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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 Strategies to Protect inflation for Your Goals from the first time Consistent Inflation 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 on pg 2)

PAGE 2 (Financial cont’d from pg 1) year when stocks de-

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term financial plan. A investors too often miss clined as inflation rose. financial advisor can But if you have time to help develop a compremuch of a market’s recovery gain before they let your money work for hensive strategy that put their money back to you, stocks have histori- addresses the inflation environment today and work. For example, the cally outpaced the rise in living costs. Accordover the long term.

U.S. stock market (as ing to data collected measured by the Stan1 S&P Dow Jones Indices. dard & Poor’s 500 stock since 1871, stocks have 2 NBER, Bloomberg, American Entergrown faster than infla- prise Investment Services, Inc. index, an unmanaged tion for holding periods index of stocks often Duane J Lusson, CFP, ChFC, of 20 years or more.2 CLU, MSFS, is a Private Wealth used as a benchmark Advisor with Ameriprise FinanInvestors who can ride of market performance), cial Services, Inc. in Ottumwa, the highs and lows of declined 25% between Iowa. He specializes in feemarkets are often better based financial planning and January and October management strategies 2022. But by the end of suited to keep up, if not asset and has been in practice for 30 pass, the rate of infla2023, the S&P 500 reyears. To contact him, call 641tion.

684-4200 or stop by his office gained nearly all of the at 527 W. Second in Ottumwa, ground lost in the bear Iowa. market.1 It is normal for 3 – For short-term money, seek higher This information is being promarkets to go through vided only as a general source yields ups and downs. Invesof information and is not a solicitation to buy or sell any tors that stay the course You may have money securities, accounts or strateset aside for shortand keep their money gies mentioned. The informainvested commonly see term needs, such as tion is not intended to be used as the primary basis for investtheir investments make your emergency fund ment decisions, nor should it be or to cover upcomup gains that were lost as a recommendation ing expenses. In these construed in a sudden downturn. or advice designed to meet the times of elevated inparticular needs of an individual While it may be temptinvestor. Please consult with flation, you’ll want to ing to remove yourself your financial advisor regarding find ways to earn more your specific financial situation. from the market durcompetitive yields on ing volatile periods, it Ameriprise Financial Planning could be helpful to stay your short-term savServices are optional, offered ings. Search out options separately, and priced accordinvested at a level that such as money market ing to the complexity of your reflects your risk tolerand your financial advisor’s funds, CDs, short-term case ance. practice fee schedule. Your fees U.S. Treasury securiand financial advisor may be subject to change. ties and other savings 2 – If time is on your vehicles that offer yields Financial planning is generside, take advantage that may keep pace with ally appropriate if you have of stocks financial goals, sufficient assets Over time, stocks have inflation. Utilizing these and income to address your tools may allow you to financial goals, and are willing historically outpaced to pay an investment advisory stay more liquid with inflation, an important for recommendations to your investments while fee consideration as you help you achieve those goals. hedging against the Please review the Ameriprise try to build wealth to Financial Planning Client impacts of inflation. achieve your ultimate fiDisclosure Brochure or, for a nancial goals with more consolidated advisory relationWhether an economic ship, the Ameriprise Managed confidence. This doesn’t Accounts and Financial Plancycle brings conventionmean that year-in, yearning Service Disclosure Brochure, for a full description of out, stocks will keep you al or elevated inflation offered, including fees ahead of inflation. 2022 it should be considered services and expenses. is a good example of a as a factor of your long-

APRIL 3, 2024 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.

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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 At War with activity. The weather may also be a factor in Coyotes the coyote behavior. It is not unusual to see a We have had trumpeter coyote once every month swans stop by our lake or so or to get one picevery spring and fall ture per week of a coyote for about thirty years. It passing by a trail camstarted when we served era. This year, it seems as foster caretakers for we see one or two every four juvenile swans for week and get pictures on one summer. We did the trail cameras almost not have to do much to daily. It is as though the help them along and in coyote population has the fall they migrated suddenly exploded. We south. Since then, more have been cautious on and more swans spend letting the dogs outside about a month restwhen it is dark and keeping and feeding at our ing track of where they place. This spring, 20-25 are going during the day. swans have been here I am sure Jag, the terfor almost two months. rier, would not hesitate I have hoped a pair will to fight a coyote and am nest here since they sure he would not win have been staying so the fight. He does poslong, but I know they sess more courage than prefer the cooler climate brains. Billie, the poodle, of northern Minnesota would probably not intenand southern Canada. tionally start a fight with Though we know this is a coyote but if it was a unlikely we always enjoy female in heat, he might their visit. They almost breed her. It would not sound like music as be good to have smarter they fly in and out comand larger half breed ing from their feeding coyotes running around grounds in the afternoon terrorizing the neighborand leaving again in the hood. morning. Sometimes the Saturday mornmajestic birds fly close ing, as my usual routine, enough to the house, we I grabbed a cup of cof-

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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.

