Over the last year, I’ve written a lot about noise, whether it be noise between the ears, noise in the markets, or noise in the news media. I think it’s very easy for people to get distracted from what the real facts are.

Now, there’s no arguing that inflation is real and that things are more expensive. I think what’s also lost in all of this is the conversation about how well things have done (and how well things have done for a long period of time).

Just for fun, I decided to do a little digging and look at what gas prices have been over the last 12 years. I thought about this while filling up my truck the other day. I just wanted to see what the actual costs have done over the last 10+ years.

Was there really this radical increase in gas prices? Or was this more noise? While gas may be expensive, did we really have an accurate depiction of what real-life costs are today in proper perspective?

The graph below is a 12-year snapshot of what equity markets have done against the consumer price index, gasoline, and the S&P 500.

Said differently, if you were filling up your car – but you were still putting money into your 401(k), your IRA, or just your simple investment account – you would be significantly further ahead financially.

What this all implies is that it doesn’t really matter how much gas prices were then or are today. If you have money for gas, you have money to put into savings and other things.

Now, again, I know this may sound like I don’t care about individuals’ situations that have been financially impacted by a loss of work or otherwise, but when you actually sit down and look at the facts (where unemployment is today and where it has been historically), a lot of the information that’s being promoted through the news media and the news outlets is just simply not accurate.

These are the actual facts. It’s remarkable to think that, since 2014, gas prices have really not gone up that much. While, in contrast, equities have gone up dramatically, far in excess of both gas and inflation. Simply stated, if you continue to invest and you save money, as well as manage your debt levels, you would be in a far superior position than not.

While prices at the pump and elsewhere are important to manage, I think it’s also very important to keep things in perspective. You need to zoom in, but you also need to zoom out to see what the facts are and where things actually have been over periods of time to understand the true impact, to understand what is real and what is not, what is fear mongering, and what is actual data on the economy as a whole.

We all need to do a better job of fact-checking. We all need to do a better job of quieting the noise around us and focusing on the positives.

While certainly there are a lot of things that are challenging right now and a lot of negatives out there, there certainly are a lot of things to be happy about and to be positive about.

We cannot ignore the negative, but at the same time, we cannot ignore the positive and the good. It’s always darkest before dawn.

Have a great Friday.

-J.D.