The first quarter of 2022 has been a real roller coaster.
It seems the current administration with their economic polies have finally taken hold. We are now seeing the results of terrible economic policies and practices. The results of which include: Inflation at 8.5%, a 41-year high, gas prices at all time highs, food and supply shortages, unlimited open border crossings, Russia and Ukraine war, China, laptop issues with Mr. Biden's son, and many more, as you well know. As a result, the Federal Reserve is expected to make increases in the interest rates between 4 and 7 times in the next year.
With this backdrop in mind, we have made changes in our models today to help find allocations to limit the volatility and be in positions to capture growth when possible.
In the Non-Qualified Models:
We have eliminated all municipal bond funds and repositioned into allocations that will do better in this interest rate and inflationary economy.
In All Models:
We have removed inflation managed bond funds as well, in all accounts, as we feel the price is already built into the coming increases. Any China holdings in our models have been eliminated, we've reduced International exposure to a maximum of 3% in developed countries alone, tilted our US holdings to Value versus Growth, and emphasized large companies.
While we cannot know what the future holds for sure, but we are making the changes we feel will help our portfolios, based on the input from our economic advisors and our own beliefs from managing clients accounts for over 36 years.
We want to thank you for your continued faith in us and for the recent referrals of the 6 new clients we welcomed to Zurbriggen Financial this last quarter.
We look forward to seeing you all at our next appointments soon!
Rick Zurbriggen, CLU, ChFC