The safest money spot I can find: TIPS funds

While researching opinions for a column I'm writing about people's current retirement attitudes, I've been led to one particularly important question: what would I myself do if I had money to invest for retirement?

The first part of my answer is simple. I have a fairly well performing 401k account through my employer and I stick as much money in that account as I can stand. But what if I had excess funds which I wanted to put into safe haven for the future, what would I do right now? At this point, I believe the option I would use is Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS).

You must understand that I hate bonds. I hate them because I think that they're typically very lazy. They generally pay low rates of return and they sometimes lack liquidity. However, with today's extreme investment volatility, I have come to recognize the intrinsic wisdom of government backed bonds. The nice thing about TIPS is that they come with inflation protection built right in.

I did a little research, and I found a short discussion about TIPS funds at CNN Money.com. The article mentions a TIPS fund which is managed by Vanguard, a name which I place a fairly high degree of trust in. The article indicates that the Vanguard Inflation-Protected Securities Fund (VIPSX) has an acceptable rate of return and low operating fees. If I had a large sum of cash which I just wanted to place in a save haven until this bear market runs its course, I believe that this Vanguard fund might be one of my first choices.