Kim Palmer
Appearances
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Thanks for having us. Thanks, Anna.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
We expect to see some categories really go up in price pretty much right away. And that includes our everyday essentials. So things like food, gas, clothing, and then some luxuries like consumer electronics, jewelry, cosmetics, and then more down the road, we expect to see the big ticket items like new cars, new homes, those will also be impacted.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Within food, which is really the category that consumers will feel soonest right away and every day since we all have to go shopping at the grocery store, the items that economists say will really jump the soonest in price are things like fruit, fish, wine and beer, food oils like olive oil, dairy, nuts and sugar.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
There are. So what's interesting about the impact of tariffs on consumer prices is that it really depends how much of the price increase the retailers and manufacturers decide to pass on to consumers. So in some cases, the retailers and manufacturers, they have more flexibility to absorb some of that price increase themselves.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
We see that especially with things like household goods and consumer electronics. But then in other categories like food, there's just not that much flexibility because profit margins are already so tight. So that's where consumers will really see the biggest price hikes right away.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
That's right. And the prices of imported and domestic items are really so closely related. For example, if you look at a category like wine, where you have imported wine, if that price goes up, sellers of domestic wine can also raise their prices. All of the prices are related. So it's hard to expect one to stay stable while the other goes up.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
And at the same time, we have a lot of items made in the U.S. that rely on imported supplies. And so if those imported supplies go up in price, that will ultimately affect what consumers pay on the final product.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, in theory that could happen, but it really shouldn't because when you agree on a purchase price with a seller, that's really essentially a contract. The seller after that point shouldn't be able to raise the price unless you are agreeing to that or you talk about it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
If you do see a price go up after you have agreed to a different price, it's definitely worth pushing back, questioning any extra charges. But what we could see, which is more common, is that a company will go ahead and cancel any existing orders if they're suddenly facing new prices. And then you'd have to place a new order under the higher price.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Well, unfortunately, there's really not too much consumers can do about the prices, but what we can do is change our behavior. So taking some steps like creating a budget for yourself, looking at your past spending, seeing what you might be able to cut back on just to accommodate the higher prices that we're facing in other areas, that can help alleviate some of the stress of these tariffs.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
and then also taking steps like building your emergency fund just so you have that cushion to help protect you from the extra costs paying off any high interest debt you have for example if you're carrying credit card debt trying to pay that down just to give yourself a little bit more wiggle room here
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
One thing we shouldn't do, which I think is a natural urge for a lot of us, is to go out and buy extra items, things we don't necessarily need now, but think we might need in the future. We want to buy them now to avoid the future higher prices. But this is something across the board economists really warn against.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
What to do When Groceries Cost More and Retirement Feels Out of Reach
Because basically that means we're spending more money than we would otherwise now. And we don't necessarily need that item or we might not know when we need that item. If we need it, we could change our mind. If we buy a lot of something now, then we have to store it. There's all kinds of reasons not to buy early. So it's definitely something to think about.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Well, not me. I don't have any.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Yeah, just kidding. But we are going to hear from you about some of the ways we can all better manage those blind spots.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
I'm talking with Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni. They are the authors of the new book, Buy What You Love Without Going Broke. And they're also the hosts of the Frugal Friends podcast. And they have a lot of really interesting ideas about how we can all be smarter spenders.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Great, thank you. Jen and Jill, welcome to our show. Thanks for having us. Yeah, lovely to be here. Let's start with why you wrote this book because your personal finance advice is a little different from what we hear every day. What gap in the money world were you trying to fill?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Well, that sounds great. One thing you talk about in the book is how badly a lot of people feel, similar to that hangover that you're describing, the debt hangover. I mean, people feel badly often when they hear traditional financial advice. So what do you think is the problem there? What is going on that so much financial advice does make people feel badly about themselves?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Absolutely. I think that's been such a positive trend in the personal finance world in recent years. You also encourage people to really dig into their values when it comes to deciding how to spend money. How can we start that? What does that look like?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
I think when we talk about budgeting, that piece often gets left out. So I love that you highlight that so much and basically wrote a whole book about it.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
One number that really jumped out at me from a recent nerd wallet study that we did is that almost seven in 10 Americans said they had financial regrets in 2024. And actually younger Americans were even more likely to say they had financial regrets. Why do you think financial regrets are so common? And how can we just set ourselves up better to feel good about the spending choices we're making?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Yes, the convenience is great, but the ease of spending money is not so great.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
If someone is just feeling really overwhelmed with all the money tips coming at them, what would you say are three of the most important things they can do today to start feeling better about how they're spending and managing their money?
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Jen Smith and Jill Sirianni, thank you so much for joining us on Smart Money. Thanks for having us, Kim. Yeah, thank you.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
Maybe you're feeling a little lost, like you don't even know what your financial goals should be, or you're trying to break yourself out of a bad financial habit, but you just can't seem to do it. Whatever your money question, we nerds are here to help. Leave us a voicemail or text us on the nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That's 901-730-NERD.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Why Traditional Budgeting Fails and What’s Missing from Your Money Plan
And I'm Kim Palmer. This episode, we're answering your money questions about financial blind spots. Do you have any of those, Sean?