As the manager of the largest bond fund in the world and a founder of PIMCO, Bill Gross is a leading authority on all things related to yield.

Since retirement finances are fundamentally about generating income from accumulated assets, retirees should care greatly about any comments and insights from Gross.  This is especially true since the world is starved for yield.

Gross regularly shares his insights through commentary on the PIMCO website.

Consumer discretionary spending is the major driver of the U.S. economy as household purchases make-up about 71 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

Without growth in consumer spending, the economy would most likely go nowhere.

Since economic growth is generally considered a good thing, it stands to reason that we should be looking for things that contribute to consumer spending.

Annuity criticisms are a dime-a-dozen. 

The majority of financial advisors seem to have some issue with annuities, consumer perception is generally terrible and the financial media often appears to provide a reflection and reinforcement of prevailing sentiment.

There is a case to be made for “control of assets” as the common denominator for both the consumer and financial advisor perspectives.

Control of assets basically refers to the fact that annuities involve handing over money to an insurance company. 

“Trees grow” is an adage that has stuck with me over the past several years.

In a post financial crisis interview, a successful investment manager was talking about his decision to load-up on Citigroup and a handful of other banks in early 2009 when the decision to do so was difficult to say the least.