NEGATIVE INTEREST RATES? What It Means For YOU | Episode 135

Did you know that the Feds are talking about setting NEGATIVE interest rates?  I’ll prove it to you… and tell you the real effect of insanely low interest rates on YOU as a self-directed investor  RIGHT NOW in Episode #135

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Hello, SDI Nation!  Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy, self-directed investors like you!  What you hear on this show will invariably be on all of the other shows you listen to… because those show hosts listen to SDI Radio just like you do!

Negative interest rates… what a weird concept!  Even weirder to have the concept being raised at Federal Reserve meetings, and then hearing denials from the Federal Reserve Chairwoman that sound, overwhelmingly, like non-denials.  And my friends, just like every episode, this isn’t some fluffy theoretical discussion.  It has a real impact on your finances… all the way down to the fees you pay for your self-directed IRA!  More on that in a minute.

First, I’d like to thank you folks again for being so patient with me while I’ve been ill.  I’m still not yet 100%, but thankfully at this point, I’m making clear progress.  Thank you for your prayers.

Second, I’m looking for an INTERN for a very special opportunity.  Given the demographics of my listeners, this isn’t likely a good fit for any of you, but it may be perfect for a college-aged person that you know.  This intern… who I hope will turn into a full time employee… will be trained personally by ME to be involved in every aspect of producing the show you’re now hearing.  And I know a thing or two about the podcasting thing, if I do say so myself, having just launched this show barely 7 months ago, and already consistently being among the tip-top investing shows in the world.  I’d like to teach all of that to a person who will become my RIGHT-HAND man or woman… But they’ve got to be the right person.  This is a FORMAL intern program… it’s 30 hours a week of work and 20 hours a week of training.  And at the end of that time, the right person will have both wildly valuable skills and a job opportunity to continue to push forward my grand ambitions for the Self Directed Investor Radio show.  This position does not require a college degree, but does require a very smart, very DRIVEN, tech-savvy person who wants to MAKE A DIFFERENCE with their lives very quickly.  You don’t need to know anything about podcasting or internet marketing – I’ll personally teach you every bit of that – but you need to be very, very comfortable with technology generally and social media and online research specifically.  Does that describe someone you know?  This could be – it WILL be – the opportunity of a lifetime for the right person.  If you are or you know that person, please ask THAT person to drop me a note at [email protected].

So, negative interest rates.  Crazy concept, right?  Under normal circumstances – when interest rates are not negative – lenders makes loans, because they’re compensated for that loan by the repayment of all principal plus the payment of interest.  But with NEGATIVE interest rates, it’s different… not only won’t a lender receive interest, but he won’t even receive a return of all of his principal, either!

That is a CRAZY scenario, and one would think it to be impossible.  Alas, negative interest rates are the RULE RIGHT NOW in parts of the European Union… and that was certainly the case in Japan for a very long time.  But what does it REALLY mean?

The background on this issue is the most recent Federal Reserve meeting.  Each meeting the Fed produces a chat showing where each of the Federal Reserve Board members expect interest rates to be in the future.  And for one of those Fed Board Members, the prediction was for NEGATIVE interest rates.

Now here’s the thing:  Those board members can predict anything they want, and it’s believed to be the case that the person who made that prediction was a non-voting board member anyway.  But to me, the really shocking thing wasn’t the prediction, but the non-denial denial from Janet Yellen, the imminently unqualified chairperson of the Federal Reserve Board.

Asked about this issue, Yellen said “I don’t expect that we’re going to be in a path of providing additional accommodation. But if the outlook were to change in a way that most of my colleagues and I do not expect, and we found ourselves with a weak economy that needed additional stimulus, we would look at all of our available tools. And that would be something that we would evaluate in that kind of context.”

Doesn’t sound like a NO to me.  Does it to you?  I didn’t think so.

Well, that’s all intellectually interesting, but that info is mostly valuable for making your friends and colleagues think you’re in-the-know about economic issues.  But does it really matter?

Well… yes, and no.

Yes, it does because ultimately the rates set by the Fed trickle down to other financial instruments.  And who this will hurt – as artificially low rates have already hurt – is the people who were smart enough to save their money and who hope to earn a safe interest rate from CD’s or other interest-bearing investments.

In a negative interest rate environment, CD’s and savings accounts actually become guaranteed money losers since the nominal rate is negative.  But if we’re honest with ourselves that’s not really a change… real rates have been negative for years, given that so many people are collecting only 0.1 or 0.2% on their money, while prices are rising faster than that.  It’s what I call the grocery index:  If you put $1,000 in a CD today and let it mature for a year, could you buy more groceries at the end of the year than you could have at the beginning of the year.  Almost certainly, the answer is no.  That’s an example of REAL negative rates, even though the rate on your CD says 0.1%.

As an aside, my friends:  I don’t understand why anybody would let their parents suffer through the indignity of investing in CD’s or savings accounts with paltry interest rates and negative real rates when there are options that yield 20-50 times more than CD’s and are as safe as can be.  I say “your parents” because it’s invariably the older generation who default to and place great confidence in these types of assets, largely because it made sense when they were younger, but certainly doesn’t make sense now.  By the way, if that’s you, and you’re looking for a way to redeploy capital very safely that’s currently languishing in CD’s or money markets, then reach out to me at SDIRadio.com/consultation and I’ll give you some thoughts about how to help your family stop wasting the opportunity of their own capital in an INCREDIBLY safe manner.

It’s not just your parents, either.  Did you know that custodial fees for self-directed retirement accounts used to be much lower for many of the big custodians?  The reason is simple:  Back in the day, they made a lot of money from the “float”… from collecting interest on the unused capital in your account.  But with today’s falsely restrained interest rates, there’s no money to be made in that way, and so you’re paying more directly in the form of fees and expenses.

I don’t actually expect that interest rates in America will become nominally – that is, officially – negative.  But it doesn’t matter.  The dynamic duo of near-zero rates coupled with rising prices have exactly the same effect on your real economic situation.  More and more, the only reason to keep cash in a CD or bank account is because that’s physically safer, not because it makes sense in any other way.

That’s all for now, my friends.  Remember if to pass the word along if you have a friend or family member who might be a good fit for the intern opportunity I mentioned before.

And remember:  Invest wisely today, and live well forever!

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