The Fed is holding interest rates steady for now, the jobs report is better than expected,

stocks and bonds are both going down.

What is going on right now in both the economy and in the markets and where should you put

your money and your time and attention?

That's what we're going to cover in today's podcast episode.

Welcome to the Afford Anything Podcast, the show that understands you can afford anything,

but not everything that every choice you make is a trade-off against something else and

that doesn't just apply to your money, that applies to your time.

Just focus your energy, your attention to any limited resource that you need to manage.

So how do you make decisions about what truly matters?

That is what this podcast is here to explore, my name is Paula Pant, I am the host of this

podcast.

Typically, we are a weekly show, but once a month on the first Friday of the month, we usually

have a first Friday bonus episode, so welcome to the October 2023 first Friday bonus episode.

Now the theme for this episode is that good news for the economy is bad news for the markets,

or at least it can be, and that's what we're seeing unfold right now.

Let's take a snapshot of where we currently are.

At the last Fed meeting, Federal Reserve meeting, the Fed voted to keep rates steady, meaning

no cuts, no hikes, however, the Fed is meeting two more times this year in November and

in December, there's an increasing consensus that they're likely to raise rates again

at one of those two meetings.

As of the time of their last meeting in September, people thought, well, you know what, they're

...