, in general. No, just a straight. No, no.

Neela [00:01:09]:

So like interest rates and fun being in the same sentence. Not common.

Mary Beth [00:01:13]:

Not common. They were very interesting. When they got to like zero, there was very media, like, splashy. There was lots going on. I remember creating a lot of content around that years ago at this point in time. And that’s what people hold on to. Right. That’s exciting because what does that mean for your money when you know, that was the media kind of globbed onto that one.

Mary Beth [00:01:32]:

Now we’re seeing about this slow, gradual decreases or you know what, there was three last year, quarter percent. Those are kind of just run of the mill. And I don’t think that’s actually splashy to anybody. So we see it in the Wall Street Journal in the finance perspective, but I don’t think we’re seeing it. I mean, NBC Nightly News isn’t necessarily talking about it at this point in time.

Neela [00:01:52]:

Right. So setting the stage, you mentioned the zero interest rate time. So following the great financial crisis, right. 2008, 2009, mortgage rates, the economy kind of blew up, effectively, if anybody remembers that. And one of the things that the Fed did at that time was they brought the lending rate, the interest rate down to zero and left it there for six years. So we got really used to these low interest rates, which meant bondholders weren’t making much money, savers weren’t making much money, but it was super, super cheap to borrow money.

Mary Beth [00:02:26]:

And so talk about that, though, what that means savers aren’t making much money. Bondholders weren’t making much money. Like what’s the strategy behind the low from the Fed’s perspective, What’s the strategy behind the 0% interest rate? Why are they so low? What is it meant to have consumers, general public do?

Neela [00:02:40]:

One of the things they do is they manage interest rates. Right. Because they want to kind of strike the balance between a reasonable inflation rate. Their target is to have like around a 2% inflation. They want a little bit inflation, but they don’t want too much inflation and they also don’t want deflation. They basically want to find this sweet spot to help the economy. Hum. And so generally when they jack interest rates up, it’s because they’re kind of either trying to like slow things down, they’re trying to temper inflation, they’re trying to kind of put a little bit of friction in the market so that inflation is basically quelled.

Mary Beth [00:03:15]:

They’re trying to slow things down in terms of consumers spending less, less in demand because when things are cheap there’s a ton of demand, you know. So what does that look like when you’re saying they’re trying to temper?

Neela [00:03:24]:

They’re introducing some friction. So generally the lower interest rates are, the easier it is for consumers to borrow and the easier it is for businesses to borrow. It just kind of like greases economic wheels because you’re looking, you’re like, well, if I can borrow money for this small amount, I don’t even have to make that great of an investment and it still makes sense for me to borrow this money. Whereas when interest rates go up, you’re making different trade offs. You’re like, ooh, if it’s kind of a wash, I’m probably not going to borrow that money because I’m not necessarily sure that this investment’s going to pay off. So it helps slow things down, which helps kind of contract the economy a little bit. But the interesting thing is the Fed also wants there to be strong employment. And so they want to calm things down, but not so much that it causes unemployment.

Neela [00:04:09]:

So it’s a really tricky balance.

Mary Beth [00:04:11]:

So it’s really like you look at those like the scales and the weights, like if they’re really trying to even those out, if you’re thinking it, it’s like you can see like you’re, you’re moving like rice grains from like one side to the other, trying to make it so that you’re not disrupting either side too much.

Neela [00:04:27]:

Exactly. Ultimately they want to ensure stability in the financial markets. So they want to promote stable prices, like have a reasonable amount of inflation, but they also want maximum employment for the American people. And you can see if you move too much grain in one direction, you can throw one of those off in a pretty big way. I like to think about it as almost like it’s kind of a blunt tool, but it’s one of the only ones that they can. But they’re also, you know, trying to keep the banking sector healthy as well.

Mary Beth [00:04:57]:

Right. And so going into 2025, the Fed is expected to pull back potentially. They, the media said the Fed is expected to pull back on interest rate reductions, stabilize a bit. You don’t know what to totally expect this year, but maybe more of the same of 2024, a little less here or there. Knowing that, knowing that rates will likely stay the same or lessen just slightly, what does that mean for the everyday public? Like, what does that mean for us? If we’re looking at our bank accounts, what does that mean for our lives? Or if I have credit card debt, what does that mean for me if I want to go buy a car? Like, what are you looking at?

Neela [00:05:32]:

The big thing is, you know, again, it depends on which side you’re on. Are you on the saver side or are you on the debtor side?

