Key dates and events to watch out for in 2023
Yahoo Finance Live hosts Akiko Fujita and Rachelle Akuffo take a look at personal finance in 2023.
video transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Now let’s go to you [? New ?] New Year [? You ?] personal finance calendar for the beginning of 2023. There are many events that you will need to pay attention to.
So let’s start here with an idea of the general health of the economy with this Friday’s jobs report. Then, on January 12, we’ll get the first major inflation reading of the year. And looking ahead, there is a Fed rate decision on February 1st. After that, two big spending events are on the horizon in February. You’ve got the Super Bowl on the 12th closely followed by Valentine’s Day on the 14th. [? so ?] they don’t catch you [? out, ?] depending on how elaborate your Valentine’s Day plans are.
Finally, one of the two uncertainties, or two certainties, I should say, in life, and that is, of course, taxes. The key date you need for that is April 18. This is when your 2022 individual return is due.
And, Rachelle, I would say something like the first few events that we pointed to, obviously the health of the labor market, as well as the inflation reading, something that you can imagine investors really paying close attention to because that affects a lot of what we’ve been talking about, which are interest rates. And as we’ve learned, whether it’s your credit card bills, your mortgage payments, your car rental, I mean, a lot of that will be related to what we see the Federal Reserve do.
RACHELLE AKUFO: Absolutely. When you think about the domino effect, then, I mean, these events don’t just happen on their own. They have an effect on our everyday life. If you have to pay a little more on your car note, that’s a little less than you’ll have to budget for something else. Maybe it’s time to take a look at the multiple subscriptions we all have now that we probably aren’t keeping up with. As you know, Netflix adds a dollar or two here or Prime adds another $20 here. It definitely all adds up.
And when you think about things like taxes, you know, that scary moment when you really come home to wonder how you’ve really been doing over the last year, when you’re looking at things like your 401(k)… and they’ve seen It’s been a very difficult year for 401(k)s and we’re hoping we’ll see something of a turnaround maybe in the second half of the year.
But really having that mentality of what should I do? Maybe I need to spend a little less on the Super Bowl, maybe not have Valentine’s Day, maybe, you know, risk getting in trouble, not spend as much on Valentine’s Day, and just do what What do you have to do right now?
AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve never taken a budget hit for Valentine’s Day, but maybe it’s just me who– I wouldn’t say I’m not a romantic, but, you know, there are other days you could spend your money.
However, I have to say that it makes sense to many of our guests who have talked about establishing that emergency fund. That will certainly be key. Paying off the credit cards, something I know many Americans think about at the beginning of the year, is always a goal he has set for himself. And yet, given the uncertainties, especially around economic conditions, you get the feeling that those could be really key priorities here, at least in the personal finance department for so many Americans who are saying, well, which way? Where is this economy going in three months? from now on? Those calls for a recession for, you know, potentially in the middle of the year, at the end of the year, that must be weighing on a lot of people.
RACHELLE AKUFO: And you realize that’s when we really organize the fixed spending versus the discretionary spending that we have to do. A lot of things that aren’t really a priority… if you have to prepare for the potential recession, I mean, you just have to do what you have to do.