KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Raising interest rates is not a new concept for the U.S. Despite that rationale, there are still looming concerns about what it means for the everyday person.

Donna Bueckman is an Economics professor at the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business. She says that the economy is superheated right now.

“It kind of needs to slow down a little bit,” Bueckman said. “The Fed when it tries to pull back on the economy and slow it down spending, it increases the interest rates so that borrowing tends to slow and some bigger item markets tend to slow down and puts the brakes on the economy a little bit.”

The entire country pulls from the same financial center so it makes it hard to narrow down the exact effect it will have on those in East Tennessee but you can still expect to see things cost more than they did a year ago.

“You’re just going to have to bite the bullet on that,” Bueckman said. “There is no easy, quick, or fast way to get around it. When rates are higher all the rates are higher.”

There are still ways to try and get yourself the lowest rate possible which does require some research.

“The best thing that you can do to guarantee yourself the best rate is to get informed,” Bueckman said. “Make sure you shop around and do your due diligence and find out who is offering what rates.”

There is an end to the rising interest rates although that time is not known but the Fed is forecasting that it will raise the benchmark rate to around 4.4% by the end of this year.