Mid Year, A good time to reassess goals

G’day all

How quickly the weeks are flying by, even with still partial lockdown restrictions here in Victoria.  As most of the rest of the country starts to come back to life, and the same in most states of the U.S. now

Winter Solstice is almost upon us, and summer is hitting the U.S. it’s a great time for us to start to analyse our goals and see where we are for the year.

With so much happening this year, we could be forgiven for looking to ‘give up’ on our goals.  But this is exactly the time to knuckle down and take stock of where we are.

It’s certainly OK to be no further down your goal path now, that we were in say, January… But maybe as the shutters start coming back upon the economy, let’s reassess, adjust, and start moving again.

From an investing goals standpoint, I would certainly use this mid-year time to ensure to get yourself into a position ready to invest, if you are not already.  The stimulus that is being poured into the U.S. economy particularly right now, is not looking to be letting up.

In a statement this week, the U.S. Federal Reserve bank Chairman – Jerome Powell announced that they had opened registration for lenders interested in participating in its Main Street Lending Program, launching arguably the most complex program undertaken yet by the U.S. central bank to help keep the backbone of the economy from buckling under the strains of the virus pandemic.

The program, targeted at companies that were in good shape before the pandemic, but may now need financing to retain workers and fund operations, will offer up to $600 billion in loans through participating financial institutions to U.S. businesses with up to 15,000 employees or with revenues up to $5 billion.

“Supporting small and mid-sized businesses so they are ready to reopen and rehire workers will help foster a broad-based economic recovery,” Powell said in a statement.

In a ‘Whatever it takes’ effort, the Federal Reserve are bringing out the big guns early, and are showing that they have no stomach for even the slightest risk of a sell-off in stocks or decline in market forces – the Fed have therefore announced yet another plan to give cheap money to individual corporates who need cash.

Asset bubbles, should they occur ‘are not really their concern…’

History has shown us though, particularly after the stimulus of the GFC (which by the way compared to current packages is a minnow vs a whale!) showed massive increases in housing prices, and almost a tripling of the stock market.

While it seems that stimulus packages are seeming to be poor at driving inflation on consumer goods, they are certainly proving to be effective in driving inflation in assets.

And while those with the gold are making the rules (and own LOTS of assets) they do not seem to be concerned by this

So, let’s dust off our boards and practice our ‘hang ten’ because I feel there is a wave coming, and I certainly want to be in a position to ride it…

You got this!

Happy Investing all and have a great weekend!!!

Cheers

Lindsay