If you had to predict the dominant trends of the next 10 or 20 years, a few choices seem clearly evident:
(1) Technology. Every company and seemingly every household is becoming more dependent on technology, especially the ever-expanding Internet.
(2) Communications. Part of the technology story is likely to be a tremendous increase in more sophisticated forms of communications, as the cell phone becomes a basic personal possession.
(3) Health Care. Not only are people living longer, in the U.S. and around the world, but the massive Baby Boom generation is well into middle age. An increasingly older population means more demand for medical services.
(4) Financial Services. The aging Baby Boomers not only will want more health care, they’ll want to save and invest more for their retirement. That’s likely to mean much more business for banks, brokerage firms, mutual funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions. The list could go on but those trends will do for starters. Chances are, as those trends expand they’ll enrich investors, just as the Internet has created billions of dollars of wealth.
