Together With

Hey Future Funders family,

Welcome to March Madness, where everyone in my family who knows less about college basketball than I do (someone who actually played in the tournament), will wind up beating me in a bracket pool.

Ok, let’s get to it.

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Headlines That Matter

🏦 Inflation for longer? This past week the Consumer Price Index (what people use as an inflation measure) came in higher than expected for the month of February— average of consumer prices being up 3.2% from last year. On the back of this Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, said it’s unlikely that interest rates will return to levels that prevailed before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our take: This is just one set of data, so we wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about it and think inflation is going back up. We would however point out that we are likely going to live in a world over the next several years of both higher inflation and higher interest rates than we have had pre-covid. This makes it essential for every family to invest their savings and not just have it sit in a checking account or holding cash. Since inflation right now is 3.2% that should be every families’ baseline return expectation for any investment decision. We will be releasing an ‘investing made easy’ course soon to help.

🏠 Some home price relief on the way? There was a monumental court case settlement that is worth everyone taking notice. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed to pay $418 million over the next four years to settle several lawsuits alleging it artificially inflated realtor commissions. There are many provisions to the deal but what is most important is one that will likely kill an agent’s 5-6% commission rate and put the U.S. more in line with the rest of the world’s 1-3% real estate agent commission rate longer term. The ruling is likely to come into effect in July assuming it is approved by a federal court.

Our take: The basic result of the ruling was to not allow seller’s agents to pay buyers agent’s fees with the 5-6% which is typical on a sale. This will force buyers’ agents to negotiate fee directly with homebuyers and possibly allow homebuyers an à la carte option for services they want vs. don’t want. On the flip side, if seller’s agents no longer split fees with buyers’ agents, the 5-6% fee rate on a home sale likely comes down and home sellers everywhere can lower prices by a similar amount (since they are going to be paying less fees).

🚗 Selling your data. A recent story we were surprised didn’t get more attention was the bombshell report revealing how auto companies are selling your driving data to your auto insurance companies. This data helps to determine your overall risk as a driver and can be one of the factors to determine your overall auto insurance rates.

Our take: The way this data is collected on you in your car is either by car features linked to the internet (think you GPS) or apps that you are prompted to download on your phone as part of your auto insurance. While getting away from at least some of this monitoring is likely not in the cards, be wary of downloading insurance apps on your phone and maybe use WAYZ vs. your car’s navigation. There have now been calls for an investigation into the story, but we wouldn’t hold our breath.

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Signs Your Being Scammed

🚀 What’s happening: Tired of dodging scams left, right, and center? Us too! 

The reality is that in today's digital age, fraudsters lurk around every corner of the internet – and they’re growing more and more sophisticated. 

Luckily, if you know exactly what to watch out for, you can stay one step ahead.

We’ve put together a 2-part info series that will give you the tools you need to identify and prevent potential scams from affecting your family’s finances. 

This week, we’re tackling how to pick up on the subtle cues that you may be dealing with a scam, before it’s too late. Next week, we’ll explain the best ways to protect yourself from scams and fraud. 

So, let’s kick it off with this important question: Would you recognize these 5 warning signs you’re being scammed? Let’s find out.

Dinner Discussion ❓

See last week’s poll results below.

Deals, Reads, and Other Finds…

🍟 Not great for your health. A deep dive into the new science around what ultra-processed food does to your brain is worth a read.

🍝 Surge pricing to a menu near you. More and more restaurants are starting to experiment with Uber like surge menu pricing which will adjust prices up and down in real time based on factors like time of day, staffing, and meal costs.

🧑‍💼 Out of office forever. Want to work from home but not sure how? This quick look at 10 jobs might help you say goodbye to your current boss.

📜 Quote Of The Week

“Having kids is like living in a zoo – every day is an adventure, and you never know what you’re going to see next!”

-Unknown

Dinner Discussion ❓

Last week’s question: Do you think high school age kids should have a job?

Results: This one wasn’t very close with 84% of you thinking that high school aged kids should have a job.

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