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Give Me a Break

By Ed Benjamin

Today, it's hard to know what to believe. On one hand the government has been trying to tell us for years that there isn't any inflation but on the other hand, the costs of goods and services just seem to be continually rising. Then the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board announces once again that to combat the imminent rise in inflation, the Fed will raise the interest rates once again. Dumb country boy that I might be, it seems to me that raising the prime interest rates will cause the price of housing loans to rise. If the cost of obtaining housing loans and other loans (such as new car loans, credit card interest, etc.) increases, then that will cause the cost of housing and other goods and services to go up. Isn't that INFLATION?

I am aware the Federal Reserve Board has the best interest of the American public at heart (or, at the very least, they are supposed to), but give me a break! For the past several years I've seen prices rise on everything from drugs from the pharmacy... to gas for my car (talk about a price hike!)... to toilet paperÉwell, you get the idea. Even the candy bars are going up. It seems that anything we buy these days contain less for more. The cost of all goods and services seem to be rising.

I am personally not opposed to the recent rise in the minimum wage. Many deserving people will now earn money they seem to need desperately, but any logical person can see that an increase in the cost of goods and services will result at some point along the line in an increase in the cost of these goods and services. Even for well deserving reasons, it seems that prices will continue to rise.

What I haven't seen rise proportionally is my pension check even though it has a so-called Cost-of-Living adjustment. In other words, if the prices of goods and services are going up and the income remains more or less stable, then in my mind that's inflation. But the government experts and so-called economic pundits say we don't have inflation.

If we have killed inflation, then those nagging doubts I have been feeling must mean that we have a new phenomenon that I will call Òghost' inflation. To fight this Òghost' inflation, we have to wage war. In any war, the military leaders use defined strategies to plan and conduct hostilities. To fight the inflation that doesn't exist, we, as the generals of our own destinies, have to develop cost-avoidance strategies to fight the good fight to keep some of our hard-earned money for ourselves. After all, if the Fed can "combat inflation", then we can certainly do the same.

By using these cost-avoidance strategies, we can free up money that would be used to spend for these items. Thus, we create "free money". There are many areas in our lives where we can devise and implement these ideas.

About The Author:
Ed Benjamin is the author of FREE MONEY: over 300 cost avoidance strategies that create free money. The book is available in hard cover from Amazon.com

At Amazon.com

or by download from

Flowing Water Press

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