Stay in the game: creating positive real returns

We live in unprecedented times. For all intents and purposes, the available return after costs on five-year government bonds from the world’s largest economies is zero. After inflation, the return is negative. These bonds now offer ‘return-free risk’. In short, savers are footing the enormous bills of the US housing crisis, the banking crisis and now the eurozone crisis, not to mention the UK’s own problems arising from an imbalanced economy, low tax receipts and zero growth. A central pillar of my preferred strategy is to buy secure cash flow at yields well ahead of inflation in orde...