Investor's Playbook

📖Today’s Agenda

• Stock Market : Inflation and the Fed: What to watch the week ahead

• Entrepreneurship : TOP 3 AI TOOLS OF THE WEEK

• Personal Finance : Should You Bother Keeping Track of Your Net Worth?

📈Stock Market

Inflation and the Fed: What to watch the week ahead

The last two major macro events of 2023 will greet investors in the week ahead.

November's Consumer Price Index (CPI) report out Tuesday morning will offer the last piece of the inflation puzzle ahead of the Federal Reserve's final policy announcement of the year, due out Wednesday afternoon.

A press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell and a new set of economic forecasts from Fed officials for the coming years will also highlight the proceedings on Wednesday. Producer prices out Wednesday morning, retail sales set for release on Thursday, and a look at US manufacturing activity on Friday also highlight the economic calendar.

On the corporate side events should be relatively sparse, with quarterly updates from Costco (COST), Adobe (ADBE), and Lennar (LEN) serving as the week's biggest names to report.

Markets enter the week with serious momentum, as all three major US stock market indexes have finished the last six weeks with gains. For the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is up more than 9% while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up nearly 20%. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained nearly 38%.

The S&P 500 is now less than 5% away from its record closing high.

🎯Entrepreneurship

TOP 3 AI TOOLS OF THE WEEK

1. BloombergGPT

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BloombergGPT is a cutting-edge AI Tool offering unparalleled capabilities for language modeling and text analysis. Built on a 50 billion parameter model and trained on Bloomberg's extensive financial data sources, BloombergGPT gives users access to the largest domain-specific dataset to date. This model is augmented with 345 billion tokens from both general purpose and domain-specific datasets.

2. Collov.ai

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Collov.ai is the perfect tool for interior designers, architects, and home stagers who need an AI-powered design workflow. With this AI-tool, you can generate realistic virtual spaces with ease, creating a more efficient workflow and eliminating the need for lengthy manual design processes. This tool also helps you save time and money in the long run, while still delivering the highest level of accuracy.

3. FashionLabs

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This powerful AI tool provides a wide range of advantages, from completely automated commercial photography to a range of e-commerce solutions. By using FashionLabs.AI, you can quickly and efficiently process images for applications such as Branded content, Photography, Marketplace, and more! With FashionLab.AI, you can make your digital marketing efforts truly stand out.

💸Personal Finance

Should You Bother Keeping Track of Your Net Worth?

Article by Maurie Backman

It may or may not shock you to learn that the average American has a net worth of $1,063,700, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Median net worth, however, is only $192,900. And when you have a discrepancy like that, it tells us that the median is far more representative of the typical American than the average.

You may be curious to know what your net worth is. And your ultimate goal should be to see your net worth increase. But while net worth is a good thing to keep track of, there are other financial factors you should focus on more.

What's net worth, anyway?

If you're not exactly sure what net worth refers to, it's the difference between your total assets and your total debts. So as a very basic example, let's say you have $50,000 in savings and own a home worth $450,000. That gives you $500,000 in assets. However, if you owe $300,000 on your mortgage and have no other debt, that leaves you with a net worth of $200,000.

Net worth is something you can certainly aim to track -- and increase -- over time. But should you check your net worth daily, weekly, or monthly? That's probably not a good use of your time.

Your net worth can fluctuate frequently based on different factors. Take your $450,000 home, for example. It may be worth $460,000 in a month from now based on market value. And a month or two later, it might fall to $440,000.

Similarly, let's say you have a lot of assets tied up in investments like stocks. Your portfolio might be worth $190,000 one day only to fall to $186,000 just a day later. And then, a few days after that, it might be worth $192,000.

That's why you really don't want to spend too much time actively tracking your net worth. And if you're super interested in how you're doing, for example, then you may be able to find an app that calculates that number for you. But rather than focus on your net worth, other aspects of your financial life probably deserve more of your immediate attention.

What you should pay close attention to!

It's okay to track your net worth in a low-key sort of way. But the aspects of your finances that you should be tracking more closely are your:

• Emergency savings

• Long-term savings

• Revolving debt (credit card balances)

You'll want to make sure your emergency fund has enough money to cover a minimum of three months' worth of essential expenses. If you take a withdrawal, keep tabs on how well you're doing in putting that money back.

You should also track what you owe on your credit cards to get your debt paid off as quickly as possible. Again, mindful spending could be essential to knocking out a credit card balance. So could picking up work on the side of your main job if your schedule allows for it.

Now, these aren't accounts you have to check daily. But it's a good idea to make a consistent effort to keep them funded. And part of that might boil down to the choices you make every day, like whether to spend on extras versus bank the money instead.

It's natural to be curious about your net worth. But rather than spend all of your energy focusing on it, pay attention to these super important aspects of your financial life.