Jeffrey Gundlach, about 1 minute ago on CNBC, just made the point I have been proselytising for a few years: ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) or NIRP (negative...) is a screwjob for retirees or about to be retirees. His comment was: take a person in their 60s planning to retire at 70. In the past they might have rationalized $1M being ok or enough, thinking "yeah, I can earn 5%" or $50k. Now, Gundlach says, that same person needs to work longer or save more like $2M (or more!) to make retirement look like it will work.
This is a very unfriendly environment for retirees. Early retirees, in particular, have an economic knife to the throat and need to think carefully about what they are trying to do and how they are going to pull it off. Taking on more risk, or "going back to work for the man" are two obvious solutions, of course, but that is not where most people probably want to be, myself included. Let's try to get economic policy back where it belongs while at the same time we are grateful that we are not living in, say, Venezuela.
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