Strategies
If you’re like most investors, you’ve noticed the impact of higher inflation in recent years – whether at the gas pump or the grocery store. American investors are experiencing the effects of prolonged inflation for the first time since the early 1980s.
As a result, many are concerned about how inflation levels will impact their ability to reach their long-term financial goals. While it may not be possible to avoid the effects of inflation altogether, there are several strategies investors can utilize to mitigate the impact of inflation on their financial plan. Here are three investment considerations that may help address inflation concerns and better prepare your goals for long-term success.
1 – Keep your money invested
When the inflation rate soared in 2022, stock and bond markets declined. Some investors responded by pulling money out of the market. This can be counterproductive as
(Financial cont’d from pg 1) year when stocks declined as inflation rose. But if you have time to let your money work for you, stocks have historically outpaced the rise in living costs. According to data collected since 1871, stocks have grown faster than inflation for holding periods of 20 years or more.2 Investors who can ride the highs and lows of markets are often better suited to keep up, if not pass, the rate of inflation.
investors too often miss much of a market’s recovery gain before they put their money back to work. For example, the U.S. stock market (as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, an unmanaged index of stocks often used as a benchmark of market performance), declined 25% between January and October 2022. But by the end of 2023, the S&P 500 regained nearly all of the ground lost in the bear market.1 It is normal for markets to go through ups and downs. Investors that stay the course and keep their money invested commonly see their investments make up gains that were lost in a sudden downturn.
While it may be tempting to remove yourself from the market during volatile periods, it could be helpful to stay invested at a level that reflects your risk tolerance.
2 – If time is on your side, take advantage of stocks
Over time, stocks have historically outpaced inflation, an important consideration as you try to build wealth to achieve your ultimate financial goals with more confidence. This doesn’t mean that year-in, yearout, stocks will keep you ahead of inflation. 2022 is a good example of a
3 – For short-term money, seek higher yields
You may have money set aside for shortterm needs, such as your emergency fund or to cover upcoming expenses. In these times of elevated inflation, you’ll want to find ways to earn more competitive yields on your short-term savings. Search out options such as money market funds, CDs, short-term U.S. Treasury securities and other savings vehicles that offer yields that may keep pace with inflation. Utilizing these tools may allow you to stay more liquid with your investments while hedging against the impacts of inflation.
Whether an economic cycle brings conventional or elevated inflation it should be considered as a factor of your long-
term financial plan. A financial advisor can help develop a comprehensive strategy that addresses the inflation environment today and over the long term.
1 S&P Dow Jones Indices.
2 NBER, Bloomberg, American Enterprise Investment Services, Inc.
Duane J Lusson, CFP, ChFC, CLU, MSFS, is a Private Wealth Advisor with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. in Ottumwa, Iowa. He specializes in feebased financial planning and asset management strategies and has been in practice for 30 years. To contact him, call 641684-4200 or stop by his office at 527 W. Second in Ottumwa, Iowa.
This information is being provided only as a general source of information and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any securities, accounts or strategies mentioned. The information is not intended to be used as the primary basis for investment decisions, nor should it be construed as a recommendation or advice designed to meet the particular needs of an individual investor. Please consult with your financial advisor regarding your specific financial situation.
Ameriprise Financial Planning Services are optional, offered separately, and priced according to the complexity of your case and your financial advisor’s practice fee schedule. Your fees and financial advisor may be subject to change.
Financial planning is generally appropriate if you have financial goals, sufficient assets and income to address your financial goals, and are willing to pay an investment advisory fee for recommendations to help you achieve those goals.
Please review the Ameriprise Financial Planning Client Disclosure Brochure or, for a consolidated advisory relationship, the Ameriprise Managed Accounts and Financial Planning Service Disclosure Brochure, for a full description of services offered, including fees and expenses.
Ameriprise Financial cannot guarantee future financial results.
