Chapter 13

Investing in Real Assets

Real assets are those that, in contrast to financial assets, are actually tangible. But more important than their tangibility is the pattern of their typical returns. Real assets tend to perform well at crucial periods of time—periods of rapid, unanticipated inflation—when virtually all other investment assets tend to perform very poorly. Because high inflation—and even moderate inflation—is the principal enemy of families wishing to preserve their wealth, it will be a rare family that should not have at least some exposure to real assets.