S&P 500, Dow Jones Global ex-US, Gold, Bloomberg Commodity Index returns exclude reinvested dividends (gold does not pay a dividend) and the three-, five-, and 10-year returns are annualized; and the 10-year Treasury Note is simply the yield at the close of the day on each of the historical time periods.
Sources: Yahoo! Finance; MarketWatch; djindexes.com; U.S. Treasury; London Bullion Market Association.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Indices are unmanaged and cannot be invested into directly. N/A means not applicable.
DRIP. DRIP. DRIP. As inflation recedes, fees and charges may continue to affect the cost of some goods and services. Last summer, NPRâs Stacey Vanek Smith reported on the phenomenon after having lunch delivered.
âI decided to splurge and order a burger and fries for delivery. Subtotal for my meal? $14.07. A little pricey, but itâs a good burger and $14 seemed like a totally acceptable price for dinner, especially when it's delivered to my door. Then came the fees: Delivery fee: $5.49; Service fee: $3; Tip: $4; Tax: $1.25. Grand total for my delivery burger: $27.81. My lazy Monday went from costing me $14 to almost $30. The price had doubled. What was going on?â
The answer is drip pricing. It happens when the price of a good or service is broken into multiple components that the buyer becomes aware of as the purchase proceeds, according to an article published by Alexander Rasch, Miriam Thöne and Tobias Wenzel in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Many industries employ this pricing strategy. For example, travelers may purchase airline tickets by choosing the lowest base price and then find themselves paying additional fees to check bags, select desirable seats or sit in seats adjacent to younger family members.
One luxury automobile company added a new twist to car buying. It asked buyers in the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa to pay a subscription fee to activate its factory-installed seat warmers. The automaker eventually abandoned the subscription, but it plans to expand pay-on-demand services. In an interview with James Attwood of Autocar, a company board member explained:
âWe actually are now focusing with those âfunctions on demandâ on software and service-related products, like driving assistance and parking assistance, which you can add later after purchasing the car, or for certain functions that require data transmission that customers are used to paying for in other areas.â
Inflation and rising prices are critical aspects of retirement planning. If you would like to talk about how inflation may affect your savings and investments over time, please get in touch.
Weekly Focus â Think About It
âIt isn't what we donât know that gives us trouble, itâs what we know that ainât so.â
âWill Rogers, comedian
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