Retirement Planning Advice You May Not Want To Hear!

Retirement planning with a short-term reality

When it comes to retirement planning, you need to have great advice, cutting-edge investment ideas and an astute sense of the short-term realities of the U.S. economy. These short-term realities are what we are going to cover here today.

Most peoples cutting-edge investment ideas for retirement planning has been to park their money in a 401 or an IRA and hope for the best.  Since the start of the last recession, this type of retirement planning has resulted in the loss of about 40% of the world’s equity across the board.  It didn’t have to be this way and it would not have been if these account holders would have re-allocated their investments into a commodities or metals based fund rather than the stock based funds so beloved by the fund managers.

More than likely the people that felt the impact of these losses did not have a physical loss of capital, but they have instantly lost years of interest that cannot be replaced. You cannot buy time but in an economic environment like we are in you sure can give it away for free.  Part of retirement planning is to not lose money.  What is the value of great investment ideas when you lose 12 to 15 years worth of time over a 60 day period?

Those in the know have been warning readers for years this was going to happen and it did.  If I tell you it is still happening and it will get even worse than it is now, I think I would listen to myself if I had a chance.  I may not act on my investment ideas, but I would at least listen and evaluate my point of view on the short-term realities of where the U.S. economy is and where it is going between now and about 2013.

If you think this last round of dollar losses was brutal, don’t hold your breath for too long. What is happening right now is likely to get a lot worse before it gets any better.

You will glean some great investment ideas from what is happening around you if you open your eyes and ears and if you are in control of your retirement planning then you really need to read this information.  There is the possibility of getting wiped out to the tune of another 40-50% or the possibility of a major windfall of profits depending on the investment ideas you chose to follow and where you want your retirement planning to take you.  Global wealth is finite.  It is just like energy.  Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it only changes from one form to another.  Global wealth is the same, it is neither created nor destroy, it just moves from one hand to another.  

I think one of the best investment ideas I have ever heard of is to be on the side of the table that is receiving and not the side that is giving.  That just makes perfect sense to me.

This last recession has officially ended, but the economic situation is not over and not over by a long shot.  

If you look at two of the most forward looking indicators, the future looks grim for anyone that is not invested in gold or commodities.  In order to see the future we need to look to the past and I mean way back; back to the time just after the founding of the United States.  Yes, all the way back to about 1800.

When you are developing investment ideas for retirement planning, you need to have data and data is historical information.  

The U.S. economy has always run on two specific cycles.  The first cycle is a 20-year cycle of ups and downs and the second one is a perfectly corresponding 60 year cycle of ups and downs.  This article is going to be long enough, so I don’t want to put any charts in here.

If you could see the future, I think you would have a few new investment ideas for your retirement planning.  The problem is this, nobody can see the future, or can they?

When the two cycles hit the highs or the lows at the same time, it is like the planets aligning.  Now you have to take into account with a 20-year and especially a 60-year cycle it is impossible to pin down the exact month or even the exact quarter of the double impact, but a double impact of both the 20-year and the 60-cycles are on us and they are on us NOW.

Think about this for just one second.  Actually, I would dwell on this for a few days because all of your retirement planning could hinge on what happens over the next 18 month, especially if you need to recover from any battle damage received during the last mini recession we had.

Both cycles are beginning to overlap right now.  A few weeks ago the US dollar hit the lowest level in about 15 years against the Yen, Pound, Franc, Canadian dollar and it hit an all time historic low against the Australian dollar.  At the same time, the price of gold against the US Dollar hit a high never seen before.  The price of most commodities had double-digit increases in a single week.  If you are looking for investment ideas, I would suggest we are entering into the beginning of the 20-year cycle around now. The 60-year cycle may not be exactly upon us this minute, but when the cycles align the last thing you want to have as a factor in your retirement planning is anything to do with the US stock market or the US Dollar.

When gold was at $600 an ounce, people laughed when some astute advisers told them to buy.  When this last mini recession hit and everyone lost money, it looked like buying gold at $600 was one of the best investment ideas of all time.  If you think buying gold at $600 was a great investment idea back then, and you are concerned about any type of retirement planning, you should try to buy gold while it is still below $1500.