Hey Nedland,

Thanks for reading and for your comments, I truly appreciate it!

You seem bothered by inflation, as if it is a bad word and a bad idea, something to avoid.

High inflation, anything over say 4-5% or more, damages the economy - no question.

But low inflation - say 2-3% - is actually good.

First of all, a low level of managed inflation is a natural consequence of a growing economy. One way to think about it is you can’t have a fixed money supply for a growing economy - very soon you have insufficient cash to support purchases. So while inflation is not an ideal situation, economic stagnation is worse, especially as the population grows.

Inflation, especially in the modern era, since the 1990s when I’ve been working, has been so low as to be a non-issue. Here’s a chart of inflation so you can see what we’re talking about:

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/inflation-cpi

Second, inflation is so easy to beat, that it is curious that the very idea of inflation seems to raise hackles especially in older folks who sow much higher inflation than what we’ve seen in the past 4 decades.

Here are the strategies I used to beat inflation very easily for over four decades.

1. Companies give raises to most people that match inflation. But management always boosts the salaries of people who work harder, smarter, longer hours, and commit to company goals even if they seem hard or impossible (instead of whining about them). So I did those very simple things - I got on board. And sure enough my salary rocketed up way faster than the rate of inflation. It’s funny that people would rather complain than do the smart thing and work like a team player.

2. I spent waaay less than I made, and invested the savings since my very first job in 401k and on my own in stock index funds.

3. I never ever ever touched a penny of a 401k or a stock portfolio until way past retirement (wife continues to work, so my portfolio continues to gain).

Good luck out there!

SD