Stock investments involve risk, including loss of principal. High-quality stocks may be appropriate for some investment strategies. Ensure that your investment objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance are aligned with investing in stocks, as they can lose value.
The S&P 500 Index is a basket of 500 stocks that are considered to be widely held. The S&P 500 index is weighted by market value (shares outstanding times share price), and its performance is thought to be representative of the stock market as a whole. The S&P 500 index was created in 1957 although it has been extrapolated backwards to several decades earlier for performance comparison purposes. This index provides a broad snapshot of the overall US equity market. Over 70% of all US equity value is
tracked by the S&P 500. Inclusion in the index is determined by Standard & Poor’s and is based upon their market size, liquidity, and sector.
Investment products are not insured by the FDIC, NCUA or any federal agency, are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed by any financial institution, and involve investment risks including possible loss of principal and fluctuation in value.
Investment advisory products and services are made available through Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser.
Securities offered by Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC. Member FINRA and SIPC.
© 2024 Ameriprise Financial, Inc. All rights reserved.
File # 6212132.1
At
War with Coyotes
We have had trumpeter swans stop by our lake every spring and fall for about thirty years. It started when we served as foster caretakers for four juvenile swans for one summer. We did not have to do much to help them along and in the fall they migrated south. Since then, more and more swans spend about a month resting and feeding at our place. This spring, 20-25 swans have been here for almost two months. I have hoped a pair will nest here since they have been staying so long, but I know they prefer the cooler climate of northern Minnesota and southern Canada. Though we know this is unlikely we always enjoy their visit. They almost sound like music as they fly in and out coming from their feeding grounds in the afternoon and leaving again in the morning. Sometimes the majestic birds fly close enough to the house, we
hear the wind pass over their wings as we watch from the porch. They have also been spending more time than usual on the beach by the dock or on shore on the far side of the lake.
The unusual weather, I am sure, is the cause for the delay in the northern migration and the change in their daily activity. The weather may also be a factor in the coyote behavior. It is not unusual to see a coyote once every month or so or to get one picture per week of a coyote passing by a trail camera. This year, it seems we see one or two every week and get pictures on the trail cameras almost daily. It is as though the coyote population has suddenly exploded. We have been cautious on letting the dogs outside when it is dark and keeping track of where they are going during the day.
I am sure Jag, the terrier, would not hesitate to fight a coyote and am sure he would not win the fight. He does possess more courage than brains. Billie, the poodle, would probably not intentionally start a fight with a coyote but if it was a female in heat, he might breed her. It would not be good to have smarter and larger half breed coyotes running around terrorizing the neighborhood.
Saturday morning, as my usual routine, I grabbed a cup of cof-
fee and stared out of the window, waiting for it to turn light. I could hear the geese, ducks, and swans as they stirred preparing for the day. A few turkeys also gobbled from various locations from their perches in the timber. As it became light, I could hear turkeys flying down from their roosts and could see the swans near the far side of the lake preparing to take off. I could also see something white up on the shore. It looked like a patch of snow on the green grass. I went to the spotting scope and checked it out. I was dismayed to see the remains of a swan with feathers spread all around. An eagle was cleaning up what remained of the great bird. What was even more sad than the loss of this one, was when the group of swans took off, one remained behind, calling mournfully. It stayed near the shore calling for a couple of hours before finally flying off to join the others feeding.
I can only assume our swan was killed in the night by a pair of coyotes. Nothing else lives around here that is big enough or brave enough to take one on. It is possible, it succumbed to natural causes, but I will nonetheless continue my relentless war with coyotes. I do not want to see this ever again happen to our swans.
All Your Eggs in One Basket
Just the other day, while walking through Walmart, I noticed their Easter supplies were marked way down. I stopped to glance at the selection. I noticed the PAAS egg coloring kits. Wow, I remember those for me when I was a kid. I wondered how long they’ve been making those.
