2 of 4

Write now Article Tools

With stimulus-mania in Congress, and the looming inevitability of trillion dollar federal deficits, the U.S. dollar is almost certain to experience large inflation. If you have cash savings you want to protect from devaluation, there are several strategies you could take. Here are a few mutual and exchange traded funds you might consider investing in.

MERKX: The Merk Hard Currency Mutual Fund is my own personal favorite. This fund "seeks to protect against the depreciation of the U.S. dollar relative to a basket of hard currencies." In other words, if you're worried about the dollar inflating faster than other currencies, what can you do? Convert your money into some other currency. This fund holds mainly government bonds denominated in Euros, Swiss Francs, the Canadian Dollar, and several other currencies. (A "hard currency" is simply a currency governed by a stricter monetary policy, and thus less susceptible to inflation.) It also currently holds about 13% gold. It pays a dividend from time to time, and also distributes capital gains. The current holdings are posted on their

website.

You may have heard it said that a mutual fund is its manager, and the opinions of Axel Merk, the manager of this fund, are very easy to access. Irregularly, but roughly every two weeks, he will publish an article and video generally commenting on some aspect of monetary policy entitled Merk Insights.

If you like the idea of investing in other currencies but don't want to invest in a mutual fund, there are also several exchange traded funds that focus on a single currency. FXA is the CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust, for example, and there are many others. Just try an internet search for "ETF" coupled with the currency of your choice.

GLD: Rather than converting your money into another currency, you can instead elect to own "real stuff," commodities whose price (in U.S. dollars) might be expected to rise along with inflation. The archetypal pick for this choice is gold, and it can be purchased in ETF form via the SPDR Gold Shares.

There are many, many other ETFs focusing on other commodities. A good list of them is here. JJC focuses on copper, for example, and holds futures contracts. USO focuses on oil.

DRW: A third option is to own things "over there," shares in companies that operate overseas and are often traded on foreign exchanges. There are a couple of good reasons for this. First, most of the cash these companies hold is likely to be in currencies other than the US dollar. Second, inflation of the US dollar is likely to hurt the entire US economy as people can afford to buy less, companies see their cash holdings devalued, and everyone finds it more difficult to plan for the future.

DRW is the WisdomTree International Real Estate ETF. It holds a large diversity of real estate companies, and pays a nice dividend. It is currently most heavily weighted in Hong Kong and Japan.

If you don't like this fund, but have a specific country in mind, there are several nation-focused index funds. EWZ focuses on Brazil, for example, while FXI focuses on China. An internet search will likely be able to find you a fund for any country you have in mind.

Learn more about this author, David Shane.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about Best funds for inflation protection?
We want to hear your view. Write now!