Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Protecting your money: It's not easy

The website www.marketwatch.com had a couple of gems worth reading if you're worried about your money.

The first bit of needed information concerns safe deposit boxes. The contents -- including cash -- are not protected by the FDIC, bank or anyone else. So if you have cash in there or any other valuables, they're at risk to disappear in case of fire, tornado, hurricane or a simple explosion.

Check with your insurance company to see if the contents are protected under your homeowner's policy.

Second, if you simply want to revert back to the old days of putting your cash in your mattress for safekeeping, it might not be a bad investment strategy. Marketwatch quotes USA Today's mutual fund columnist John Waggoner:

"For retirement investors, the bear market has wiped out most gains for the decade.

"An investor who put $100 a month into the American Funds Growth Fund of America for a decade, for example, would have had $14,562 in his account at the end of September. By Thursday [10 days ago], that would have shrunk to $11,671, not including the fund's upfront sales charge.

"An investor who had put $100 a month into his mattress for a decade would have $12,000."

Scary, isn't it?

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