🫢 Fake Employment Data?

Together with Public

Happy Almost Friday,

A quick breakdown — in case you just don’t have the time:

1. ⭐ The government seems to be routinely lying about jobs data.

2. ⭐ We share our favorite money “hacks” for parenting.

3. ⭐ VOO is becoming more concentrated than ever.

4. ⭐ Interest rate hikes around the world have officially stopped.

5. ⭐ Tesla is delaying their Robotaxi event to October.

6. ⭐ Optimize your portfolio with Seeking Alpha.

Market Overview

Chart of the Week

81% of new job openings in May were… government jobs?

Over the last several months, it seems like the overarching narrative has been “The economy is strong and inflation is cooling!”

Well, one of those factors is true — inflation is indeed cooling. However, private sector job openings are now sitting at 3-year lows of only 7.1 million (-36% since 2022). This is why — despite headlines claiming the economy is strong — none of your unemployed friends / family can seem to find a job.

And for some odd reason, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has continually falsified their non-farm payroll figures (shown below).

The government agency every single month this year has claimed “There have been hundreds of thousands of news jobs created!” — then a few months later silently revised these figures down as much as -97,000.

How do you mess up job data to this extent? It’s hard to say. We’ll see what June’s numbers might become over the coming weeks.

Together with Public

Public has been helping power the Rich Habits podcast this year — and we want to give them some well-deserved praise in the Rich Habits newsletter as well!

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In Case You Missed It…

👉 Episode 72: Financial Checklist for Parents (Current & Future)

In this week’s episode of the Rich Habits podcast (linked here) — Robert and Austin shared their financial playbook for parents. Some of their favorite “hacks” include the following:

1. Dependent Care FSA — This flexible spending account can help you save over $1,500+ every year on taxes, all while you spend money on things like childcare, after school programs, and babysitting.

2. 529 Account — This college savings account is the key to building generational wealth for your growing family. In some states your contributions are tax-deductible, they grow tax free, and if you child skips out on college you can roll up to $35K into their Roth IRA at 18 years of age. Over their lifetime, this money will grow into over $1M+ assuming nothing was added to it.

3. Guardians / Godparents — The last thing we want to think about is the loss of life. However, having a plan in place will not only make things easier for your children in the case of your untimely death — but you’ll also have control as to who watches over them when you’re gone.

👉 Q&A: $500K in Savings, Defining High Interest Debt, & the Best Way to Dollar Cost Average

Here’s a link to the Q&A episode posted this morning! We get straight to it — we hear from Nicole, Christopher, Madi, Blaine, Rohit, and Adam. Don’t forget to follow our Instagram, where we share behind-the-scenes content and short clips answering your questions!

Reply to this email or DM us on Instagram with your questions so we can answer them in the next week’s edition. Be sure you’re following along on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, IG, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Robert’s Callout

The S&P 500 isn’t exactly diversified at the moment.

Five stocks (Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Google, and Amazon) account for over 29% weighting in the S&P 500 right now. Which means for every $10,000 you invest into VOO — $2,900 of it goes straight to owning those five stocks. This figure climbs to 35% if you include the top ten names in the index.

The index has always been market capitalization-weighted, which means it favors the larger companies over the smaller ones. However, we haven’t seen the index become this concentrated in over 60-years.

The takeaway is this — if / when these five to ten companies experience a meaningful correction, the entire index will come down with them. Be prepared to experience volatility in VOO like we’ve never seen before.

With that being said, ride the wave and enjoy the journey!

Austin’s Callout

June was the first month in years that no global central bank hiked rates.

As we turn the corner into the back-half of 2024, it’s amazing to see just how far we’ve come from a monetary policy perspective. During 2022, the US Federal Reserve hiked interest rates at the fastest pace in modern history (several decades) in effort to eliminate inflation.

The world quickly followed, as inflation ran rampant from country to country. It seemed like every central bank around the globe hiked interest rates to make borrowing their currency harder to do — cooling inflation.

This trend has come to a stop — during the month of June not a single central bank around the world raised interest rates, a very good sign! Inflation, after three long years, is beginning to cool around the world.

Remember, when the Fed cuts interest rates in the coming months keep an eye on small cap stocks (IWMI) and cryptocurrency (BTC).

The Rich Habits Radar

• 👉 Microsoft & Apple walked away from OpenAI Board.

• 👉 Costco raised its membership prices for the first time in 7 years.

• 👉 Inflation fell by -0.1% during June, helping case for lower rates.

• 👉 Tesla delayed their Robotaxi event to October.

• 👉 Gold climbed to over $2,400 for the first time in history.

• 👉 Airfare costs fell for the fourth month in a row.

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or a recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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