A lot of people talk about saving for retirement, but are they? Sure, they don’t spend the money, but what do they do with?
Invest in the stock market? That’s pretty much a fools game isn’t it? Is the stock market even geared for small investors anymore? A recent report says that 83% of the value of all stocks is in the hands of the top 1% of Americans. Do you really think the game isn’t rigged?
How about the bank, you going to put your retirement money in the bank? Have you checked out yields lately? The 8/27 rate sheet for Chase shows savings accounts are paying .4%, money markets are at .02%. That means if you put 50K into a savings account, at the end of the year you will have earned $200 in the savings account, $100 in the money market account. . . off of $50,000. Is that really going to help you get closer to your retirement goal?
The problem is most of us are looking for Wall Street to provide us with the solution to our retirement woes, which is pretty much the wolf in sheeps clothing situation.
Instead of Wall Street, start thinking of “alternative” investment classes. Sure they take a little more work and seem a bit strange, but that is exactly why they can yield so much more.
Examples: Just the other day a bankruptcy trustee was upset that nobody was willing to accept a 12% return on an annuity the bankruptcy was trying to dump off. . . 12%.
Another example is a buddy of mine who purchases cell phone towers. He has a list of people who have leased land to the cell carriers. He calls and buys out the leases for 100X the monthly lease. Thus if someone is receiving a rent of 1K a month, he will buy out the lease for 100K. Now he can sit back and get rents of 12K a year from the carriers, a 12% annual return.
Bottom line is if you are willing to put some energy and effort into it, chances are you can find a number of different ways to place your money to earn more than the 5 or 7% annually.