The Perfect Investment Bites the Dust

The Perfect Investment ?

Even perfect investments aren't perfect. Back in February of 2012, I wrote about a perfect investment with the following attributes:

1. Almost 3% average annualized return on your investment
2. Inflation-proof
3. Short term or long term investment: your choice
4. Guaranteed by the United States Government
5. No minimum investment
6. An easily transferable bearer investment with no registration required
7. The investment will never go down in value

Then in November of that same year, I described how the perfect investment would return 2.2% in just two months! In addition, I mentioned one other benefit: the entire investment may be deductible.

Unfortunately, the seventh benefit listed above didn't hold true.

Do you know what this 'perfect' investment is, or should I say, was? The Forever Stamp issued by the United States Postal Service. No matter what you pay for the stamps and how much the cost of first class postage increases in value, the Forever Stamp could still be used to mail a one ounce letter.

Yet on Monday of this week, the Post Office did something almost unheard of. It REDUCED the cost of first class postage from 49 cents to 47 cents for the first ounce. This is a drop in value of 4.1%.

So the bad news is that if you had stocked up on Forever Stamps at 49 cents, you would have lost money. But if you had bought the stamps back in 2012 at 45 cents, you would still be ahead. Plus, if you never stocked up on these stamps, you would benefit now because postage would now cost you less.

Wouldn't it be nice if the government reduced our taxes the same way?