I thought PAAS coloring dye tablets were made from Crayola crayons as a kid. As an adult I knew the tablets were not chunks of crayons, but I wondered if they were made by the same company; it seemed logical since both products deal with bright colors. I know Crayola Crayons were made in Easton, Pennsylvania. I saw the company when driving through Easton, but I didn’t know about the PAAS Egg Coloring Kits, so I went home and did some research.
PAAS egg coloring dye tablets were invented by a druggist in Newark, New Jersey, in the 1880s. The Crayola Crayon company was founded in 1897. The two towns are only about an hour away from each other, and both companies deal with bright colors, but there is no co-ownership. I was somewhat surprised to learn that both companies are over 120 years old; I never would’ve guessed they had been around that long. I started reminiscing how PAAS Egg Coloring kits and Crayola Crayons had a lasting impact on my childhood Easters.
In Mrs. Murphy’s kinder-
garten class at Horace Mann Elementary School in Ottumwa, Iowa, we made Easter baskets. We cut strips of colored construction paper and wove them together to make the basket. Another strip was cut to make a handle. I fastened two strips with Elmer’s Paste to make a longer handle for my basket. (Elmer’s Paste sure smelled nice and tasted pretty good, too, but I digress; that’s another story.)
Every kid had an 8-pack of big, fat Crayola Crayons, which came in a box with a removable lid. We used our crayons to color paper cut-out eggs and Easter Bunnies, which were also pasted to the basket. Finally, we used Elmer’s Paste to attach the handle, and our basket was complete.
The baskets were displayed on the window sill in Mrs. Murphy’s classroom for several days. Then, we took the baskets home with us for Easter break. (Today, it’s spring break.) Eastertime was special at home, too.
On Good Friday before Easter, Mom would prepare a big pan of hardboiled eggs. Then, on Saturday, we would color the eggs, always using the PAAS cut egg coloring kits. The PAS kit came with five colors: red, blue, green, yellow, and pink. Mom would pour a little vinegar into five different bowls, then drop a different color dye tablet into each, and finally add about a cup of water. The coloring kit came with a dipping tool, which was a thin wire with a large loop on one end. We had to bend a 90° angle at the larger end to make a hoop to hold the egg. With the tool, the white egg was then dipped down into the colored dye, and voila, you had an edible Easter egg. But we soon wanted more than solid-colored eggs.
If you wanted a multicolored egg, you would put the egg upright in the coloring tool and dip the bottom half first. Then, when it dried, you would turn the egg over and dip the top half. We also experimented to get new colors beyond the basic five in the PAAS kit.
From playing with my Crayola Crayons, I knew that mixing yellow and blue would make green, but green was already in the PAAS Egg Coloring Kit. However, if I mixed yellow and red, I got orange, and blue and red made purple, two colors that were not in the kit.
One time, I tried dipping a white egg into all the colors. As a kid, I honestly thought it would make a rainbow, but to my dismay, it just turned the eggshell dark grey, almost black. But I didn’t give up. I cut very thin strips of colored paper and pasted them individually onto an egg; I got my rainbow.
PAAS Egg Coloring kits weren’t available with any self-adhering stickers back then, so we would cut out little shapes, or maybe a bunny we found in an ad in Better Homes and Gardens magazine, and use our Elmer’s Paste to stick them to an egg. When all the eggs were decorated, they went into the refrigerator to be served Easter morning. But there was always one more egg to be colored.
Inevitably, one of my older siblings would color a raw egg, a special egg placed on Dad’s plate. Sunday morning at breakfast, my unsuspecting father would tap the egg until the shell broke, and the egg ran all over his plate. The first year I remember this happening, Dad laughed. (Although, I don’t believe he thought it was funny.)
In subsequent years, he’d say, “Come on, guys!” By the time the prank had run its course, Dad would complain, “This is a waste of a perfectly good egg!”
By the time the younger kids would color a raw egg, Dad learned to spin the egg before breaking the shell to ensure it was cooked.
