by Adam Taggart
Do you feel like no matter how hard you work, it’s harder and harder to get ahead?
There’s a good explanation for that. And it’s maddening.
The government intentionally & dramatically underreports the true cost of living, and that fake low number is what most employers use when they set the wages they pay.
So your paycheck isn’t growing nearly as fast as it needs to in order to stay ahead of inflation.
Ed Butowsky created the Chapwood Index to calculate and track a more realistic measurement of the true cost of living that American’s experience “in the real world”, as an alternative to the laughably phony Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the US government’s Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
Butowsky’s weighted index is based on the 500 most used items by Americans, including taxes, energy and food — which are *not* included in the official CPI. It also calculates the cost of living regionally, revealing the reality on the ground for those living in/near the 50 largest metro regions in the US.
The average annual cost of living increase calculated by the Chapwood Index is around 10%. For comparison, the CPI claims it has increased less than 2% per year for the past decade. That’s over 5x less.
Which number more accurately reflects the reality you’ve seen in your own household expenses? If you buy groceries, go to the doctor’s, need a roof over your head, drive a car or have children to support and educate — odds are high the Chapwood Index does.
This intentional deception between what we’re told (and what our paychecks are based on) and what we actually experience goes a long way in explaining why the middle class is fast disappearing. And why we’ve transitioned from a nation where a single income earner could support a family, to one where not only do both spouses now need to work to support the family, but they both need multiple jobs to do it.
And looking ahead, Ed only sees the cost of living getting worse.
Which is why he agrees that now, more than ever, is the time to partner with a financial advisor who understands the nature of the risks and opportunities in play, can craft an appropriate portfolio strategy for you given your needs, and apply sound risk management protection where appropriate:
Anyone interested in scheduling a free consultation and portfolio review with Mike Preston and John Llodra and their team at New Harbor Financial can do so by clicking here.
And if you’re one of the many readers brand new to Peak Prosperity over the past few months, we strongly urge you get your financial situation in order in parallel with your ongoing physical resilience preparations.
We recommend you do so in partnership with a professional financial advisor who understands the macro risks to the market that we discuss on this website. If you’ve already got one, great.
But if not, consider talking to the team at New Harbor. We’ve set up this ‘free consultation’ relationship with them to help folks exactly like you.