but if cost of living is going up around the world, and relative to Dollars, then isn't inflation the culprit? (insidious tax that perpetually steals the value of your Dollars). i save very little in USD because i don't like the idea of losing some % to inflation constantly...although of course the Peso has far worse inflation. but if you think about it, life is actually getting much
cheaper in terms of human capital/labor:
so most people alive today can buy more (and better) goods/services for less of their time, when considering hours needed to work, instead of the useless price in Dollars. so, the value of the US Dollar loses at least 2% yearly"
"The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.43% per year between 2005 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 61.60%. This means that today's prices are 1.62 times as high as average prices since 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.
A dollar today only buys 61.728% of what it could buy back then."
https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2005?amount=1
so if someone in 2005 had started saving for retirement in cash Dollars like they do in Argentina, their "retirement" safety deposit box contents will have lost 61% of its value since then, due to The Fed's printing. this is why i've always heard it's best to have investments at least 5% APY, or have hard assets like real estate, metals, etc.
another interesting idea is the idea of Gold versus Dollars over time. i saw a graphic one time of a custom suit, a house, groceries, etc. compared over every 10 years. can't find it now, of course
@Betsy Ross, but the idea is interesting: are prices just the same, relative to assets that can't be inflated by a central bank?
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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-...cost-buy-house-over-time-yan-li-cfa-cfp-jgpjc
so i would say that prices aren't going up any different than they always have (of course government meddling causes excesses and shortages at times, driving prices down or up temporarily of specific things like eggs, etc.), because our Dollars have continually lost 2% of value, minimum, per year. but if someone's retirement was a mixed bag of gold, foreign currency like Norway's or something, property, stocks, mutual funds, etc., i would reckon that prices would actually be stable, or over our lives going DOWN for certain goods
🙂
and as a last thought about retirement, as i'm in a sort of pseudo-retirement myself at a younger age...there's really nothing stopping any of us from picking up a "spending-money" hobby that serves as a side gig to supplement the loss of the Dollar's value. i always have thought it was so strange that a small % of people decide one day that they are going to do nothing of economic value, and just "be retired" - for me, that's not only boring, but it's also putting 100% of my trust into a system that probably won't last the test of time (fixed income retirement, social security, etc.)
i just don't see the prices going up, after almost 14 months of being in Argentina. i'm doing a long-term study after buying my house about 3 months ago, to track what is the true cost of living in Mendoza for 2 humans and 1 big dog, with the home-ownership/rent/mortgage aspect taken away. so far, incredibly cheap, like 15% the cost of the USA. but i'd like a full year of data!
why not grab a side gig 1 day a week to supplement income? why not create a small good/food/service and make some side-gig money since your retirement is in Dollars and is losing value daily?
