[tmd]

A lot of old-school financial advice seems to focus on the importance of saving and avoidance of debt. It seems reasonable but I always wonder how applicable that is in the modern times with our record-low interest rates. Short look at the tables in [1] suggests that, for example, you could gen 5% after-tax real returns on government bonds in the 19 century. Today, that would be unthinkable.

[1] http://efinance.org.cn/cn/fm/The%20Equity%20Premium%20Stock%...

[gdubs]

Low interest rates make saving and debt avoidance even more important, since you can't rely as heavily on the market to grow your savings.

[sk5t]

On the contrary, near-zero interest rates recommend more debt and more risky investments, because (a) debt is cheap, and (b) inflation (stagflation perhaps) will nibble away your savings if you try to ignore the equity markets.

[gdubs]

Ah, I can see how it read that way but I wasn't implying that one shouldn't _invest_ their savings.