by Ian Cooper

As we get closer to the 2024 presidential election, we’ll hear more about key issues such as infrastructure from both camps.

After all, the U.S. is in desperate need of repairs.

At the moment, America’s infrastructure is graded a C-, which is an improvement.

Unfortunately, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), “There is a water main break every two minutes and an estimated 6 billion gallons of treated water lost each day in the U.S., enough to fill over 9,000 swimming pools. Growing wear and tear on our nation’s roads have left 43% of our public roadways in poor or mediocre condition, a number that has remained stagnant over the past several years.”

Worse, “There are more than 617,000 bridges across the United States. Currently, 42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. Unfortunately, 178 million trips are taken across these structurally deficient bridges every day.”

There are even more issues you can see here: https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/bridges-infrastructure/

That being said, investors may want to look at infrastructure funds, such as:

iShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF (IFRA)

If you want to diversify at a low cost, there’s theiShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF (IFRA). With a low expense ratio of 0.30%, the ETF offers exposure to companies such as US Steel, Century Aluminum, NRG Energy, CSX Corp., Olympic Steel, Enbridge, and Kinder Morgan to name a few of its 154 holdings.

SPDR S&P Global Infrastructure ETF (GII)

There’s also the SPDR S&P Global Infrastructure ETF (GII) – which provides exposure to the 75 largest infrastructure-related stocks based on float-adjusted market cap and liquidity, as noted by SSGA.com. With an expense ratio of 0.40%, the ETF holds infrastructure stocks such as Duke Energy, Enbridge, NextEra Energy, Southern Company, and Transurban Group.

US Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE)

With an expense ratio of 0.47%, the US Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) invests in companies that stand to benefit from a potential increase in infrastructure activity in the United States, including those involved in the production of raw materials, heavy equipment, engineering, and construction, as noted by GlobalXETFs.com.

Some of its top holdings include United Rentals, Eaton Corp., Trane Technologies, Union Pacific Corp., CSX Corp., and Martin Marietta Materials.

Just something to think about if you’re looking for opportunity…