Mary Beth [00:05:39]:

Let’s tackle savers first.

Neela [00:05:41]:

Savers first. So the biggest thing that people are going to notice is that these juicy interest rates that people have been getting over the last couple of years, those are going to start to fall. You, you probably noticed that they’ve started to fall a little bit recently, which means there was a time again during that 0% interest rate environment where high interest yield savings account, they were paying like 1% and then they got up to like 4 and 5% over the last couple years. And people are like, this is great. Right. But the difference is that inflation was higher now than it was those years ago. And so while the absolute return has gone up, the relative return from an inflation adjusted basis wasn’t that great. But we saw it, right? It’s fun to see those interest rates go up.

Mary Beth [00:06:24]:

Well, yeah, because you see it, you see the numbers, you see the interest hitting your bank account, I mean, and then you’re kind of looking at, when you’re buying eggs at the grocery store, the hit is different, right? You’re, you’re kind of grumbling about one thing, but you’re feeling good over here, but it’s actually a negative.

Neela [00:06:35]:

So that’s the biggest that people feel it is that they’re going to start seeing the interest rate in their savings accounts go down. And they’ll probably see bond yields start to fall.

Mary Beth [00:06:43]:

Yeah. And for your savings accounts, it’s, this is for those of you that are not just banking at a big bank. We won’t name any of the big banks around here. But if you have a savings account at a big bank, you’re likely earning peanuts as it is already. So if you haven’t gotten on the high yield savings account train, that’s where you’re going to see. That’s for people who have moved their money into high yield savings accounts are the ones who are seeing the higher interest rates, the four to five percents. Those are the ones that are going to see the reduction. If you’re banking with a general bank and have a general savings account, your likely already pretty flat to be honest.

Neela [00:07:11]:

Right. Do not keep meaningful amounts of cash in a regular checking your savings account.

Mary Beth [00:07:15]:

I feel like we’ve said that before.

Neela [00:07:16]:

But friends don’t let friends keep copious amounts of cash.

Mary Beth [00:07:19]:

I feel like that’s the one like one of the big tips I give. You know when you’re like out there, you’re like, oh, high yield savings is always the one. It’s just like a general, like if I had a takeaway from any new friend that I met, it’d be like savings account.

Neela [00:07:31]:

Right. It’s a simple one but it’s basically, it’s like short term money that you need and emergency fund type money. Basically like sinking funds money that you’re going to be using in the next, you know, like honestly year or so and just kind of the just in case money. Keep that aside. In a high interest yield savings account, get the high interest but also don’t keep too much cash because you’re just on an inflation adjusted basis, you’re still not doing great.

Mary Beth [00:07:55]:

And it varies as to how much cash you should or should not keep. Depends on Neela’s risk profile is different than mine.

Neela [00:08:01]:

So financial planners recommend three to six months of living expenses more if you have either lower risk tolerance or you like run your own business and you just need more money in the bank. But you’re right, people have different risk profiles. I’m like, invest it, get it out of there.

Mary Beth [00:08:22]:

Look at all this cash. So anyway, okay, so that’s savers. Let’s talk about just debt in general. Like there’s different levels of debt and areas where the decreased interest rates will hit. So debt holders, credit cards, will people see progress there again in a meaningful way.

Neela [00:08:39]:

Yeah. So where dropping interest rates really hit consumers is invariable debt, which includes credit cards, that includes, you know, like home equity lines. Anything where there’s a floating rate, anything that is not fixed is where those reductions will really hit. So yes, it will impact credit cards, but let’s be honest, credit cards are unsecured loans. And so the fact that you’re interest rate on your credit card goes from yeah, yeah, 28 to 26% is still bananas. And so this is not an invitation to rack up credit card debt because the rates that credit cards charge in terms of interest are just nuts. Even in a 0% interest rate environment, it’s an unsecured debt. So like the best interest rate you’ll ever get from a credit card in the current structure is like 15%, which is still, you know, 150%.

Neela [00:09:35]:

What the s and P, you know, has done historically. So just don’t just know. There we go.

Mary Beth [00:09:39]:

That’s like there’s a lot of nose today. Just know, not 2025 with the nose. All right, mortgages, we talked about those briefly. So the Fed rate, the declines, they indirectly affect mortgage rates. We’re hearing it. You would assume that when the Fed rate lowers interest rates, mortgage rates would therefore decline as well. We’re seeing just some volatility like up and you know, depending on when you’re checking the rates, like we’re seeing some fluctuation in the markets generally. Mortgage rates are expected to stay stable throughout 2025 in terms of where they’re at now.

