What to invest in considering our current political/economic climate?

[Bushman]

I own a fair ammount of real estate. Used to play the stock market but a few risky bets lost me a lot of money so now I generally stay away.

Real estate seems like a good thing, the houses I own have been good to me.
But what concerns me is the political climate. We've seen the government in cypress steal money from peoples accounts recently.

It's only a matter of time before they steal it from our bank accounts, and they have been discussing rolling our 401K's into government managed accounts. PFFFT!

In any case, a few years ago I cashed out my 401K and paid cash for a house. Seems great, right? Maybe...I pay $5,000 a year in property taxes alone between two houses I own.

What's to say they don't increase property taxes too? I could be paying 10-15K a year if that happens. And if I don't pay, they take my investments!!

-So the stock market isn't safe; it's rigged and too volatile....you could end up investing in an ENRON and lose everything. Or the market could just tank in general. It's been too volatile the last 5 years.

-Bank accounts and retirement accounts aren't safe from the government.

-Precious metals such as Gold and Silver. I'm not convinced they are such a great bet. I watched Gold drop almost 50% in recent months...also, it is only a way to try to preserve wealth, not necessarily create it.

-Real estate is never safe since failing to pay your property taxes could end up costing you everything.

That leaves the question of, where to put your cash?



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[jluck]

I own a fair ammount of real estate. Used to play the stock market but a few risky bets lost me a lot of money so now I generally stay away.

Real estate seems like a good thing, the houses I own have been good to me.
But what concerns me is the political climate. We've seen the government in cypress steal money from peoples accounts recently.

It's only a matter of time before they steal it from our bank accounts, and they have been discussing rolling our 401K's into government managed accounts. PFFFT!

In any case, a few years ago I cashed out my 401K and paid cash for a house. Seems great, right? Maybe...I pay $5,000 a year in property taxes alone between two houses I own.

What's to say they don't increase property taxes too? I could be paying 10-15K a year if that happens. And if I don't pay, they take my investments!!

-So the stock market isn't safe; it's rigged and too volatile....you could end up investing in an ENRON and lose everything. Or the market could just tank in general. It's been too volatile the last 5 years.

-Bank accounts and retirement accounts aren't safe from the government.

-Precious metals such as Gold and Silver. I'm not convinced they are such a great bet. I watched Gold drop almost 50% in recent months...also, it is only a way to try to preserve wealth, not necessarily create it.

-Real estate is never safe since failing to pay your property taxes could end up costing you everything.

That leaves the question of, where to put your cash?



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I recommend things you can eat,drink,precious metals (that means guns and ammo), any independent of government items for one home (think solar,well etc) trade,barter, live in or others can live in and trade labor. Then come more traditional investments, cash for the duration it has value.

 

[AMProducts]

If you look at countries that have been in a state where cash isn't safe, the solid investments tend to be durable goods... washing machines, stoves, cars, bicycles etc. These are things that always have some value, whether you use them or sell them.

Honestly, considering some of the write-offs, I would look at starting a small biz, whether it's something you do in your spare time, or something you want to do for the rest of your life. The things I tend to invest in are all vehicles to making more money, I invest in tools, in machinery for my business, etc. Property is not a bad investment, but the value of that investment can be highly variable, especially right now. People look at the volatility of gold, and housing etc, the real problem with all these things is that the government is still screwing with the market and constantly destabilizing it. This is the reason we are still in the mess we're in.

When I look at something I ask two questions: can I resell this and get my money back (worst case), or can I use it to make more money. Right now I'm running around Southern california buying up milling machines, lathes, measuring tools, bar stock etc. because they are insanely cheap down here, yea I'm going to have to pay a good amount to have someone truck them up to WA, however in many cases I go from a fire-sale price, to a high market price for this equipment. A lathe I buy down here for $300, clean up is probably worth $5k in washington/oregon, because there is a real shortage of this kind of equipment in that part of the country.

Actually, one other thing just hit me... if you are young enough, educate yourself, gain new skills, maybe take a biz management course, auto-shop, machine shop, EMT or vocational nursing. If you are too old... perhaps one of your kids or another family member. There is a lot of stuff you can do with your money that will preserve value (note: value, not principle).

 

[Burt Gummer]

Invest as you please but know that when the 600+ trillion debt tsunami and collapse comes, anything related to paper will disintegrate within hours. Anything in a bank, IRA, savings account, stocks, etc - poof.

 

[kenboy]

GOLD fallen 50 % in recent months?????????? To many doobies Hubie...

