Best Investment for 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 6:46AM In this business environment any good investment idea is a highly desirable thing. So this item in the news naturally leads to an investment idea. From CBS News:
(AP) The Postal Service was $3.5 billion in the red for the third quarter and may not be able to make a required payment for future retiree health benefits, the agency said Thursday. Losses for the April through June quarter were $1.1 billion more than the post office lost in the same period a year ago. The post office has been rocked by declining mail volume as people and businesses continue switching to the Internet in place of letters and paper bills. ”Given current trends, we will not be able to pay all 2011 obligations,” Joseph R. Corbett, the Postal Service’s chief financial officer, said in a statement.
How can the troubles of the Post Office, flowing from a combination of high costs, the great recession, and competition from the Internet, lead to an investment idea? Well, sometimes the government listens to consumers. Every time the price of stamps has gone up in the past, we had the annoying prospect of buying 2 cent stamps to add to the previous stamp. Now the post office offers stamps that never need to be replaced—the “forever” stamp. Although my local postmaster does not foresee an increase soon, it is obvious that stamp prices will have to go up,. The investment idea is to estimate the number of stamps that you will use over the next two years and buy that amount. This is even a deductible expense for a business. With the interest rate on savings being at an all-time low, this is an investment whose time has come.
Investment 
Reader Comments (2)
I like the idea!
Lets expand it into other things, like birthday presents for our wives. If they get to go to a special event like a concert or play, have an expensive dinner out, AND also get a gift priced over $300, then that would be considered the "FOREVER PRESENT" and you dont ever have to worry about her birthday ever again!
Eddie H. Nessul
Amboy, California
Do we have to go to the concert too?