Investor Serenity warns that 5% Treasury yields are insufficient to combat actual living cost increases, citing Subway sandwich prices rising from $5 to nearly $20 over 12 years as evidence of approximately 12% annual inflation in daily expenses. He argues that nominal bond returns cannot preserve purchasing power against real-world price pressures that significantly exceed official inflation metrics. To hedge against this disparity, Serenity recommends allocating capital to equity assets such as the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) rather than relying solely on long-term fixed-income returns. He contends that stock market exposure is necessary to outpace the true rate of inflation affecting consumers' daily lives over 10- to 30-year investment horizons.