Mary Beth [00:10:11]:

We’re not looking for, we’re not going to get back to those 2, 3% rates anytime soon. So tell me more about the impact there. Like what do you see happening?

Neela [00:10:20]:

Yeah, I love that we mentioned that because as soon as people are really looking to buy a home or refinance their mortgage, they’re really focusing on what the Fed. But the Fed increasing or decreasing interest rates only indirectly affects mortgage rates.

Mary Beth [00:10:34]:

Right.

Neela [00:10:34]:

Mortgage rates are more tied to the ten year Treasury. Like there’s other information that goes into setting mortgage rates including like new jobs, added inflation, general economic environment. And so it’s not directly causal. So you’re not going to see. Just because you see the Fed drop the interest rate by a quarter of a point does not mean you’re going to see a commensurate drop with mortgages. So it’s like indirectly connected, but it’s not directly causal.

Mary Beth [00:11:00]:

Yeah, so I think in general, you know, while lower interest rates may increase affordability slightly, in your personal situation, there’s not going to be a shift in the landscape of like affordability across the spectrum for buyers. And the issue is when those rates, when rates do decrease, you know, from an affordability standpoint, prices typically tend to make up for it demand.

Neela [00:11:24]:

Right. So then what would you say to somebody who is shopping for a home or has a much higher mortgage rate and is looking to, you know, refinance? What is your guidance heading into 2025? What do you tell them to do with the current interest rate environment?

Mary Beth [00:11:39]:

There’s the financial planner aspect of it which is, you know, buy a home that you can afford and understanding the landscape, understanding the environment, understanding what you’re locking yourself into. Like if interest rates are higher, the may decrease and you have the opportunity to refinance, you can crunch numbers along the way. When rates went down years ago, like we refinanced our home multiple times, right. To capitalize on, on that I would say just be cautious. Over the years I’ve tended to have clients delay in buying to make sure they have more of a, like a stabilized down payment so that they, they can handle the increase in a mortgage expense and you know, other ones are more risk tolerant. So, so take the higher payment but know what you’re locking yourself into. Know that you have the emergency fund, know that you’re locking yourself into that job or you need to stay in that higher income environment. And so you need to be ready to make those changes.

Mary Beth [00:12:25]:

And, and so I think it’s just a balance. I would tell you to work with a planner, make sure you’re making the best decision for yourself. Be prepared for rates to look similar to they are now. Go in with as big of a down payment as you can without wiping yourself out. I think that’s the other thing that a lot of first time home buyers do is they throw it all into the pot for the new home. They have nothing for emergency funds, for furnishing, for all of the upkeep that goes into it. So if you’re somebody who’s kind of going, you don’t have necessarily the gift from parents, you’re building your own fund on your own trying to get that first home. I would say just go into it with eyes wide open and know that it’s honestly it’s a slog.

Mary Beth [00:13:00]:

Some people love it. You know, my mother in law loves real estate and she like loves the game. And I mean it’s exciting right when you’re in it and I think you’re experienced at it. It’s fantastic. I don’t know any new like first or second time home buyers who are like this is the best. Right. I think you have to have experience in it.

Neela [00:13:15]:

And I think, you know, for first time homebuyers, it is a challenging environment right now. The real estate market is still very wonky. You have a lot of people who are sitting on homes that have artificially basically depressed supply because they’re sitting on 3% mortgages. You did a whole episode on this. It’s really expensive for those people to move. And so to your point, you basically had prices increase. And so you have high prices and you have higher interest rates.

Mary Beth [00:13:42]:

Yeah.

Neela [00:13:42]:

Which is tough. Although, you know, we think it’s high compared to like 2010.

Mary Beth [00:13:47]:

Yeah, yeah, we think it’s high, but it’s actually not. Right. It’s not 16%, so. But it’s not 16% on $100,000 homes. We’re talking California prices here. So there’s a bit of relativity. But I remember talking, was talking to my father in law recently. It’s been a storage hunt thing.

Mary Beth [00:14:02]:

All the stores of hunts are getting new cars, like Brian and his brothers. Yeah, everybody’s getting new cars and talking about what, what people are paying for the cars. And my father in law was saying like, I bought a house for that much in like 19, like 1960 something.

Neela [00:14:16]:

And we’re like, thank you, Boomer.

