Sometimes, life gives us a lucky break, but it’s what we choose to do with it that counts. Jason saw a real estate infomercial at the age of sixteen which sparked his interest in income property, the most historically proven asset class in the world, and it changed his life. Then a year later, he discovered his four great mentors: Zig Zigler, Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale and Denis Waitley. Luck exposed him to these great thinkers who taught him that we have to make our own way in life and take responsibility for our own actions. You could say that this exposure was his lucky break, but the rest was hard work. In junior high, Jason attended an integrated school in LA and was exposed to various socio-economic classes: poor kids from South Central contrasted with the rich kids from Cheviot Hills. Even at a young age, Jason was acutely aware of the difference and aspired to be a part of the higher economic class. These experiences were highly influential and no doubt, his success is luck, hard work and action combined. As Earl Nightingale said: “Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. We all have opportunities, but for the unprepared, the opportunity only makes them look foolish.”
Jason’s been beating the drum about inflation for many, many years, almost two decades now and unluckily or luckily for us (depending on where you are in the socio-economic ladder), we are now experiencing it very acutely. As part of Jason’s brand new Hartman Comparison Index”, (which is consequently the best index for valuing real estate), there is a component called the Hartman Predictive Index to show where real estate prices are going, if they are overvalued, undervalued, fairly valued, etc and part of that index is the Forbes Index; it’s like a Consumer Price Index, but for extremely affluent people. It’s called the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index.
What Is This Opportunity Teaching Us?
Why would we need such an index and what can looking at it teach us? Every economic level has its own level of spending and therefore, its own inflation rate. This is part of the reason why no one can agree just how bad inflation actually is. You spend differently than I spend, and the particular products and services that we spend money on inflate, stay the same or deflate at different rates. So we all have our own personal inflation rate. Society is segmented in different socio-economic classes and therefore, inflation must be looked at the same way.
We all have our own personal inflation rate. The poorer classes spend most of their money on necessities, so when the price of gasoline and groceries goes up, that really hurts them. Contrarily, it helps the rich. Why? Because the rich own stock in companies that produce these assets. They also own real estate, which is of course leveraged by Jason’s inflation induced debt destruction strategy and they obtain many benefits from that. It’s unbelievable how many articles one can find in the media trying to convince people that inflation is good for the poor…talk about fake news! How do these reporters sleep at night? There should be liability and accountability for spreading such falsehoods.
Let’s look at the inflation rate for billionaires and wealthy people according to the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index from Forbes. It’s been tracking a basket of luxury items since 1976, just as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) tracks a basket of goods. Don’t forget that the CPI is massively manipulated as Jason’s has taught you many times. The government and Bureau of Labor Statistics has a huge incentive to make inflation appear lower than it really is, and they manipulate it down through weighting, substitution and hedonic indexing. Well this year, the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index is up 10.1%; this is the largest increase since 2008 (when we had the Great Recession – surely you noticed that one…) But once again, whenever we have some big event (Covid-1984, The Great Recession, etc) the rich always seem to get more wealth transferred to them via the Cantillon Effect. Jason has spoken about economist Richard Cantillon many times on the show. Cantillon postulated that the people closest to the money end up getting most of it which is why there has been a massive wealth transfer going on during these pandemic times. The CPI, over the same period, only rose 5.3% (that’s the official number, we know it’s actually much higher, but 5.3% is still very high).
Time for Action
We can attribute these increases to a combination of three pandemic factors: raw materials cost, manufactured goods shortages and labor shortages. The wealthy have seen their cost of living go up significantly when it comes to entertainment and toys, fashion, household items, private schools, facelifts, travel costs, estate managers, psychiatrists, lawyers for estate planning and many more goods and services. If you examine the Cost of Living Extremely Well Index closely, you’ll see that the rich have outpaced their rate of inflation quite dramatically. They’ve gotten a lot richer even though their cost of living has gone up. This is why we must examine such indices and understand the transfer of wealth that is happening all around us. Consider protecting your wealth if you haven’t already and take advantage of the partnership with our attorney who specializes in estate planning, asset protection, tax saving strategies, trust LLCs and much more. You are missing out on an incredible opportunity otherwise (not to mention risking your wealth). Watch our free class on asset protection if nothing else at JasonHartman.com/protect to learn more.
And if you haven’t read it yet, check out Jason’s free report on pandemic investing at PandemicInvesting.com and request your free report. Jason has adapted his strategies for the crazy times in which we are now living, so let him and his team help you. The rich use inflation to their benefit and so should you. It’s luck that has brought you here, but now this is your opportunity to take action.
Ashley & The Jason Hartman Team
