prestonbriggs

I'm a boomer, have no debt, own my houses, and have a fair amount of cash. But I have no pension and don't foresee any particular income from my cash while the Fed holds interest rates at near zero. Hard to imagine retiring now.

And no matter how much money I save, it seems kinda crazy to retire before being forced to. You might say: "Things look good, time to quit!", but what'll the world look like in 5 or 10 or 20 or 40 years? I don't know, but a good income will help carry you through a lot of financial craziness.

Another interesting view of all this is via John Crowley's novel "Little, Big" (certainly heavily influenced by Yates).

Preston

Well, T-Bills, of course. Short term, so that you don't get stuck when interest rates rise. TIPS are another thought.

You're dismissing lots of conservative/safe alternatives because they don't yield much. But that's today. Next year, 5 years, 20 years, who knows? Today, maybe the best thing is to sit back and wait for better conditions, versus take on risk.

Overall, I thought your discussion of "why invest" was too brief. You don't actually need to invest/gamble your money. Just save it (T-Bills, etc) and work to make enough.

If you've got a pile, why invest? What's the possible use of doubling the size of your pile? Can't buy any more stuff. But if you lose half your pile, it might seriously hurt.