Saving for retirement these days is a tall order.  It certainly hasn’t been like the good old days during the 1980s and 90s when you could blindly dollar cost average into a no load index fund and watch it rise 15 percent each year.  Those days are long gone.

Nowadays, with yields on the 10-Year Treasury Note perpetually stuck below 2 percent and the S&P 500 down from where it was at the turn of the new millennium, growing a tiny grubstake into something you can live off of has proven to be near impossible.  Still, you must try.  Moreover, what’s your alternative?

Social Security’s bankrupt, pension funds are broke, and, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, the dollar’s lost 23 percent over the last decade.  This means you must work harder, save more, and invest better than ever before…all for less in return.  In fact, just keeping pace with inflation is difficult enough – let alone actually building wealth.

Nonetheless, here at the Economic Prism we are not discouraged.  We welcome a good challenge like we welcome the silence before dawn. Continue reading →