Mary Beth [00:14:18]:

Yeah, totally. It was just like, you know, he’s like mind boggling. Like, it’s. Yeah, it’s amazing from that perspective. But so not only do we have people sitting on the 3% interest rates, that we also have older generations who are just staying in their homes. Like they’re looking, they’re staying put.

Neela [00:14:31]:

Right.

Mary Beth [00:14:32]:

Versus moving in or downsizing. They’re just, they’re locking in again because of what the price of what they can get for their money. Right. They have the space, they’re keeping the space they don’t necessari and wouldn’t typically need. But what they’re getting on the other side isn’t necessarily worth the trade off as well.

Neela [00:14:46]:

It’s just classic supply demand. The supply is decreased and so the remaining inventory kind of stays high artificially. So it is tough. It’s a tough environment.

Mary Beth [00:14:55]:

Yeah. So to wrap it up, you know, there’s not gonna be a lot of change here in the mortgage, the real estate environment. I think for 2025, it’s the same gain that we’ve seen in previous years. In the past few years, rates might go down a little bit depending on where you are locked in. If you are an existing homeowner, it might be beneficial to look at refinancing you know, if you haven’t done it already, depending on what rate you locked in and what year you did purchase your home. But it’s still going to be kind of a game out there, you know, in terms of. I’m sure you’re hearing it too, like 14 bids on a home, like, it’s just like, you know, depending on the luck. Right.

Neela [00:15:24]:

I like the advice of you’re still at the end of the day, it’s your finances. So if you’re getting into a home, make sure it’s a home that you can afford. If you happen to be in a very cheap environment right now, like you’re in a rent control apartment or something like that, and you’re able to take this time to continue to increase your down payment, that’s probably a good move.

Mary Beth [00:15:43]:

The interesting thing, which is just like a little digression here, and I don’t know if we talked about this previously, but from the affordability standpoint, making sure you would talk about it’s your personal situation. One of the things that’s always been interesting to me is the home affordability calculators online and what they tend to leave out in terms of. And this again, personal situation. Work with a professional. What can you afford based on your income? But also like, are you not putting anything into your 401k? Like, are you looking to grow your family? Have you factored in potential? If you’re just married, you’re buying a home and you don’t have kids yet, have you factored in child care expenses into your cash flow? Because that will be a mortgage payment or one and a half times a mortgage payment potentially when that comes down the pipeline. So I think that’s the other thing that is, you know, we talk about it, it’s personal, depending on your, you know, what’s happening for you. But rates aside, making sure you’re factoring in those things from a totally mortgage perspective.

Neela [00:16:32]:

And I think we have to remind everyone that just because a bank will lend you a certain amount of money, that does not mean you can actually afford that.

Mary Beth [00:16:39]:

It’s true.

Neela [00:16:40]:

Banks will lend you more than most people are comfortable paying. So just be aware that like, at the end of the day, just because the bank will give it to you, that doesn’t mean it’s the right move. See what makes sense in your overall financial plan.

Mary Beth [00:16:51]:

Flipping from mortgage. Let’s talk about like so kind of in the same lines with credit cards. Let’s talk about like the home equity lines. What does that look like? You know, that’s a little different.

Neela [00:16:59]:

Yeah. Most mortgages that are being set these days are fixed rates. You can get adjustable rates. Generally that means that the rate is set for like five, seven, maybe 10 years, and then it floats. But there is a period of a fix. But there’s been just like less of a spread between adjustable rate mortgages and fixed mortgages. So a lot of people are opting for fixed mortgages. Home equity lines are different because those tend to be rates that float daily.

Neela [00:17:22]:

So the Fed changes the interest rate that’s going to impact your home equity line, like, immediately. So any kind of line of credit that you have, that is a variable line, interest rates go down, that’s going to impact that. So, you know what we basically had over the last couple of years, Right. And I just, I also just want to acknowledge that it has been very topsy turvy for consumers for the past two years. We went from like 0% environment to starting mid-2022, the Fed raised interest rates 11 times.

Mary Beth [00:17:52]:

Gosh, 11. It’s like living through that period as a financial planner, you know, with not even crazy bananas.

Neela [00:18:00]:

Right. So like overnight people went from like, wait, these are the rates that we’re getting. And then all of a sudden, you know, they just like, skyrocketed. And so the Fed’s really. It’s only dropped it, what, three times?

Mary Beth [00:18:10]:

Right.

Neela [00:18:10]:

So it went up 11 times and it’s come down three. So it’s been a little bit, but not a lot. And so consumers, for the first time were dealing with, like, interest rates. Oh, turns out we should be paying attention to that because it’s crazy.