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PAGE 6

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-

SAVE OTTUMWA POST 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.

APRIL 3, 2024

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.

The baskets were disBut I didn’t give up. I cut played on the window sill very thin strips of colored in Mrs. Murphy’s classpaper and pasted them room for several days. individually onto an egg; I Then, we took the baskets got my rainbow. home with us for Easter PAAS Egg Coloring kits break. (Today, it’s spring weren’t available with any break.) Eastertime was self-adhering stickers special at home, too. back then, so we would On Good Friday before cut out little shapes, or Easter, Mom would premaybe a bunny we found pare a big pan of hardin an ad in Better Homes boiled eggs. Then, on and Gardens magazine, Saturday, we would color and use our Elmer’s Paste the eggs, always using to stick them to an egg. the PAAS cut egg colorWhen all the eggs were ing kits. The PAS kit came decorated, they went with five colors: red, blue, into the refrigerator to be green, yellow, and pink. served Easter morning.

But there was always one Mom would pour a little more egg to be colored. vinegar into five different bowls, then drop a Inevitably, one of my older different color dye tablet siblings would color a raw into each, and finally add egg, a special egg placed about a cup of water. The on Dad’s plate. Sunday coloring kit came with a morning at breakfast, dipping tool, which was a my unsuspecting father thin wire with a large loop would tap the egg until the on one end. We had to shell broke, and the egg bend a 90° angle at the ran all over his plate. The larger end to make a hoop first year I remember this to hold the egg. With the happening, Dad laughed. tool, the white egg was (Although, I don’t believe then dipped down into the he thought it was funny.) colored dye, and voila, In subsequent years, he’d you had an edible Easter say, “Come on, guys!” By egg. But we soon wanted the time the prank had more than solid-colored run its course, Dad would eggs. 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.

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.

Easter Sunday always You could go around the started with my family toddlers once you passed going to church. We had the doorway’s threshold. sixteen children, plus Kids rushed into the room, Mom and Dad, so we took looking for the treasures. two full pews. Dad was One year, one of my older mighty proud of his fambrothers ran into the livily. After mass, we were ing room and lifted the excited to get home to cushion on the couch. It see if the Easter Bunny was like lifting the lid on a had visited our house. pirate treasure chest; the Dad would go to the living motherload of goodies lay room and check. “The there! Unfortunately, there Easter Bunny has been were no prizes to be found here,” he would announce. for the rest of the siblings!

There was a ritual before the kids rushed into the It seems that brother living room. had snuck into the living room un-noticed, found Dad would line up all the all the Easter eggs, stashkids, from the youngest ing his ill-gotten booty to the oldest. No one was under the cushion. Far allowed into the living be it from me to name room until the line was names, but that’s where formed. Then, Dad would he gained the nickname go to the living room first ‘Peter Pig.’ Well, that, and and pick up his Bell and then there was the time Howell, eight MM camera he and my brother Danny mounted on a bar with had a pancake-eating two flood lights. Once

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 cont’d on pg 7)

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(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.

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 daughThe construction paper handle broke in my haste ter’s house in Duluth to celebrate Easter; I asked to get inside for breakSydney what she wanted fast. My basket fell to the me to bring for the meal. sidewalk and shattered.

Eggs rolled around on the “Pie and dinner rolls,” she said. No problem, I can concrete, and many split do that. Ten people were open, scattering loose expected to attend, and jelly beans and chocomore than one pie would lates. One of the other kids stepped on an orange be needed. slice, smashing it while My granddaughters have running into the house. I developed a liking for started crying. coconut, so I planned to make a coconut cream Dad went in the house pie. Sydney enjoys my and came back with a paper grocery sack, then mixed berry pie, which would be the second pie. helped me gather my Melissa mentioned peach spoils – but not without pie a few times; I use her a lesson: “There’s an old Grandma Lucille’s recipes, saying, never put all your and it’s Melissa’s favorite. eggs in one basket; you never know when the bas- I wouldn’t disappoint her, so I made a third pie. But I ket might fall, or break.”

When I tried to collect the also knew John was crazy flattened orange slice and about blueberry anything, a few mashed jelly beans, so I made a fourth pie, a Dad said, “Why don’t you mini blueberry pie. I spent leave those here. The ani- over two hours baking on Saturday evening, placmals will eat them.” Dad ing the coconut cream pie explained what it meant, in the refrigerator to chill carrying all my eggs in

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!

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