Playing Soccer on a Live Minefield

The chase for yield is dangerous.  Many people who didn’t plan properly are hurting because low interest rates were the one thing that breaks every financial plan. Low interest rates and deflation are practically impossible to protect against unless you’re fortunate to have a pension or payments not based on interest rates. 

Few are that lucky.  Articles about dividend stocks, REITs, and TIPS are starting to permeate the media as financial advisors feed stories to hungry journalists.  Be careful is all I can say.  More money has been lost chasing yield than was ever lost in the stock market.   And when risk happens the result is usually nothing. 

I have a client who owned a Lehman Bond sold to her by a stock broker because it yielded 8%.  Now it is worthless. That is the problem with playing the yield game. If risks find you, the result is like stepping on a mine on a soccer field.  You don’t live to play the next game. Don’t chase yield, it always gets away.