Easter Sunday always started with my family going to church. We had sixteen children, plus Mom and Dad, so we took two full pews. Dad was mighty proud of his family. After mass, we were excited to get home to see if the Easter Bunny had visited our house. Dad would go to the living room and check. “The Easter Bunny has been here,” he would announce. There was a ritual before the kids rushed into the living room.
Dad would line up all the kids, from the youngest to the oldest. No one was allowed into the living room until the line was formed. Then, Dad would go to the living room first and pick up his Bell and Howell, eight MM camera mounted on a bar with two flood lights. Once
the lights illuminated the hallway, Dad would call out, “Okay, let’s go,” and the line would proceed.
The youngest kid, the baby, could never move fast enough for the older, eager kids behind. You could go around the toddlers once you passed the doorway’s threshold. Kids rushed into the room, looking for the treasures. One year, one of my older brothers ran into the living room and lifted the cushion on the couch. It was like lifting the lid on a pirate treasure chest; the motherload of goodies lay there! Unfortunately, there were no prizes to be found for the rest of the siblings!
It seems that brother had snuck into the living room un-noticed, found all the Easter eggs, stashing his ill-gotten booty under the cushion. Far be it from me to name names, but that’s where he gained the nickname ‘Peter Pig.’ Well, that, and then there was the time he and my brother Danny had a pancake-eating
contest during breakfast. The nameless brother ate thirteen pancakes to win the challenge. I think he could have eaten more, but Mom had this strange fetish about all the kids getting something to eat for breakfast, but again, I digress.
Easter came in my kindergarten year, and the weather was nice. After we found all the eggs in the living room, Dad announced, “I wonder if the Easter Bunny hid any eggs outside?” The children rushed out the back door – except the teenage kids. They didn’t care much about Easter Egg hunts in their teens but followed along as an obligatory family event. The older kids also helped the smaller kids by lifting them to reach an egg on top of a curtain rod or a tree branch outdoors. They also carried the youngest siblings outside so the little ones wouldn’t be trampled by the mob of competitive treasure hunt-
(Just the Other Day continued from pg 6)
ers. I rushed outside along with the other kids.
Most of the kids carried store-bought easter baskets that were re-used year after year, with that plastic fake Easter grass. In contrast, I sported the paper basket I’d made in school sans the fake grass; I didn’t want any.
Plastic Easter grass always seemed to get charged with static electricity, clinging to my clothes and arms. Plus, I had more room for Easter Eggs without that grass in my basket. Outside, I found more eggs; my basket was soon mounded with eggs and wouldn’t hold any more; they just rolled off the pile. Mom called out the kitchen window, “Breakfast is on the table. Everyone, inside before it gets cold!” I shoved an egg in each pocket and called it a wrap. Besides, I wanted to get inside to see if Dad would get his annual raw Easter egg.
The Easter eggs sought in the hunt were plastic and came in various pastel spring colors. Each egg was filled with jelly beans, chocolate candies, or those sugar-coated
orange slices. (I still like those even though they are grossly sweet.) Other eggs would have coins inside. My paper basket was rather heavy, being full of loaded eggs.
The construction paper handle broke in my haste to get inside for breakfast. My basket fell to the sidewalk and shattered. Eggs rolled around on the concrete, and many split open, scattering loose jelly beans and chocolates. One of the other kids stepped on an orange slice, smashing it while running into the house. I started crying.
Dad went in the house and came back with a paper grocery sack, then helped me gather my spoils – but not without a lesson: “There’s an old saying, never put all your eggs in one basket; you never know when the basket might fall, or break.”
When I tried to collect the flattened orange slice and a few mashed jelly beans, Dad said, “Why don’t you leave those here. The animals will eat them.” Dad explained what it meant, carrying all my eggs in
one basket, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I just didn’t want to miss breakfast. Maybe I should have listened to him more closely.
This last week, we were gathering at my daughter’s house in Duluth to celebrate Easter; I asked Sydney what she wanted me to bring for the meal.
