Inflation Keeping You Behind Despite Earning More? What to do

I couldn’t help but look. On the release of the November 2022 US inflation report, the word “inflation” yielded 845 million Google search results. After peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, inflation is still having a moment. So it’s not surprising that you may feel… Inflation Keeping You Behind Despite Earning More? What to do as published on Women Who Money I couldn’t help but look. On the release of the November 2022 US inflation report, the word “inflation” yielded 845 million Google search results. After peaking at 9.1% in June 2022, inflation is still having a moment. So it’s not surprising that you may feel hard done by. You’ve done all the right things – wrangled your debt situation under control, and started to invest consistently in your future – and your reward is a gaping hole in your monthly budget due to a broad increase in prices. Now what? Is Inflation Personal? For many of us, our overall purchasing behavior has already been affected by the current high inflation period. Data for November 2022 retail sales revealed that discretionary goods, such as clothing, electronics, and sporting goods, fell as consumers diverted more of their budget away from these spending categories to food. As a next step, understand my personal inflation rate is not your inflation. Each household’s experience of inflation is unique. When you dive deep into the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures, it’s abundantly clear – while some prices are rising a lot, others are seeing only a modest rise or even a fall. Knowing precisely what your personal inflation triggers are will be the basis for your strategy to lessen inflation’s bite on your budget. For example, in the most recent CPI report, we saw an actual decline in the price of eggs against continued rises for cereal and baked goods. The implication is obvious: cold breakfast cereal is out, omelets are in. (Or make-ahead egg bakes!) Vegetarians won’t be happy to hear this, but carnivores will rejoice; meat prices (including fish and poultry) are waning as fruit and vegetable prices continue to charge ahead. These specific examples may seem trivial, but the general point is not: The age-old way to deal with inflation is to let go of ingrained buying habits and switch to lesser-priced alternatives. With some prices easing in late 2022, opportunities to do so exist. Over the coming months, we need to continue to overcome our feeling of general despair and actively seek out these openings, nimbly shifting our preferences to take advantage of price slides when we see them. And in fact, many of you are already doing this; the latest data from retailers show double-digit growth in the sale of private label (aka store brand) grocery items. More generally, the tried-and-true advice to pre-plan meals has never been more important than now. Your ability to actually take advantage of the relative shifts in food prices is not only dependent on being flexible in your tastes while in the grocery store. You must combine it with the willingness to plan – or even prepare – meals in advance based on what you find attractively priced that day. Do You Need to Buy Right Now? Timing may also be your friend. It’s clear (at this writing) that inflation, while still high, is easing. Supply chain disruptions, the source of so much heartache since the pandemic, are lessening. We saw this most vividly in the November decline (yes, decline!) in used car prices, which were previously driven to atmospheric levels by the shortage of new cars. At the moment, it never seems possible, but what goes up very often comes down (eventually). The cost of housing has also been a critical driver of 2022 inflation and was even the biggest CPI culprit at the end of 2022. But it is expected to ease somewhat in 2023, as higher interest rates dampen buyers’ enthusiasm. In addition, new housing stock currently under construction will reach completion, increasing supply in some markets. Your play? If you believe the trend in the sector of your particular interest is favorable, wait it out. You may be rewarded for patience if you change your spending habits and delay making