What Are You Doing To Beat Inflation?

Energy prices are skyrocketing, food prices are through the roof, seems like everything is costing more these days -- and the thing is -- you're right. Most of us have been effected in one way or another by the rising energy costs, but what about your nest egg. What approaches are you taking to make sure that inflation isn't eating away at your savings and still mitigating some of the risk in your portfolio?

Since most people underestimate the real rate of inflation (and the U.S. Government claims inflation is now at approximately 2%), this doesn't garner much attention - but it's a real concern. I typically steer clear of any type of investment advice here on this site, but want to open it up for discussion since it's something I've been thinking about lately.

Among the many options - Treasury Inflation Protected Bond Funds have become trendy of late [see ETF's: TIP, IPE ; MUTFunds: VIPSX, DIPSX, FINPX), and so have dividend weighted ETF's [see ETF's: PEY, DLS]

What do you think? Are inflation protected bonds the way to go? Dividend paying stocks? Cash?

Dollar Rises On Inflation Concerns

The dollar edged up against the Euro today on stronger than expected Consumer Price Index data. The data showed that there have been higher than expected gains in consumer prices and consumer spending. The Euro fell about 1.5% through this afternoon based on the report today and other economic reports that were released this week. It's likely the major news outlets will shift from "are we headed towards a recession" headlines to "is inflation on the move." Either way it doesn't look like another fed rate cut is too promising.

Read more about the CPI data at Reuters.