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Originally Posted by Boomer
Exactly…….but I am now spending some sideline cash on brokered CDs. I had never bought those before. I did not know that they are bought at $1000, so the number of CDs I needed to buy were in the number of 1000s I wanted to put in.
I have not laddered at this point. I just put some money in for 9 months at 4.70 (or was it 4.75?) annualized rate, FDIC insured, call protected.
Now…..watch for it……there will be at least one poster who will pop in to tell me I am not keeping up with inflation. (sigh) I know that, of course. But I also know it’s better than nothing like bricks-and-mortar banks think they can still get by with.
I do not sell long held dependable dividend stocks because we have been through this together before and I understand the companies enough to think they’ll be OK. Besides, if a dividend stock has been held for a very long time and the company is still doing well and has been increasing its dividend annually, without interruption, for a very long time, the math works nicely to see the dividend yield based on the original share price paid decades ago.
Boomer Whipple
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Many people don't fully understand the "keeping up with inflation" theory. It's not as simple as inflation is 10%, so I need to find an investment that matches or exceeds that rate of return. That is a flawed belief that helps financial advisors push equities. It's better to ask yourself, what has been the increase to all my expenses for a specific given time. Let's say you lived on $50,000/year and now it costs $60,000. That's YOUR specific inflation rate, which is 20%. Now, you must find an investment that covers that $10,000 increase NOT 20% to "keep up with inflation". If you had $300,000 in CD's earning 1% (yes that low and even lower!) a year ago, you were earning $3,000. CD's were earning 4% weeks ago, which would have provided you with that extra $10,000 of income and you would have "kept up with inflation". Now, this is NOT the entire picture or that I'm recommending CD's but please keep this concept in the back of your mind. Don't go chasing yield to beat inflation if it doesn't align with your risk/reward profile.