Countries with a longstanding track record of economic stability and security tend to have the happiest citizens, reports journalist Dan Buettner, who has studied what makes people happy. Education and health care are two primary reasons why, combining to create an upwardly mobile lifecycle.¹

Mothers with higher education levels tend to have fewer children, and those children tend to be healthier and more productive adults, Buettner says. In turn, they often become successful parents and make more well-informed voting decisions. This enables the next generation to make even higher social and economic gains.²

With this in mind, it’s worth considering how we can make education and health care more affordable within our own households. College tuition is expected to continue experiencing higher inflation levels than most other household expenses.³ Health insurance and medical inflation is expected to outpace overall economic inflation this year for the first time since 2010.⁴ If you’re looking for ways to help prepare for future health care and higher education costs for you and your loved ones, please set up a time to visit with us.

Another interesting, emerging economic trend is that of human workers versus automation. While we can debate the merits of cost savings versus human judgment, there’s an underlying theory that technology is not necessarily the key to future economic growth. In fact, in a departure from encouraging more students to study the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math), there’s a new movement to better understand the drivers of human behavior and how we might interact with technology in the future.⁵

If you look at recent trends in consumer-driven technology, there is a discernible shift away from high-tech products and services. For example, independent bookstores and print books are experiencing a revival after years of competing with the rising popularity of online bookstores and eReaders.⁶ And, remarkably, instant-print cameras have become fashionable again and experienced a 30 percent growth in sales in 2017.⁷

Content prepared by Kara Stefan Communications.

¹ Knowledge@Wharton. March 2, 2018. “What Can We Learn from the World’s Happiest People?” http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/blue-zones-happiness/. Accessed May 18, 2018.

² Ibid.

³ Venessa Wong. CNBC. March 17, 2017. “In 18 years, a college degree could cost about $500,000.” https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/17/in-18-years-a-college-degree-could-cost-about-500000.html. Accessed June 7, 2018.

⁴ Fortune. Feb. 15, 2018. “Healthcare Prices to Outpace Inflation for the First Time Since 2010.” http://fortune.com/2018/02/15/healthcare-prices/. Accessed May 18, 2018.

⁵ Shon Burton. MarketWatch. May 31, 2018. “Opinion: Coding skills won’t save your job – but the humanities will.” https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coding-skills-wont-save-your-job-but-the-humanities-will-2018-05-17. Accessed May 18, 2018.

⁶ Alex Preston. The Guardian. May 14, 2018. “How real books have trumped ebooks.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/14/how-real-books-trumped-ebooks-publishing-revival. Accessed June 4, 2018.

⁷ Chaim Pikarski. Twice. Feb. 20, 2018. “What’s driving the instant photo revival?” https://www.twice.com/blog/whats-driving-instant-print-photo-revival. Accessed May 18, 2018.

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