There seems to be a great deal perpetual optimism when it comes to US investment markets. I think most people understand that the US stock market has its ups and downs and that over the long run, the US market has returned about 10% on average year over year.

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Unfortunately, my investment philosophy doesn’t agree with the general consensus that the market will return 10% in the future for several reasons:

1. We have a huge boomer population – 78 million people will retire over the next 10 to 15 years and there will be a huge burden placed on the health care system, government, and boomers kids (to help support their parents). In the history of the US, this has never happened before and very few people talk about how it will impact the US economy or the US markets.
2. Once boomers retire they won’t pay taxes at the rate they have been paying in the past and they won’t pay health insurance premiums; a double blow for the rest of us as we have to pay to make up the difference. I am bullish on investing on the health care industry but hesitate because of possible government socialization and price controls.
3. Boomers will pull money out of the market to live off of right? They’ve invested in the market for the past 40 years to earn great returns and now they’ll pull that money out and spend it to pay for their living expenses.
Is it all gloom and doom? No, the key thing to understand, IMHO, is that the US markets will not increase at the same rate (on average) as they have in the past. Rather than 10% average growth, you’ll be lucky to get 4% to 6% returns on the market.
The smart thing to do is to squeeze more returns out of your investments doing untraditional and unconventional investment activities such as ETF Covered Calls. Conversely, you can look to invest in higher growth markets around the world such as Asia and Latin America.

I’ve chosen to do ETF Covered Calls because each covered call provides me with a defensive position on a down sliding markets and I’m able to profit from growth, appreciation and dividends.

My ultimate advice is for you to have a dual headed approach to wealth building. Get Rich Slow with traditional investment vehicles like 401k, IRA’s, Real Estate home ownership, savings but also have a plan to Get Rich Quick with more aggressive strategies such as ETF Covered Calls, Real Estate rentals/flipping, Company stock options, Options/Futures/Currency trading when you build up some decent wealth and/or advance in your career. The net result is that you will Get Rich Slick.

Check out ETFCoveredcalls.com to see what I see in ETFs and how I’m making them work for me.