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The ICA Guide

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<strong>The</strong> Boones and the Klausens<br />

Inflation has been relatively stable in recent years, but it can still be a formidable enemy over time. <strong>The</strong> only<br />

solution is to invest where your money can grow. To illustrate the difference <strong>ICA</strong> has made, let’s look at the<br />

hypothetical investments of two fictional couples over the 20-year period ended December 31, 2011.<br />

Margaret and Harry Boone<br />

Original investment $200,000<br />

Total interest received $290,800<br />

Value of investment<br />

as of December 31, 2011<br />

$200,000<br />

Annual income from a 20-year Treasury bond *<br />

<strong>The</strong> Boones’ long-term<br />

U.S. government bond<br />

paid the same amount,<br />

year after year …<br />

4 <strong>The</strong> <strong>ICA</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />

Twenty years ago — at the end of 1991<br />

— the Boones and the Klausens retired.<br />

Each couple had $200,000 to invest.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Boones put their money in a longterm<br />

U.S. government bond that paid a<br />

guaranteed 7.27% a year.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y thought their “safe” annual income<br />

of $14,540 meant they were set. Twenty<br />

years ago, you may have been able to get<br />

by on that. But it takes $23,795 today to<br />

buy what $14,540 bought in 1992!<br />

Here’s the worst part: When the Boones’<br />

bond matured at the end of 2011, they<br />

went back to buy a new one and found the<br />

rate on 20-year Treasuries was 2.57% —<br />

which would provide them with only<br />

$5,140 a year.<br />

Of course, the Boones are guaranteed<br />

their original $200,000 nest egg —<br />

although that won’t buy as much as it<br />

used to either.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Boones’ “safe” investment, it seems,<br />

wasn’t so safe after all.<br />

$14,540 $14,540 $14,540 $14,540 $14,540<br />

1992 1997 2002 2007 2011<br />

* Long-term U.S. government bond rates (as reported by the Federal Reserve) have been substituted for periods when 20-year Treasury bonds were not<br />

sold, as in 1987–1992.

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