South Georgian’s concerned about investments

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - As inflation continues to be on the rise, South Georgians have become concerned about investments.

Kent Patrick, a partner with Bush Wealth Management, discussed what South Georgia investors are saying with WALB’s Jim Wallace.

“A lot of the questions we are getting from South Georgians are, is this going to be short-term volatility or are we headed to a long, deep recession? And the honest answer is nobody knows. We are at the mercy of what our Federal Reserve is going to do with how aggressively they raise interest rates,” he said.

The stock market was down Friday morning by about 400 points just when it opened up. Of course, people are concerned. But also with interest rates going up by the Fed, Patrick said there are opportunities for people in investments.

“With interest rates going up in the short term, we are seeing some investment options that have not been attractive for the past five or 10 years. Some of those would include treasury bills, treasury bonds, bank CDs, and other certificates of deposits, as well as your high yield money market accounts, are now providing an attractive return,” he said.

That’s good news for retirees that they haven’t seen in a while but Patrick advises investors to prepare for a recession.

“Everybody has their personal financial situation. For retirees, it’s a very scary time because you have been relying on the Stock Market and bond market to provide income for you and your family. Some of the things that I would recommend in preparing for recession is one increase your saving account,” he said. “The emergency fund, you want to beef that up. Two is I would lower that debt if you carry any, especially high-interest debt. You have to try to eliminate that. The third thing would be to re-evaluate your risk tolerance. In the past decade, we’ve seen a lot of good growth, and the prices are suppressed a little bit. You want to re-evaluate that and the fourth thing that we always say is to just stay diversified and not put all of your eggs in one basket.”

The Federal Reserve System said they are going to be doing more action ahead.

“Yes, if you work with a financial advisor and you have a plan in place, I would stick to the plan. If you are a longer-term investor, I would not get caught up in the day-to-day news of what the Federal Reserve is doing but if you are in your retirement years, I would definitely consult a financial advisor to try to create a plan,” Patrick said.