There’s simply no honest way to define this increase in the money supply other than “inflation.”
And there’s no reason to believe Washington will stop printing greenbacks by the truckload, either.
More rounds of quantitative easing and monetary stimulus are currently being discussed on Capitol Hill – including the new “jobs program.”
Even the recent debt ceiling debate contains massive government spending increases in the short term.
With this in mind, think about what I’m showing you in this chart:
If we follow the exact same inflationary trajectory we’ve seen in America for the last 2½ years…
The relative, real-money value of $1 million today would be only $99,513 five years from now.
Even if you were lucky enough to find an investment in 2016 that would make you a steady 5% on your retirement assets…
After relative real-money currency inflation is factored in, you’d only make around $5,000 a year worth of today’s dollars on a retirement nest egg worth a million bucks on paper.
I don’t know about you, but I sure couldn’t live on that.
This same situation will soon be driving millions of retirement-age Americans – even the millionaires…
To burger joints or retail stores in search of whatever jobs they can find.
Because their retirement assets aren’t worth even a fraction of what they were counting on, in real-money terms.
Now, if you don’t believe the government is capable of doing such a thing to the America people…
Or that The Fed’s money-printing binge isn’t really inflating the currency…
Let’s look at it from another angle.
You can also see the proof of massive hidden-dollar inflation in the price of gold:
As you can see, it took more than twice as many dollars to buy gold in late August as it did in the spring of 2009, when the so-called “recovery” began.
That’s not because of increased scarcity.
Gold’s not an industrial, consumable commodity. It’s a unique, defensive asset that primarily functions as a yardstick for the relative power of currencies.
And the reason gold has more than doubled in 2½ years is because the U.S. dollar’s power has been more or less cut in half by inflation.
It’s that simple.
The bottom line is this: No matter how you calculate this real-money inflation, if you want to retire in the manner you’ve planned for…
And on the schedule you’re hoping will be possible…
You’re not going to do it by simply keeping pace with the Dow or the S&P. I’ve already shown you how that’s a no-win delusion.
Instead, you’ve got to outgain what the falling dollar’s losing you with every passing day. You have to literally beat the buck – before it beats you.
After all, who wants to bag groceries with the rest of today’s “millionaires?”
Mike Ward
Publisher, Money Morning
Mike Ward is the Publisher of Money Morning, which is devoted to helping investors understand and profit from global trends in investing. In 2007 he launched Money Morning, one of the fastest growing investment news sites on the Internet. He also publishes the Money Map Report, which has been helping readers make solid gains even during these troubling recessionary times. Before launching Money Map Press, Mike served as the Editorial Director for The Oxford Club. He's a seasoned veteran of magazine and book publishing, with 25 years experience with companies such as Macmillian Publishing, Rodale Press and Eagle Publishing.