US Consumer Price Index (CPI) Inflation – April 2010 Update

The above chart shows the US Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) to March 2010 courtesy of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Year on year US CPI inflation has risen from 2.1% in February 2010 to 2.3% today. Annualising the last 6 months has inflation at 1.5% and annualising the last 3 months has inflation running at 3.1%. Have the US government succeeded in kick starting some good ‘healthy’ inflation? Many developed countries around the world are in my opinion craving this to help them erode both their debts and those of their reckless population who gorged themselves on easy credit.

Gold Priced in British Pounds (GBP) – April 2010 Update

In absolute terms gold continues to climb in value reaching a new high today of £745.44 (when compared with the monthly historic dataset) since gold started its upward climb in 2005. In the last month gold is up £5.83 ounce however in real (inflation adjusted) terms as shown in today’s chart gold is actually going nowhere rising by only £0.77 per ounce.

Average UK Earnings – April 2010 Update

As we know inflation according to the retail prices index (RPI) year on year is currently running at 4.4%. Looking at historic RPI inflation data shows the average year on year RPI annual change since 1991 at 2.8% and the trendline since 1991 shows inflation year on year trending downwards. My chart today shows these RPI figures in blue.

Gold Priced in US Dollars (USD) – April 2010 Update

Within my Retirement Investing Strategy I currently hold 4.1% (up from 3.5% at the last USD gold update) of my portfolio in gold with a targeted holding of 5%. Gold is the only portion of my portfolio that does not provide a yield (dividends, interest etc).

Minimising investment portfolio ‘fees and taxes’ not ‘fees or taxes’

One of the principles I followed when I first constructed (and in the ongoing maintenance of) my retirement investing low charge portfolio was to minimise fees and taxes. I do this as fees and taxes have a big effect on your final portfolio when investing over many years due to the compound interest effect as I demonstrated here.