This time of the year is always exciting because we celebrate serving our membership another year. On October 25, 1955, Air Academy Federal Credit Union (AAFCU) was chartered to serve the Air Force Academy. We are now celebrating our 67th anniversary and have grown to over $850 million in assets serving members around the world. This success is due to the commitment and loyalty of the membership over so many years and the dedication of our volunteers and staff to serve you. We are unwavering in our desire to serve you and doing the right thing for our membership now and into the future is always an expectation and top of mind for us.
We are about 2 ½ years since the start of the pandemic and my hope is this newsletter is the last time I mention it. During that time, the credit union has done incredibly well with the uncertainty we saw at the start. Your credit union has grown over 30 percent in assets, the loan portfolio has performed well, and your credit union is safe and sound. This is important because economic conditions have changed recently since interest rates have increased dramatically on mortgages and cars. Fewer people are able to afford mortgage payments due to rising housing prices and interest rates have almost doubled. The high-flying housing market has slowed considerably, and supply/demand is stabilizing. Housing prices continue to increase but at a slower rate than earlier in 2022. Car prices continue to stay elevated, and the supply of new cars continues to be limited. Supply issues are not expected to improve until 2023. My qualification on that statement is in 2021, industry experts anticipated supply chain issues related to automobiles would be solved by summer of 2022. That hasn’t happened and some skeptics feel the supply issues will not be resolved in 2023.
Looking forward at the economy, there continues to be uncertainty. We expect to see the Federal Reserve Bank continue to increase rates in 2022. The intent is to slow the economy from its blistering growth rate. Most of us are seeing houses, cars, food, and fuel more expensive than they were a year ago. While wages have increased in many areas, in some cases they have not kept up with what we are spending for daily necessities. That is causing a strain on a number of families. As a credit union, we always stand ready to guide and advise you on financial matters. I encourage you to talk with our certified financial counselors so they can answer money management questions. If you need to talk with someone about saving for retirement, investing, college savings plans, or Social Security, among many other topics, I encourage you to talk with our CFS Advisor. Now is always a good time to start planning your financial future because your life and your dreams are our passion. I was talking with an employee the other day and she asked how much she would have to invest each month to have $1 million in investments 40 years from now. I did the calculation and told her $287 per month. If she waited until age 35 when she had only 30 years to invest, that number increases to $671 per month. The moral of the story with investing is to start early.
As we have for 67 years, we always look for products and services that benefit our membership and make it easier to do business with us. Before the end of the year, we will roll out a product that will automate the account opening process. If you have a friend or neighbor that can benefit from credit union membership, they will be able to go online and open an account at AAFCU in minutes. We know we must simplify our processes to stay competitive. Similarly, we will introduce a product that will automate bringing your accounts from other financial institutions to AAFCU. If your checking account is at another financial institution, we can automate the transition to our credit union.
Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention how many scams are out there. So far this year, our members have been targeted for $1.4 million in potential scams/fraud. When you come to a branch or talk with one of our representatives on the phone, there are times they will ask somewhat personal questions about the transaction. While it seems we are prying into things that are not our business, rest assured we are asking to protect you. We have story after story of members that have lost thousands of dollars to scammers. There are times we know our members are getting scammed and it disappoints us when members lose money when it was preventable. Our hope is you will trust us in situations like this. Due to our inquisitiveness, we have prevented our membership from being scammed on over $800,000.
We have been serving our membership for 67 years and are proud of our legacy and tradition of excellence. On behalf of our volunteer Board of Directors, Supervisory Committee, and 150 dedicated employees, thank you for being part of the AAFCU family.
Glenn L. Strebe
CEO