 

[erudne]

Every town and city in America is 72 hours from starvation. This has been a fact for 50 years,
plan accordingly

 

[ATCclears]

Bushman, I've been taking investment money off the table and putting it into tangibles or consumables in various forms. Examples:
- paid cash for a new Honda that should give us 20 years
- put new tires on two other vehicles
- did preventative maintenance on the lawn/garden tractor, generator, and more
- more ammo (buy it when reasonable prices and available, and assuming proper storage I could shoot it over the next 10 years)
- desirable prep items for us
- more food in the house, including the animals

None of it is sexy, but it is stuff we'd generally use.

Peter

 

[mrblond]

one thing, Ammo! and something to shoot it out of. well, two things I guess.

 

[PolishedBrass]

Invest in what insures what you want/need. Gold at the right price insures your paper.
Proper preparedness insures necessities or survival.
The wealthy have a habit of herding peoples into and away from their earnings and security.
Herd them into the market - It tanks - Herd them into Gold - It tanks etc.

Watch what tanks and ask yourself why. Study to recognize the bottom. (If it is a viable product or market)

Always have an exit strategy. (Simple rules you NEVER violate. One of mine is "If it doubles, sell half.")

Lastly - Research, research and research ... know what you are doing.

 

[AMProducts]

You bring up a good point PB... tanks, that's a pretty solid investment, I have heard from reliable sources you can pick up a T52 for about the same price as a honda civic (delivered). I've heard T72's are also available, but are much more expensive.

 

[Silver Fox]

Ammo... especially .22 LR, powder, primers, brass, ammo, freeze dried food, canning jars, rings and reusable lids, one of each to fill the five categories: handgun, long gun (hunting rifle), battle rifle, shotgun and .22 rifle, more ammo, good friends, good dirt to grow food, good water source, skills (fix people or fix things), more ammo, non-electrical hand tools, and more ammo.

SF-

 

[Burt Gummer]

Every town and city in America is 72 hours from starvation. This has been a fact for 50 years,
plan accordingly

When the global elite pull the trigger on the economic collapse of the USA 50% of the US population will be dead and dying within 30 days. I've said that for a long time and usually just get empty stares, but that is the truth.

Normalcy Bias and the fact that we have been living in a fake prosperity bubble for 40 years due to the Petro dollar has people believing no hardship will ever happen here, in the USA. Well sorry - wrong.

In the first Great Depression when the USA was essentially one giant farm and people cared about each other, seven million people starved to death.

This time around you can multiply that number by 30 easily. That is why there will be no revolution or uprising of any significance. Starving people don't fight, they submit to anything or die.

 

[AMProducts]

Every town and city in America is 72 hours from starvation. This has been a fact for 50 years,
plan accordingly

It's been often reported that way... but numbers don't bare that out, grocery stores throw away massive amounts of food due to spoilage, yea, 72 hours after an event much of the "choice" food may be gone, but there will still be bags of beans, sacks of sugar, eggs, butter, milk, plus all the stuff in cans. Even then, it's going to take most people more than 72 hours just to eat all the stuff in their house, and it's going to take another 30+ days for people who have no food to actually begin starving.

The media likes to show every store after a hurricane or other impending natural disaster and the "shelves are empty", yea, the soda and bottled water isles are empty, but I'm sure there's full meat and dairy cases that go to waste when the power is knocked out by the storm.

Hell, the way I eat I probably wouldn't even know the stores were empty for at least a week, and at that I would just be mad because I would be stuck with spam instead of flatiron steaks.

This time around you can multiply that number by 30 easily. That is why there will be no revolution or uprising of any significance. Starving people don't fight, they submit to anything or die.

Not true actually... when people who are normally well-fed are then put into a state of near starvation they will revolt, the ending of bread subsidies was a huge reason for the overthrow of Hozni Mubarak in egypt. Civil unrest is the "go to" action for most of the world when starvation looms, if communications had been better in the 1930's do you really think the atrocities against the bonus army would have stood?

People have to be pretty far down the starvation line to sit around in refugee camps like they do in africa, those people have been starving for generations, as a consequence they have no concept that revolt might get them food.

It seems there is a bias here towards "sky is falling" blogs, the major issue that creeps in is you have no contemporary concept of what the results of certain conditions are. Taking a position and then looking for proof of that position and discarding anything outside that is no better than those with a "normalcy bias", in fact the process to either conclusion is the same, and doesn't exist in reality.

