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April 3, 2007

RETIREMENT BLUES

By James R. Cook

Have you ever seen film clips of a rocket ship leaving earth? At first you see nothing but flat surface, then you begin to see the earth’s curvature. Soon the earth becomes a large ball and begins to shrink. It gradually gets smaller. Before long, the earth is the size of a dime. That’s what happens to your money after you sell out or retire. After about fifteen years of retirement your savings bonds and annuities, that were once so comforting, have shrunk in purchasing power like the diminishing earth.

Let’s face it, the government’s inflation figures aren’t trustworthy. Inflation across the board is probably around 10% year over year. Furthermore, runaway government spending promises more inflating as government creates new money to pay for its wayward social schemes. Over time the dollar has lost 98% of its value and, anecdotally, the pace of decline seems to be quickening. The earth becomes the size of a pea and then a BB.

As a person of retirement age I notice that people that don’t have any more income (no matter how much money they have) tend to cut back and curtail their lifestyle. They worry to some degree about money. The longer you live, the greater the likelihood that government sponsored inflation will eat away all of your savings.

I believe we have a partial solution. Put 10% of your net worth into physical silver. Take possession or store it with HSBC bank. Keep it in a home safe or large bank safe deposit boxes. Hold it for the long term. You want something that will neutralize the evils of inflation. Silver should offset inflation and hopefully do much more than that. If analyst Theodore Butler is right, it could also offset the loss of purchasing power of the other 90% of your money. Under any circumstances, we see it as the best available cure for government monetary policies that are little different than the evils of the Dark Ages, when silver coins were clipped or diluted with base metals. One thing is for sure, if you just take it on the chin and watch your savings shrink, you can wind up with nothing. The earth will eventually get so small you can’t see it. When that happens, it’s either rely on the children or the government. God forbid!