Robert C Green II .com

This morning I had a rather invigorating meeting regarding my 401(k). This wonderful meeting stirred up some thoughts on the subject of saving for retirement.

Is it not odd that you cannot simply save money and grow wealthier because you have worked and saved and earned? In order for any of us to gain real wealth we have to stash our money away in a place where we cannot touch it (some type of retirement fund) where it will hopefully (cross your fingers) gain a substantial amount of value (hopefully more than inflation) over our lifetimes. Basically, we all invest to hedge against inflation. Wouldn’t be nice if this wasn’t the case? Oh, wait, historically it has always been the case that saving meant you were gaining wealth. This is always the case until governments start debasing currency.

That’s right – in the olden days it was mixing copper with gold, zinc with silver in order to make every coin worth less than its face value. Now it’s the printing of massive amounts of currency by central bankers. Now simply think about this – every time a new dollar is printed, each dollar in your pocket is worth less. Why? This is basic supply. The more of something there is, the less each unit is worth.

So there are my thoughts. Savings should equate to wealth. Inflation equates to robbery of your money by central bankers. Investing in retirement funds is a nuissance forced on us becuase of government intervention.

Hard work no longer pays off. It’s only if you get lucky that you actually get to keep your own money.