Weekly Financial News

Each week, FitBUX provides a weekly financial news update for each of the finance topics below.  

We specifically discuss topics and trends that apply to those that are between 18 and 40 years old.  Be sure to bookmark this page and check back each week.

If you want clarity on how these items apply to your situation, be sure to become a member of FitBUX and schedule a call with your FitBUX Coach.

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Student Loan News

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding student loans and when repayment will start.  No body is 100% sure yet. However, I've included an estimated timeline below.

Originally, President Biden said student loans would start 60 days after the Supreme Courts decision regarding loan forgiveness.

Most experts believe the Supreme Court will hand down the decision at the end of their term which is June.

Therefore, people believe repayment will be starting in August/September.

However, President Biden then said that he's going to end the COVID emergency declaration May 11th.  

The only legal way he was able to keep extending the repayment pause was because of the emergency declaration.

Therefore, if that is ended, it implies student loan repayment would be restarting immediately thereafter.

The news outlets all reported this as to being the case.  However, the next day, the Biden administration realized what President Biden said and back tracked.

They stated just because the COVID emergency declaration is ending doesn't mean they can't keep extending the student loan repayment pause.  However, every legal expert I've read has said that is exactly what it means and they "must be on crack" if they think they can legally extend if the emergency declaration is ended.

Therefore, we believe student loan repayment will start sometime between June 2023 and September 2023.  Thus, you must start preparing for it.

With that said, there is still a possibility the extend it again especially being that 2024 is.... an election year.

However, I think if they extend it again it will bring an immediate lawsuit and would be decided by the Supreme Court in 2024.  However, that is just my two cents.

I'm not 100% sold that repayment will definitely start this year. However, this is the most confident I've been in the past 2 years that repayment will start.

Investment News

The markets are all over the place.  They are up on the year by more than 5%.  However, they are down more than 3% from the high.

Major market participants think 2023 is still going to be bad. 

• Treasury yields are still inverted which is a massive sign an economic contraction is coming.
• Inflation is still really high.
• Businesses are laying people off to conserve cash because they expect a major down fall. 
• International news is a mess (Ukraine and Russia is still a thing and oh if you missed, women can't go to universities in Afghanistan again.)
• Credit card usage is at all time highs
• 401k hardship withdraws are at an all time high
• And the list of bad news goes on...

As I've been saying for a while, I think in the long-term the market is going to go up a lot from the low.  I just think we have a room to go lower in the short-term.

The last few months highlight why its important to dollar cost average in your long-term accounts such as retirement.

For example, my wife's 401k was down about 9% last year. However, each month she continued to contribute about $1,500 to it.  

Now that the stock market has started to go up she has recouped 100% of the decrease from last year.

Also, FitBUX recently released our new investment technology and service to make your investing life easy. Check it out!

Housing News

Mortgage rates peaked around 7.25% in mid November.  We've started to see people get rates at 6% at the beginning of the year... but rates are back up around 7%

The overall trends in the economy still aren't good. Inflation still sucks  and home affordability is still low.

In January I updated my "back of the napkin" real estate valuation for the  area I live in.  Due to the uptick in interest rates I have to revise it again.

In January, housing prices had dropped about 17% in my area and I said I thought they would drop to about 23% - 25%.  Therefore, I was going to start looking to buy but cautioned to be careful and only put in offers at the lower prices.

Because interest rates increased, I think there is more room to drop.  Based on the quick valuation, I think in my area they will continue to drop to 33% - 35% based on current mortgage rates.

Therefore, I'm back into the wait mode...

If you want to check rates or are thinking about buying a home, FitBUX has three lending partners that you should check out if you are going through the home buying process:  Neo Home Loans, Movement Mortgage, and Celebrity Home Loans.