“Pie and dinner rolls,” she said. No problem, I can do that. Ten people were expected to attend, and more than one pie would be needed.
My granddaughters have developed a liking for coconut, so I planned to make a coconut cream pie. Sydney enjoys my mixed berry pie, which would be the second pie.
Melissa mentioned peach pie a few times; I use her Grandma Lucille’s recipes, and it’s Melissa’s favorite.
I wouldn’t disappoint her, so I made a third pie. But I also knew John was crazy about blueberry anything, so I made a fourth pie, a mini blueberry pie. I spent over two hours baking on Saturday evening, placing the coconut cream pie in the refrigerator to chill
overnight.
On Easter Sunday, after mass, I topped the coconut pie with real whipped cream and garnished it with toasted coconut. The pies were beautiful, so I placed them together on the counter for a photo. After the picture, I returned the coconut cream pie to the fridge.
I had to keep the cream pie chilled, so when it was time to go, I put the three large pies inside individual plastic pie containers. I wrapped the mini blueberry pie with cling wrap and placed all four pies inside a large Styrofoam box, which was made to ship frozen foods. I packed several ice packs around the coconut cream pie, then carried the large box to the driveway. I would transport the pies in the camper in the back of Willie, our old Ford pickup.
My truck and Melissa’s car were parked fairly close together. The box didn’t weigh much; it was just bulky, so I lifted it, one-handed like a waiter carrying a tray, while I squeezed between the two vehicles. I walked sideways, throwing my chest outward and arching my back inward to clear the big rearview mirror on Willie while keeping my arm away from the big mirror brackets. Then, I sucked my gut in to get by the driver’s mirror on Melissa’s car. “Easy-peasy,” I said, “I’ve got this made,” and started to walk a little faster. Except….
I forgot about the posts that stick out on the camper jacks. Walking a bit faster, I rammed my back into one of the sharp posts, and it hurt! “Ouch,” I screamed in pain. I stopped very suddenly as a burning sensation flared through my upper body. I watched helplessly, grasping with my hands, as the Styrofoam box, held six feet in the air, slid right off the fingertips of my right hand. The world started moving in slow motion. “NOOooo, no, no!” I yelled at the box.
The box went inverted, and the lid came off as it sailed away from me. Next, the four pies fell away from the airborne box. The lid hit the ground first, then the blueberry
pie landed on the gravel driveway, and the coconut cream pie crashed on top of the blueberry. Next, the peach pie landed upsidedown in the Styrofoam lid; the mixed fruit pie hit the peach pie, bounced off, and crashed into the coconut cream pie, finally coming to a rest in the gravel.
“Mother, son of pirates, frick and frack,” I cussed a lot (although those may not be the exact words I used) as I looked at my four pies face-down in the driveway. I knelt beside my pies, hoping for some salvage.
Miraculously, the pie container lids popped loose, but all the pies landed in the lids! As I carefully turned each pie up-right, I imagined Dad was kneeling next to me, helping me clean up the mess just as he did over 55 years ago when my Easter basket broke, but not without a lesson: “There’s an old saying, never put all your eggs in one basket. You never know when the basket might fall or break,” Dad said….
The fluted crust on the fruit pies was broken up, and the tops cracked in a few places, but overall, they took the fall well. I turned the coconut cream pie over. I won’t describe what it looked like, but it was a mess!
My beautiful pies looked like a train wreck, but I still counted my blessings. “They may not be pretty, but I could put those pies in a blender, and they would taste the same.”
Melissa and I drove to Duluth. I never mentioned the incident on the ride there.
At Sydney’s house, John was smoking a ham for dinner outside. He works magic in his smoker.
When he carried the ham inside, he was white as a ghost. “What’s the matter, John?” someone asked.
John said, “I slipped and dropped the pan. The ham landed upside-down in the snow.” I truly felt his pain.
“Well, John,” I said. “Let this be a lesson to you: never carry all of your ham in one pan….”
Easter dinner turned out great!
