Bill Gross may have just come up with the most original 401(k) alternative ever: the shower plan. Oh, and he also just might be on the side of the banking regulator types who want to bring their fun regulation to the asset management space.

William Hunt Gross Janus Capital Portfolio Manager

The Janus [profile] fixed income guru's shower plan goes something like this. Find a nice cliff, or mountain, or somewhere else with a view you like. Build your own house on a spot with a view. When designing your shower, include a window that lets you enjoy that view. Decades later, sell tickets to those in search of a divine shower experience.

"When it comes to retirement, I don't think we'll need our 401Ks," Gross writes in his July investment outlook, released yesterday. "We'll just sell tickets to our shower."

Gross devotes a solid three paragraphs to the water crisis in California and to his shower, which he calls "the world's greatest" thanks to its view.

Gross spends the rest of the column worrying about liquidity of a different sort. He brings up the SIFI (systemically important financial institution) fight, and seems to sympathize with banking regulators who want to add new regulations on mutual funds and ETFs, and on the firms that run them. He wonders if "too important to neglect" will replace "too big to fail" in common parlance.

"Down the street from PIMCO [where Gross once reigned supreme], I must openly acknowledge that helping to turn Janus into one of these 'too important' companies is one of my objectives, as it is for CEO Dick Weil," Gross writes. "But that day lies ahead of us."

Gross' musings continue to attract lots of media attention. Barron's, Business Insider, ETF.com, MarketWatch, Reuters, and the Wall Street Journal all covered his latest outlook column. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE