With the government spending like drunken sailors with an american express black card, inflation is becoming more and more like a coming reality. Inflation can kill savings. For those who do not know what inflation is, inflation is where the price of goods and services increase due to excess money in the economy. This causes the money that you do have in your pocket or in savings to lose value. On the opposite side of the coin, it also reduces the value of debt a person or company has. Usually inflation is good for corporations who have taken on a lot of debt but is not good for the average consumer because their pay rarely rises with the rate of inflation.
Inflation should be something that really concerns those that have their money in investments or in savings. If your interest rates are not higher than the rate of inflation, than inflation will slowly eat away at your savings. To explain inflation better let me use $20, for example, does $20 buy the same amount of things that it did in 1920? What about 1980? The answer is, of course, no. That is inflation.
So how does an investor protect his/her capital from inflation? There are several ways investors can do this. None of them are very exciting or will make you a ton of money in a roaring bull market but they will provide you a hedge in case something goes south. The first thing an investor can do is to buy gold or precious metals. This would also include silver and platinum. I use the rule that Jim Cramer recommends in his book “Getting Back to Even” that 20% of your investment portfolio should be in precious metals.
Now there are two ways you can make these a part of your portfolio. You can buy them physically in the form of coins and bars. This is a more expensive way of doing it because you have to pay a premium on them and pay to store them. But this is also has the benefit of you being able to hold your investment in your hand and know it is secure. The second way to do this is to buy an ETF which tracks the price of these metals. One example of this is GLD which follows the price of gold. There are also investment funds that convert your money into gold. This means that when you receive your statement you would get in how many ounces of the precious metal you have instead of a dollar amount.
Another way to guard your portfolio from the evil inflation is to buy stocks of companies that produce energy. Usually when an economy is experiencing an increase in prices, energy goes up too. This also means that companies that produce energy will make more money from the higher prices. You can also find an ETF that tracks these companies as well, but I prefer to actually own the stocks of the best companies in this sector.
The third way to guard your portfolio is to diversify your portfolio to own companies that make more from over seas or that are over seas companies. The increase in prices in this country will make them more money when they convert their U.S. dollars to whatever currency they operate in at home. That increase in profit and growth will no doubt send the companies’ stocks up and help offset the pain your portfolio will be feeling. I know it sounds like your not being unpatriotic with this strategy but I see it this way: If you are able to prosper when the economy takes a downturn, you will be able to help your fellow citizens who are in need. Nothing is more patriotic than helping your fellow citizens, especially when they need it.
The fourth and final way you can protect your portfolio is to buy stock in companies that sell products people MUST have. This would be like toilet paper, toothpaste, milk, etc. Because people need these items they will not stop buying them and the company will not lose money like other companies will. This will send the stocks up usually.
Poor government policy is no reason to sit by and let all the money you’ve saved be slowly eaten away. Don’t feel like there is nothing you can do. Take charge and save your money.
I believe that the stock market is the fastest way to make money to achieve the financial independence you desire. I’m always in search of stock signals that can accomplish this.
Micah Dixon
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