Warren Buffett has had a remarkable track record of making timely and
smart investment choices. And while most of his advice to investors
revolves around the
super-simple
ways you can get solid returns, one very important piece of advice from
Buffett is often overlooked. There is one long-term investment option
that the Oracle warns should never be in your portfolio: a hoard of
cash.
Crowd favoriteIn a recent report from
Bankrate, a survey of Americans found that cash was the favorite
long-term investment option for funds that were available for 10 years,
with 26% of the respondents choosing cash investments. Only real estate
came close to matching the popularity of cash, with 23% of people
choosing that option for their hypothetical investment. Stocks came in
fourth (after gold and other precious metals), at 12%.
Unfortunately for the majority of those surveyed, and the portion of
the nation's population that they represent, cash is a very poor
investment choice. Here's Mr. Buffett on the subject:
"The one thing I will tell you is the worst investment you can have
is cash. Everybody is talking about cash being king and all that sort of
thing. Cash is going to become worth less over time... Cash is a bad
investment over time."
The King is deadIf you look at the
long-term returns of cash versus other investment options, you'll see
why Buffett thinks it's the worst investment you could choose:
Source: BlackRock.
Just as Buffett says, cash will be worth less over time because of
inflation. And even in developed economies, like the United States,
where inflation is low, the cost of goods and services still outpaces
the returns of cash investments. Some of the
best savings account interest rates
are centered in online-based accounts, but they still only provide an
average of 0.85% in interest. While it's true that inflation will cut
down the value of any asset over time, cash is the only one that has
actually lost value -- as you can see in the chart above.
Timing is everythingThis advice from
Buffett should be heeded by more than just those years away from
retirement. With Americans living longer, most retirees fear the same
thing: running out of money.
And while that fear can lead them into various "safer" investments,
choosing an all-cash approach could be self-fulfilling prophecy.
Retirees can live anywhere from 10-40 years beyond their retirement
date, and unlike those still working, a fixed income can be very
difficult to stretch across all sorts of expenses. So Buffett's advice
is just as relevant to retirees as it is to 20-somethings.
Let's be clearThough Buffett warns against the use of cash as an investment, he does state that it's important to have some on hand.
"We always keep enough cash around so I feel very comfortable and
don't worry about sleeping at night. But it's not because I like cash as
an investment. Cash is a bad investment over time. But you always want
to have enough so that nobody else can determine your future,
essentially."
Having an emergency fund or back-up savings account is not something
Buffett would shake a finger at -- quite the opposite, in fact. But he
would warn against letting your stash get too big. Otherwise, your money
isn't working for you as you try to achieve your financial goals.
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end quote from:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/01/12/warren-buffett-says-this-is-the-worst-investment-y.aspx
Though all the
above is very true you also don't want to be caught without enough cash
to weather any financial storm possible without having to borrow money.
Because the interest on borrowing money as well as the loan itself is
not that easy to come by these days. And fixed interest rates are even
harder to come by. So, having enough cash to weather any potential storm
is something to think about too, if you are doing long term planning.
Buffet since he
is a billionaire can afford to think this way but anything less than a
billionaire needs to maybe take a slightly different point of view which
might cover literally any world situation that could potentially arise.
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