Instead, own things that are actually earning money in real terms, which generally means equities (only occasionally real estate).

I confess, real estate seems to be the only asset I understand these days, with the stock market being too bipolar for my limited skills to handle the seeming lack of reason. And cash, which we are too exposed to, giving me concerns as already discussed in this thread. This crazy real estate market has the bargain hunters out there, which I really can't complain about as we are one, making it nearly impossible to sell a property without gifting the buyer with a 20% price cut. So it looks as though our current residence will become a rental, (though we thought we were out of that business.) Our carrying costs are crazy low with our 2% mortgage and pre-Covid purchase, and with conservative numbers it should return along the lines of roughly 10%/year. At some point, life will go on and buyers will come back out of hiding, but the damage to new construction permits will reduce their options and we will likely go back to bidding wars as rates decline. Hopefully that time will be less than 2 years, but if the alternative is giving a seller more than the $100K we could get in capital gains exclusion by selling now, our primary reason for selling now is eliminated. As the bargain hunter we just scooped up a new construction home whose sale fell through when the gov't employee lost his job and couldn't close on it. Our new home comes with about 18% equity, with all the discounts, and the builder is thrilled not to be stuck with paying on a construction loan. More importantly, we get to move on.

IP