On today's edition of Wealth!, Yahoo Finance Host Brad Smith breaks down how consumers can best handle their finances amid high prices and inflation...
Consumer confidence rose in May after three consecutive months of declines, yet inflation continues to hover above the Federal Reserve 's 2% rate target. The Conference Board Chief Economist Dana Peterson,"but they're economizing on other types of activities." She adds that consumers are rearranging their budgets as the cost of their everyday needs continues to strain their wallets..
And just two weeks ago, Yahoo Finance spoke with the CFO of Walmart, John David Rainey after that retailer's quarterly results and he touted strength in the consumer despite admittedly stretched wallets take a look.Uh if there's something there, something that we should be more aware of, but they've been pretty consistent quarter to quarter.
Taco Bell Burger King, where you rule meet giants Tyson, they projected a weaker third quarter and signaled a challenging environment for under pressure consumers elsewhere, we're seeing a pull back on Diy projects.The Home Depot, their CEO citing softness in larger discretionary projects.And CEO Brian Cornell said the biggest challenges shoppers are facing is inflation in food and household essentials saying inflation is putting a strain on the consumer wallet.
Always a pleasure to welcome on here and thanks so much for taking the time we we mentioned at the top of this conversation, it truly does depend who you ask and you're asking all the right people and the consumers out there how they're feeling.Sure, consumers have mixed feelings right now, as you mentioned.Many of them are working, but they're very unhappy about the level of prices, prices are too high, especially for food.
Well, the interesting thing is that is, yes, they still are going on vacations, but they're economizing on other types of activities.Um, they're not interested in going to amusement parks or museums and those kinds of things. That stock drag is weighing on its peers after cutting its Q two revenue outlook for the second quarter amid steep competition in the airline space.
They just announced a whole re architecture uh re architecting of Windows 11 as well as their uh copilot plus P CS naming is a little finicky there. You know, even looking through what could be announced in terms of now the uh continued relationship with developers that are gonna be able to develop on top of some of the new kind of incremental improvements in service that Apple can provide through its software that goes into these products.Um I, I don't necessarily think Apple is gonna make this a subscription only kind of thing.
Apple is all about the devices, the products, uh the software while incredibly important is almost secondary to that. So pay up, pay attention here causing more Americans to miss out on significant savings opportunities.This is a big day.So first and foremost, for those who are trying to decide which plan is right for them.You know, I think you first have to look at your state, right?So for New York, for example, in New York, you have an in state tax deduction.
Really, what, what the Department of Education wanted to do was simplify the process of applying for financial aid. So they're missing out on those tax benefits and those potential investment earnings and cash is just not going to get you there when it's going 5 to 6% increase every year. In fact, again, you can open an account without a child and make yourself the beneficiary and then switch it to that child when they're born and you have a social security number.And also 529 plans have become so flexible over time that you don't have to worry that if that child doesn't go to college because that's another big reason.But 75% of last years, high school graduating class went on to a two or four year institution, but also 529 plans.
What we find is it takes conversations built on intentionality, respect and trust, but not everybody's practice to have those conversations, which is why it's important to have a financial advisor to set the agenda and be the guy to help make sure the families make progress.
All right, it sounds like it would be helpful to have a family therapist also involved in some of those conversations.I mean, this is really serious when you think about what you're saving for and we were just talking about education savings here too, which plays a huge role in perhaps the career you wanna go into after you attain the degree, which plays a huge role in your financial stature even after you get out of college.
I've also been an advisor and a guide, setting the agenda to help make sure that there are no stones left unturned.We've got 19,000 financial advisors in virtually every county in the country so that access to have somebody who's practiced in having those conversations is all the more relevant these days.
And that's according to Wells Fargo to put it in perspective, that's more than Italy's electricity usage for an entire year and the energy sector might be your back door into the A I trade. So with that in mind, I mean, why is it that portfolios aren't really playing this or, or to what extent are we seeing investors play this side of the A I trade in their portfolios?And so when the A I trade popped up, it's almost like the gold rush and you know, early on people wanted gold and then they realize, well, you know, maybe you're better off and it's probably a better risk adjusted proposition to sell the picks and the shovels and the, the jeans.
But we, we had never talked about what the chips in the data centers sit on top of which is real estate, which is utilities and power that goes into all of these things as well here. When you're trying to place those things, you're basically gonna be increasing the cost of electricity for everybody, including you know, the the retail investors.
And then after that some return to office policies that parents said, hey, you know what I've actually become accustomed to having more time in front of my family and my children's lives and being there for some key events here.Yeah, thanks for having me on Brad. In fact, we work with 1400 progressive employers that really do focus on their employees and recognize that in order to attract and retain the best talent, they are going to have to lean into these kinds of supports.
And so they're asking their employers to first and foremost lean in to provide these kinds of supports.And then the third is when they have breakdowns in care arrangements, they are asking their employers to provide benefits that allow for them to be able to have a secondary form backup care uh to accommodate needs when they have a breakdown in their traditional care arrangements.
Roughly 52 million Americans live in one that's up from 50 million in 2018 according to the Economic Innovation Group to break down what this means.So first I want to sort of set the ground here by starting with the criteria used by the EIG in that survey for what defines a distressed zip code. So if you've seen businesses come and go over the past five years as well, now it's interesting, the highest concentration of distressed areas are in the Southern United States and what it is is that we're seeing the lasting effects of Americans who had the economic means to relocate during the pandemic.
I reached out to the ED A who says that the winners for this year will be announced coming up this summer.Another place to look the Department of Agriculture's Emergency Community water Assistance grant program. You also have your local public and private organizations, some of these charities and community events also offering free and subsidized resources as well.Let's do a final check of the markets.We'll see if we can top that level as of right now though.Thanks so much for watching.
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