 

[revjen45]

Spam, beans, rice. toilet paper, ammo, gasoline, fuel stabilizer. AMProducts may not be so disappointed with Spam when the electricity is a thing of the past and the fridge quits running.

 

[AMProducts]

Spam, beans, rice. toilet paper, ammo, gasoline, fuel stabilizer. AMProducts may not be so disappointed with Spam when the electricity is a thing of the past and the fridge quits running.

Fridges only need electricity to run, have you been to gradeschool in the last 100 years? Then you can probably figure out how to make some sort of electricity. Oddly enough, propane fridges only need heat to run the absorbtion cycle which can be supplied by a steam boiler just as easily as burning propane. The condensor heat doesn't need to just be wasted into the environment, it can be used for home heating, water heating and green-houses. Steam supply can also be used to run machinery for pulping wood, canning food (jars) etc.

You guys can live like it's the 1820's all over again and forgo the last 200 years of technological progress.

If you look at all of the major economic upsets/plagues/wars there was inevitable hardship, however at the same time there were new niches for technology, economic development, and exploration. Arguably if it were not for the black plague, there never would have been the independent republics of italy, which means no christopher columbus, which means no discovery of the Americas.

Have fun learning how to run a plow suckers!

 

[EZLivin]

If you look at all of the major economic upsets/plagues/wars there was inevitable hardship, however at the same time there were new niches for technology, economic development, and exploration. Arguably if it were not for the black plague, there never would have been the independent republics of italy, which means no christopher columbus, which means no discovery of the Americas.

Have fun learning how to run a plow suckers!

Yes. I believe the technological breakthrough that we will experience on the other side of this crisis will likely be energy-related. Infinite, or zero point (whatever one wants to call it). But if not, another technological breakthrough will launch us up and out of the crisis once it has run its course. That doesn't mean the US (or even the West) will be the ones responsible for it though. My goal is to make it to the other side so that I can take part in the next technological wave. Spring always follows winter.

 

[maxisback]

Invest in useful items. I still have all the tools I had when I was an auto mechanic. I can fix things, so I always look for good tools. Which brings me to my second point: knowledge. Learn, learn, and learn some more. Skill weighs nothing, is completely portable, and is always available to you. Right now I'm expanding the garden I started last summer from a few buckets to my back yard. I'm learning how to grow food for myself. I have to do some bodywork on my car this summer, so I have to learn how to weld or at least braze. I replaced the clutch on my Geo Metro a coupla years ago, so this summer I have a good idea I can replace the clutch on my Land Rover.

Invest in useful technologies. I have built two hydrogen generators for my cars, to prove it works, Now I building a dry-cell generator that I'm certain will create even more hydrogen for my cars to run on.

I'm a licensed boiler operator. I want to get started someday on a steam engine that I could run a bank of generators on to power my fall-back position. Steam is quiet, multi-fuel, and low tech. Dirt simple.

Now comes the tricky one. Relationships. Invest in relationships. I'm on good terms with most of my neighbors, and we seem to see things eye-to eye. Especially my backyard neighbor that's also a veteran. Surround yourself with solid, reliable people. Invest in those relationships so that when the chips are down, you have a group of like-minded friends you can count on.

Hope this helps.

 

[Starship]

Canned goods and ammo....

 

[Mark W.]

GOLD fallen 50 % in recent months?????????? To many doobies Hubie...

Correct in the last year the price of gold has only fallen $200.00 nothing to worry about if you bought in at 1000.00 a little trobling if you bought in at 1800.00

 

[PolishedBrass]

Man ... I hate it that you are dead on right ...

There is rumor that the US will invite some attack on it's populace so a "justified" retaliatory strike can happen.
Resolving the US gun owner "problem" and the Chinese population "problem."

Your scenario kinda looks a tad more cozy now.
I would like to say I feel better ... but I don't.

Side Note: One forgotten item that people fail to get is a chainsaw - The 2 minute road block tool.

When the global elite pull the trigger on the economic collapse of the USA 50% of the US population will be dead and dying within 30 days. I've said that for a long time and usually just get empty stares, but that is the truth.

Normalcy Bias and the fact that we have been living in a fake prosperity bubble for 40 years due to the Petro dollar has people believing no hardship will ever happen here, in the USA. Well sorry - wrong.

In the first Great Depression when the USA was essentially one giant farm and people cared about each other, seven million people starved to death.

This time around you can multiply that number by 30 easily. That is why there will be no revolution or uprising of any significance. Starving people don't fight, they submit to anything or die.