Retirees are facing perhaps their greatest financial challenge at any time since the Great Depression. Life expectancies are increasing, Social Security income may be curtailed, and traditional pension plans are disappearing. Seniors can no longer rely on positive real returns from traditional cash equivalent assets such as certificates of deposit and Treasury bills. Meanwhile current […]

Last month we presented an account we manage, the Reserve Life Income fund (RLI 1) of our parent organization, the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). We described our management of that fund to illustrate several useful techniques that all investors can employ when managing their own accounts. This month we will again examine AIER’s

The dollar value of the euro has plummeted, as European leaders have once again failed to restore confidence. But soon the media and the markets will refocus on the dismal fiscal outlook in the U.S., where Congress and the administration face, yet again, the need to increase the debt limit. The stakes are higher this

Beginning this month we will present hypothetical performance figures for our recommended portfolios on a “net-of-fee” basis. This change follows an internal review of our own procedures, which have always acknowledged that we published for two audiences, our readers and our advisory clients, who arguably are better served by results presented “gross of fees” and

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”— Sir Winston Churchill Retirees and investors approaching retirement face a low-interest rate environment in which future price inflation is a virtual certainty. The financial industry has responded with a confusing array of products intended to supplement the traditional

As governments across the globe have adopted looser monetary and fiscal policies, investors alarmed at the prospect of higher price inflation have been asking us whether it would be wise to turn to the reputed “safe haven” of Swiss franc denominated assets or by investing more heavily in gold. AIER contends that consumer price inflation

Discipline, once again, was the watchword during 2011. Throughout the year worrisome news emerged from all around the globe. Yet, by year end most investors who followed our recommendations would have seen little change in the value of their portfolios (see our AIS Model Portfolios table on page 2 for hypothetical returns). • I will

AIER has developed a new and very useful index that measures price changes among goods and services that most of us purchase regularly. This greatly improves our ability to measure the cost of unanticipated price inflation and the impact it might have on investors’ household budgets. It is clear that the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U)

On March 26 Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke reaffirmed the Fed’s desire to hold interest rates low for the foreseeable future. With current annual price inflation (CPI) running close to 3.0 percent and 90-day Treasury bills yielding 0.10 percent, it appears investors will continue to confront negative real returns on cash equivalent assets for some

This month we continue our series on income in retirement. In the following pages we assess reverse mortgages and preferred stocks, and we will assess other sources of income coming months. However, readers should keep in mind that ideally their savings will constitute their primary source of cash flow. Spending from savings, however, requires discipline.