Far be it from me to give a blanket investment tip in a blog sent to so many adoring fans. Typically, investment recommendations must be customized and personalized based on your risk tolerance, time horizon, goals and net worth. Therefore take my next recommendation with the caveat that it may not be appropriate for you. And yet I feel confident that this investment recommendation is something you should seriously consider. Not because it will go up in value. Oh, no, quite the contrary. Once you buy it, the value will diminish when you go to sell it. I recommend this investment because you can use it to freeze food.
The investment is a freezer.
Here's the rationale. Food prices keep going up. Sales today will likely be better than retail tomorrow. But if you buy tenderloin steaks at $11 a pound this weekend, how many can you actually eat? You’ll need to buy bulk and freeze them. And had you done this is 2021 you would have really stretched your dollar. Tenderloin steaks were about $10 a pound in April of 2021. The average in 2022: $19. I’m not great at math but if you bought and froze you saved some money. Click here for reference.
If you are a true nerd, this is a great article on how a freezer saves you money. Of course, the freezer itself is not an investment in the traditional retirement planning sense of the word. But modifying your lifestyle and adjusting for inflation will be a force multiplier when preparing for retirement or enjoying it now.
I also want to bring this to your attention because there has been a rash of food processing plant fires. This could lead to higher food prices when combined with Covid-induced supply chain disruptions and good old-fashioned inflation. You can read about it here.
It's easy to think that retirement preparation or retirement optimization is all about the decisions you make in the markets. This is true especially the decisions you make in the supermarket. If you have any other frugal, money-saving, life-enhancing tips please send them my way. If you’d like to discuss, click here.