Uh, how? That's a 5% rate of interest. The only way to get that is by taking significant principal risk ("junk" bonds or equity investments). 30 year US treasu

Uh, how? That's a 5% rate of interest. The only way to get that is by taking significant principal risk ("junk" bonds or equity investments). 30 year US treasury bonds are only yielding 3.54%, and everything less than 3 years is <1% [1]. The highest yielding US$ CD I could find [2] was 4.3%, and the highest CDN$ GIC looks to be 4.3% [3]. Also, remember inflation - it really eats into it.. Let's say you're 30 and expect to live to 75. Even with a modest 2.5% inflation rate, your effective income will be <1/3 of what you started with by the end. [1]http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-management/interest-rate/yield.shtml http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/domestic-finance/debt-managem... [2]http://beta.bankrate.com/funnel/cd-investments/cd-investment-results.aspx?local=false&tab=cds&prods=19 http://beta.bankrate.com/funnel/cd-investments/cd-investment... [3]http://money.canoe.ca/rates/gics_5.html http://money.canoe.ca/rates/gics_5.html