I have had a long standing theory about the stock market for quite some time:  baby boomers would suck the market dry to survive over the next 20 years.   Ironically, we seem to be on the same path that Japan was 30 years ago and Japan hasn’t really recovered in that period of time.   Is the U.S. going to be the same way?

Every day, 10,000 baby boomers hits retirement age which means they go on government health care, stop contributing to their 401k’s and start pulling money out.  If you want to know how bad seniors will have it Japan has a preview here.  I think the major depletion of the market has largely been masked by the Federal Reserve’s QE-Infinity where the government keeps printing money and this won’t end well for either seniors who live on fixed incomes or the general population which will end up paying $10/gallon of gas in a few years.

Interestingly, as I peruse financial blogs, there isn’t much to read.  Gone are the days of young, hungry and enthusiastic finance bloggers wanting to make money or share some interesting financial advise.   Personally, I had expected the economy to improve quite a bit by now but I can tell it’s still a struggle for many people out there.  I know a few families that live in nice homes but supposedly don’t eat red meat because it’s too expensive.   Until someone mentioned this to me, I had never paid attention to the price of meat and when I did, it did occur to me that it has gotten a bit expensive.    Various cuts of beef now go for $8 to $12 per pound while my favorite kobe beef steaks have remained steady at $30/lb.

I’m taking a gamble on the market this year and betting on some improvement but to lock in some gains, I have largely sold covered calls all the way through 2014 to at least lock in a 12% return for the year on some accounts.