 Welcome back to news on I'm time now to talk about your money easy for me to say so the new numbers are out for the economy and there is some good news. The GDP grew at a reported 6.9% pace closing out 2021 which is stronger than what was expected even with the Omicron variant spreading throughout the country. Now the gross domestic product also grew accelerating at a 6% annualized pace during the fourth quarter again better than estimated. So there are some gains there but as we mentioned earlier in the week there is talk about raising those interest rates as early as March and we could see two other hikes taking place this year to help it break it all down for us. We want to welcome in the CEO and founder of Stock Swoosh Melissa Armo. Always good to see you. Thanks for having me. So really that's what it all comes down to. So what do you think about this GDP number out there and break it down in layman's terms for us for people who are not you know financial advisors like yourself. What does this mean to the average everyday American. I don't think it really means much. It was the fourth quarter which was the holiday season so people typically purchase more during the end of the year. That's why you have something called Black Friday where retail stores really have most of their sales and going to then the black towards the end of the year. So I don't think that really says much and overall people now finally are getting going out and about a little bit more than back in 2020. So this is really just normal purchasing and buying that you would normally see through the recovery period. I don't think this is really something that's indicative of anything that would happen other than the fact that we are coming out of COVID. Hopefully we're finally out of COVID. All right. Now let's talk about something that really does hit people in the wallet. And that is this idea of the Fed raising those interest rates. What does that mean because there's talk that it could happen three times this year in the very earliest March? What does that mean for consumers when it comes to mortgage rates, credit cards, student loans, you name it? Well, it's definitely important if you're looking to buy or make a big purchase, something like a car or home, try to make that big purchase if you're planning on doing it before rates go up. So you have at least probably till the end of February. The Fed is talking about raising rates but they haven't really signaled how many times. Like you had mentioned, is it going to be two? Is it going to be three? Could it be four or five? They're trying to get ahead of inflation but it's too late already. We're already in inflation and I really don't think that raising rates is going to prevent rising prices because part of the reason that we have an inflationary period is because we don't have enough people back to work full force yet. People are not back to work for many, many reasons since COVID and raising interest rates is not going to stop rising prices if we still have a problem getting our goods and services or getting them delivered with the truckers. But getting back to rates and what people need to think about is, for example, say you have $10,000 in credit card debt and they increase rates by quarter of a percent. That's about $25 for every $10,000 in debt if they raise your bump up your rate on your credit card, which they probably will, whatever the rate bumps up. They may raise rates by 50 basis points or half a point. That would be bad. If it ends up going out that much of a jump, I definitely think the market would end up selling off or having some kind of negative reaction to that. They need to raise rates slowly. They need to do it not more than three times of a calendar year in my opinion if we're going to do it. I still don't think that really stops or prevents higher inflation. You just said that you don't think it's going to help inflation and inflation is about 7 percent. It's the highest of what we've seen since the 1980s and some places, some pockets. We talked about this last week, places that you wouldn't normally expect, places in the Midwest are seeing inflation at the rate of 9 percent. Could there be, it's Friday. I want to give people just a little nugget of good news. Could this help at all potentially drive down the cost of certain things like, I don't know, housing? Really, when you think about it, we've had such a housing boom. There was going to be a bubble at some point in housing anyway. So even if they don't, even if this doesn't slow down housing, while it could, it definitely could to your point. I don't necessarily think the housing is going to continue at some rapid pace anyways. Anybody that wanted to buy pretty much probably already has in the last almost two years now. It's two years since COVID, March of 2022 will be two years. So it could slow it down. The good news in the horizon is for people, again, that if things get so bad in the economy and so bad with the Biden administration that people have had enough that when they go and vote in the midterms, then they're really going to show it in the vote and things could turn around in the country within 12 months from now. So I mean to think that again, that this problem that's been exacerbating going on down for going on to two years with all the free money going around the low interest rates for so long. The last time the Fed raised rates was 2018. I mean, they haven't raised rates at all for so long. So it's just something that was about to happen. My opinion is that it's not going to stop inflation. And I do not think that they should raise rates a half a point right away. And I don't think they should do it more than three times a year. That should be the most they should do it. They should possibly go into recession if they raise rates too high, too quick, too fast in the next 12 months. And that would not be good. All right, Melissa Armo. Thank you so much. You gave us some food for thought. We always appreciate it. Happy Friday to you. Enjoy your weekend. Thank you. You too. As always, you heard what Melissa had to say. She doesn't think it should be more than three times. And she doesn't think it's really going to help curb inflation. We'd love to know your thoughts. You can always weigh in by finding me how to reel more into con hashtag where your voice and other news, though.