By Neal Templin
Inflation is getting worrisome again. Yet one of the best tools to protect yourself against inflation in retirement is priced attractively right now.
A ladder of Treasury inflation-protected securities (TIPS) guarantees you a certain payout each year no matter what happens to inflation. That's because the principal value of the bonds is adjusted twice a year based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The interest the bond pays is on top of that.
"At some point, people are going to look at the opportunity to buy a TIPS ladder at current prices and kick themselves for not doing it," says William Bernstein, a money manager and author of The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons For Building a Winning Portfolio.
To build a TIPS ladder, you buy an assortment of TIPS maturing over a certain period. If you invested $1 million in a 30-year TIPS ladder, it would pay you $48,000, adjusted annually for inflation, over the next three decades before you spent the ladder down to zero.
That 4.8% annual payout is at the high end of what TIPS ladders have delivered in recent years.
"They are pretty close to the top," says Allan Roth, a financial advisor from Colorado Spring, Colo., who has his own TIPS ladder. "I wish I hadn't already bought mine."
The website TIPSLadder.com tells you which bonds to buy to construct your own TIPS ladder. For more detailed directions, read this Barron's article.
If you don't want a TIPS ladder, consider buying a TIPS bond fund. They have held up better this year than most other bond funds.
Write to Neal Templin at neal.templin@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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May 21, 2026 16:06 ET (20:06 GMT)
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