Man alive. Here in the UK a five year treasury bond yields precisely nothing - potentially less than nothing. I have a mountain of cash and nothing to invest it in here. Even property doesn't present a meaningful yield any more.
It also doesn't look like it's going to get better, just worse - so as far as I can discern the best course of action is just to spend it before it becomes completely valueless. To stay ahead of inflation here I'd have to have a 10% yield at least - official CPI figures grievously underreport it, as the baskets of goods they use don't account for the shrink ray.
If you don't trust UK markets and gilts, it's easy to buy the same ETFs the Americans are buying (though you may pay a little more due to currency conversion). Vanguard also has non-UK ETFs denominated in GBP eg: https://www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF_GB%3AVANG_FTSE_DEV_5J6...
Actually, I ran an ecommerce platform and had a £3bn p.a. mixed basket of goods being sold on the platform. Since 2012 goods have increased in price by about 6% p.a.
To say there is nothing to see without looking at any data is ass-hattery.
6% p.a. - per annum. Before then it was more like 2-3% p.a.
It's subtle, but present - a big driving factor has been unavailability of credit, which forces smaller batches for fabrication, which drives up price. This has commensurately resulted in a whole host of businesses in turkey and china who specialise in short-order just-in-time manufacturing.
But either way, prices have increased far more than is immediately apparent, particularly food, garments and low value giftware. The pinch is a lot harder at the bottom than the top of the market, too.
I obsessed over this data for years, as it was the key to understanding where to position (I.e. Who's making margin?), which retailers would be risky clients, etc.
It also doesn't look like it's going to get better, just worse - so as far as I can discern the best course of action is just to spend it before it becomes completely valueless. To stay ahead of inflation here I'd have to have a 10% yield at least - official CPI figures grievously underreport it, as the baskets of goods they use don't account for the shrink ray.