Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of August 15, 2023

Article Excerpt

Here’s Part Two of the letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in May 2023: The coming boom in ‘income investments’ The post-World War II generation—the baby boomers—were born between 1946 and 1964. The youngest boomers are now around 59 and the oldest are around 77. At least half have already retired or are making plans to do so. When investors reach retirement age, they tend to switch some of their investments from equities (stocks) into debt investments (bonds). In previous decades, some would start switching into bonds before retirement. However, bonds lost much of their appeal for retirees in the past couple of decades, due to the historically low bond yields in that period. Of course, some investors (including many of the most successful investors) stay out of bonds and mainly buy stocks. They recognize that stock market downturns come along unpredictably, but that’s something they can accept. That’s because they focus on the long-term growth that stocks have provided over the…