Mary Beth [00:18:23]:

Right? That’s, that’s. People cared, right? People care, right? Yeah.

Neela [00:18:26]:

And it was hard. And then they also were dealing with inflation for the first time. There was no inflation for a long time. So I just want to also just acknowledge, like consumers, if it’s felt crazy the last couple of years, it’s because it has been, it’s been really hard.

Mary Beth [00:18:38]:

Going back to what we talked about the beginning, you know, do people care about interest rates? I think they care about inflation. So I think that’s like one of the. You can talk about headlines and things that hit, I think interest rates and people also. It’s like the frog in boiling water slowly adjusts to, like, the adaptability of it. Like, people kind of start to adjust. And so I think people pay as much attention. But inflation, I mean, it was very much a topic against people. Yeah.

Neela [00:19:01]:

So going back to your question on home equity lines, like one of the things that we saw during the pandemic and really in the low interest environment is a lot of people staying in their homes and taking out home equity lines to do renovations because it was cheap to do that. But now floating rates. You know, it’s been a lot of people with home equity lines, they’ve had rates in like the 9% range, which is a less compelling option. As those rates start to fall, I bet you we start to see an increase in construction because people start seeing, seeing that, okay, there’s, I’m going to be staying in this house because I’ve got this 3% mortgage rate now. I’m going to fix it up.

Mary Beth [00:19:34]:

Yeah.

Neela [00:19:34]:

So I think that is where you might start to see some activity. And then the other one, you know, you mentioned this with Brian’s family buying cars is auto loans. Auto loans do get impacted by the interest rates in a big way. You know, everybody can think back to commercials where it was like 0.9% APR financing. Like it’s been a while since I’ve seen some of those.

Mary Beth [00:19:57]:

It’s been a while. I mean we just went down a rabbit hole and we have the benefit. You know, Brian’s former military. So like credit unions, like we went down like a whole bunch of shopping for the loans just to see. But yeah, it’s fascinating. It’ll be a long time till we get back there. I think it’s interesting where rates were too. I think it was during COVID like the demand for new cars, like you know, there was like a shortage of supply.

Mary Beth [00:20:18]:

I think that’s, that’s kind of evened itself out.

Neela [00:20:20]:

And I think again speaking to consumers, like the average auto payment in the US is almost $750.

Mary Beth [00:20:28]:

This is Bud Nanas to me by the way, like completely bananas.

Neela [00:20:32]:

That’s $9,000 a year. That means that you need to make at least $14,000 just to pay for that aspect of your car. Not including gas, insurance, any of the other pieces. Like that is a lot. And I do think, you know, again, consumers, this is tough. It is tough out there. So as you’re making the tradeoffs, like figuring out what is important to you and to your family. Driving, there is nothing wrong with driving that 12 year old car.

Neela [00:21:01]:

Cars are depreciating assets. It’s different. Buying a car is different than.

Mary Beth [00:21:06]:

I feel like I was like just said that but I think I was talking to my father in law, I was like, I would rather do the rental real estate all day long from like this, like the payments. I’m like Give me, give me some sort of return there.

Neela [00:21:16]:

Okay, so we’ve hit a lot of the variable pieces, a lot of individual consumers. What about business owners.

Mary Beth [00:21:22]:

So I mean similar to consumers, I mean lower interest rates obviously make financing more attractive. So you can then borrow to invest in other areas of your business that would potentially contribute to growth while it’s still like it’s more attractive for finance. The difference is kind of maybe if you borrowed like student loans. Student loans are supposed to therefore help you. You take good education and therefore you’re income earning potential goes higher. So it adds value there. So same thing from a business perspective, lower interest rates make financing more attractive. You can therefore borrow to invest in growth.

Mary Beth [00:21:52]:

You know, in areas of growth, whether it’s new hires or equipment to make your business more efficient, which will then add to the bottom line, increase efficiencies and make you more money. So from that perspective, it’s a good thing as rates go down.

Neela [00:22:05]:

Right. Can kind of grease the wheels of the economy to some degree because more businesses might be willing to invest in larger workforces or equipment or what have you.

Mary Beth [00:22:13]:

Yeah. On the other side, when interest rates are high, it’s expensive to borrow. Businesses aren’t looking to make those investments and they’re going to make maybe more strategic decisions in terms of cutting or saving and downsizing and being more efficient in other areas on the PNL. There’s pros and cons there, but that is it tends to lower interest rates do tend to lead to I think business expansion.

