Although many retirees think of themselves as on a fixed income, I meet very few people who actually have a fixed income. For many seniors, it's true that their social security and pension income is fixed by others. But if these two sources comprise only half of their income, then the other half is not fixed and it's controllable by the investor. "Controllable," you might think, "What can I do about low interest rates?"
There's a lot you can do. I looked in Barrons this last week and saw that the highest interest rate on a 6 month CD was 5.88%. I then checked my rate sheet of federally backed mortgage notes and saw that a note with a 4.9 year average life was yielding 7%. That's 19% more income than the CD! It would seem to me that the investor who continues to choose short term CDs or T-bills over longer (yet safe) alternatives, is willingly cutting their own income! They do so out of habit by choosing the same old investments without learning about the other alternatives that could significantly boost their income.
Are you on a fixed income? Or are you cutting your own income by using the same old investments which are failing to provide you the best return?
If you would like to increase your income, please call for an appointment and bring in a list or statements of your income investments. We commonly find that we can increase investment income by 20% to 40% for many investors.