enRICHed: Volume 11
Shopping Season Begins
Hello BFFs! Hopefully this email doesn’t get buried among the hundreds you are receiving from brands seeking your Black Friday dollars. Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, followed by Giving Tuesday, both offering more opportunities for you to cross off your Christmas list. Cyber Monday is an obvious one, but there may be some people in your life who have a cause close to their hearts - Giving Tuesday is a great day to make a donation in someone’s honor as a holiday gift!
A few administrative reminders below:
HYCU, pronounced ‘haiku’: how the news impacts you and your wallet, aka How You Can Use
Spilling the Prosperitea 🫖 : our hot tips for you on all things money. Think discount codes, hacks, non-boring finance articles, sales, etc.
Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get you enRICHed.
Turkey Day Travel
AAA Travel Forecast predicted that 54.6 million people would travel 50+ miles for Thanksgiving this year. That would mean 2022 would be the third busiest Thanksgiving since 2000. And people are traveling earlier than ever this year thanks to remote work.
HYCU; this type of travel trend will be seen through the end of the year. This means higher travel prices, but also higher traffic patterns. Your time costs money too, so when traveling through the holidays this year, make sure to budget in the extra time you’ll be spending at the airport or on the highway.
How to Start Buying Less
Based on the findings from a 2019 survey that stated Americans spend an average of $18K/year on nonessentials, Vox put together a guide on how to stop spending in the face of rising inflation and a potential recession.
HYCU; this entire article can be used to help you financially! The following is a recap in case you don’t have the time to sit down and read it yourself. Set a buy less goal instead of telling yourself to stop spending fully. Make intentional, high utility purchases meant to last a lifetime. Use “want” instead of “need” to help put purchases into better perspective. Time a step back to avoid impulse buys. Take stock of what you have, to avoid duplicates.
Americans are Using More Credit
Total household debt increased to $16.5 trillion - the largest nominal quarterly increase since 2007. Specifically, credit card debt rose to $930 billion.
This increase in credit card debt is a 15% increase since 2021. We are also seeing a utilization rate - the percentage of credit card limits being used - of 21.5%, the highest since the first quarter of 2020.
HYCU; Americans having a higher credit card utilization rate could mean that they are depleting their cash savings, likely as we face such high inflation affecting essential purchases like groceries and gas. While credit cards are useful to prop up consumer spending in the short-term, their interest rates can be +18% which can catch you extremely off guard if you don’t stay ahead of the payments.
Fears of Rail Strike Still Loom
A rail strike is back on the table as four of the twelve rail unions rejected Biden’s labor deal proposal from back in September. The proposal included one of the best pay packages seen in 20 years, but union workers are more focused on work-life benefits - paid sick leave in particular.
If the unions cannot come to a deal before December 9th, the workers can strike. And if one union strikes, they all follow suit. Experts predict that a month long rail strike could push the country into a recession. (podcast link with audio)
HYCU; we’ve highlighted this once, but a rail strike impacts everyone. The rail system is more important than anyone realizes in getting goods around our country. So you aren’t just going to see travel impacts on Amtrak; this type of strike could implode our supply chain, especially as we head into the holiday season.
Student Loan Forgiveness Paused
We rang the bells for the student loan repayment plan, but the Department of Education is asking us to hold our excitement. While the debt relief plan is on pause, the pause on student loan repayments has also been extended through the end of June.
The debt relief plan that the Biden admin put together has been put on nationwide hold after a federal appeal. Now, the case is going to be put in front of the Supreme Court for a final decision.
In the meantime, payments will be paused as Biden has said there is no reason to ask borrowers to make payments on debt that will hopefully be forgiven. If the case is still held up in court by June 30, 2023, student loan payments will restart 60 days after that.
HYCU; Your Rich BFF is keeping you updated on all things Student Loan Forgiveness via TikTok and Instagram. See here for a quick hit on how this affects you and when you might need to start paying your loan payments again.
Rich Tip of the Week: Side Hustles to Get YOU Rich (video link w/ sound)
Docuseries Binge: Netflix’s Eat The Rich details the Gamestop stock phenom that happened during COVID on the Robinhood platform. It actually gives some great insight into short squeezes and how they work.
Despite the controversies coming out of Qatar, advertisers are still giving their dollars to FIFA.
Birkenstocks are back on trend and people are paying up for them on second hand websites, but nothing is quite like the $218 million paid for Steve Jobs’ worn pair of slides (!?)