Neela [00:22:31]:

And I realize you mentioned student loans. We didn’t really talk about those. Those can kind of go either way. If you have fixed rate loans, public loans that have already been created, there’s not going to be any changes. But if you have private loans with variable interest rates, you will see impacts there.

Mary Beth [00:22:47]:

Yeah. So that’s interest rates. Exciting stuff for Nee is exciting stuff. We actually like talking about this stuff. And so it was funny when we talked about. It’s interesting to other people. No, but I track it, I look at it. I mean if it impacts you personally, it’s interesting depending on like where you’re at in your life too.

Mary Beth [00:23:02]:

If you have loans that are impacted by like the movement in rates and just like in the trickle down effect of it. Right. So if an interest rate changes, what does that impact in the economy? How does that impact and flow down to like you as an individual consumer? Ideally, clients aren’t worrying about this because you know, they have planners and they people are living their lives. Our job is to actually pay attention to these and kind of run the numbers and nickel and dime things. But ultimately, I think it’s important to understand how the rates work and what they can impact on a bigger picture.

Neela [00:23:28]:

Scale and controlling what you can control. We make different financial decisions based on the economic environment. So while we can’t necessarily control the economic environment, we can make adjustments based on the reality. And I think it’s also interesting because our perception of things is also uniquely tied to how we’ve experienced it. So Millennials and Gen Z and their experience with the last 15 years has been a very interesting experience compared to people who are taking mortgages out, say in the 80s because they’re like, wait a second, you think a six and a half percent mortgage rate is high? Try 18 and a half percent. That was my, you know, during the Volcker inflation years, that was my mortgage rate. And then to your point, you’re like, yeah, and homes weren’t nearly what they are today.

Mary Beth [00:24:12]:

They weren’t. But also wages weren’t necessarily where they are today either. And so it’s all, it’s all part of a story, right? So we always pull our like claims out of a bag, but it doesn’t paint a full picture. I think there is benefit from hearing both sides and understanding the complexities. But it’s an interesting dialogue and I love, I think we both nerd out a bit on the history of it. Understanding, like, what have we personally lived through? What have clients lived through? Like, what are like upcoming generations? Like, what are they looking at in. The landscape is shifting. It’s influenced by different factors, but it’s still, I mean, it’s cyclical as well.

Mary Beth [00:24:41]:

So I mean, it’s, I should say it’s like, it’s different than, you know, maybe what boomers have experience. You learn that Economics 101, it’s exciting stuff.

Neela [00:24:48]:

We’re going to live through many more cycles. So buckle up and do what you need to do for your own personal situation to make the interest rate environment work for you.

Mary Beth [00:24:57]:

Thanks, y’all.

Neela [00:24:58]:

Thank you. Most people have formed helpful and harmful habits around spending, giving and Investing. Head to abacuswealth.comquiz to take our Financial Architect Quiz and learn your three dominant money types. You’ll receive personalized guidance that helps you have a healthier, more balanced relationship to money.

Neela [00:25:21]:

Abacus Wealth Partners is an SEC registered Investment Advisor. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of Abacus Wealth Partners by the SEC, nor does it indicate that Abacus Wealth Partners has attained a particular level of skill or ability. This material prepared by Abacus Wealth Partners is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as a substitute for personalized investment advice or as a recommendation or solicitation of any particular security strategy or investment product. Opinions expressed by Abacus Wealth Partners are based on economic or market conditions at the time this material was written. Facts presented have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Abacus Wealth Partners, however, cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of such information, and certain information presented here may have been condensed or summarized from its original source. Abacus Wealth Partners does not provide tax or legal advice, and nothing contained in these materials should be taken as tax or legal advice.

Neela [00:26:15]:

Economies and Markets Fluctuate Actual economic or market events may turn out differently than anticipated. No investor should assume that future performance will be profitable or equal either the previous reflected performance or that of the reference benchmarks. The historical performance results of the comparative benchmark do not reflect the deduction of transaction and custodial charges or the deduction of an investment management fee, the incurrence of which would decrease indicated historical performance. The S and P index includes 500 leading companies in the US and is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large cap US Equities. The holdings and performance of Abacus Wealth Partners client accounts may vary widely from those of the presented indices. Advisory services are only offered to clients or prospective clients where Abacus Wealth Partners and its representatives are properly licensed or exempt from licensure. No advice may be rendered by Abacus Wealth Partners unless a client service agreement is in place.