Will CD rates ever go back up?

[Hopeful for Life]

Originally Posted by redguard57

Reminds me of how they used to calculate the Iraq War costs in the 2000s... just don't count a bunch of it.

Inflation is officially about 2% per year, but they don't count stuff like health insurance or college education which has been going up 5-10% per year.

For a food basket, I'd say 2% is about right.

Are you factoring in that some companies are shrinking the product, yet charging the same to the buyer?

[mathjak107]

shrinkflation is something that gets accounted for not in a price change index which is what the cpi index's are but it would be accounted for in a personal cost of living index which the cpi's are not .

the cpi only measures the change in price ....

your own cost of living index measures measures that price change x how many times you buy the item x a quality factor since higher end goods may see bigger price increases and last longer ...

shrinkflation would end up being not reflected in the price change index but in how many times you buy the product since you get less product ...

this is why the cpi is not a good cost of living index and never was meant to be one ..it only measures what happens to just the price..

heck , my neighbor does not drive , she is covered under the scrie program and never sees a rent increase anymore and is on medicare ....that is quite a stark difference between someone who is raising a family with multiple cars , pays for heat and their own health insurance ...

in fact seniors tend to see way less effects of inflation since as we age we tend to not buy or do a lot of things anymore so a lot of what we don't spend money on pays for the things that go up .

so there is no index that will reflect us individually nor can there be

[JonathanLB]

Originally Posted by Quietude

Between savings accounts with essentially zero interest, and market investments, there's not many places to park middle-sized money besides CDs, even if at paltry rates.

Exactly, that’s what you have to do pretty much. Treasuries or CDs or high yield savings, none of them are too impressive but if you need to keep cash fairly accessible and safe, what can you do?