Is it time to convert cash into tangible assets? I don't necessarily mean precious metals either. How close are we to becoming Greece or Italy? Greece is at 177% debt to GP and we are at 101%. I'd rather have more "stuff" than paper money that is worthless or simply gone.

Ten pages, easily.

Guns and ammo. Always a good investment.

Yep. And timing is everything, since they may not be all that available, for all that long. I see another run on guns coming and doubt they'll ever be worth less.

Well...

There is the thought that tangible assets will maintain a certain value whereas printed money not so much, especially if the fed bank decides to inflate the debt away...

That depends on who wins the Presidency.

If they are going to inflate, you want to be in stocks and real estate.

$64 dollar question


the smart folks I pay to read pretty well think the can will be kicked down the road a bit longer

wish I knew for sure, worked hard the last 40 years, trying to work that hard again for the next 40 doesn't seem palatable.

hope we've got our bases covered, but I doubt it, know we're in better financial shape than many with some good options as to where to live, how to get food and hopefully some other needs or desires.

try and remain grateful for such.

Greece is much more broken than the US. They could fix their problems if they just collected the taxes that people don't pay and cut back on entitlement spending. The US certainly has it's problems as well but a situation like Greece isn't going to happen soon. Inflation will be a real issue in the US in coming years as the only way for the government to deal with mounting debt is to print more money and effectively devalue the currency. The entitlement class is really going to get hammered and it will lead to social upheaval.

I don't believe a run on guns will wait that long. And let's be sure there will be an election. We've seen what has happened in a couple of weeks. No telling what a few more months will bring.

I might have jumped-the-gun, so to speak, but several years ago, I bought land, all I could afford (which wasnt much) and paid cash, and havent been sorry.

Land is the only safe investment but you have to have enough money to do it. You can't do it with a couple hundred you have left over.

A very important rule of real estate that's often ignored is that you can't invest borrowed money. That's what got so many in trouble in the real estate market 10 years ago. They bought on credit thinking they were 'investing' but their interest payments over time are much higher than the appreciation of the property.

Another problem with buying real estate on credit is that if you miss even a single payment, you MUST catch it up or you'll never pay off the mortgage. Each month the money that would have been applied to the principle is instead paid to the back interest. At the end of the mortgage, there will be a huge balloon payment due that very few can pay off.

If you are expecting run away inflation, you want to buy real estate with borrowed money, and a fixed interest rate. You will be paying the loan back with less valuable, inflated dollars, while the real estate appreciated in value due to the inflation.

In a stable inflation enviroment, the problem with real estate is TAXES.

Greece is what Obama wants the US to become.
Yes, it is time.

Yup, Tax man takes no matter if your land is increasing or decreasing in value. It takes a smart investor with lots of cash to make money in real estate. My boss has done very well buying people out when they get in trouble with their real estate investments......of course owning a civil engineering firm and having buddies that are bankers and realtors helps things along also.

I have enough property. I was thinking more like .223/.556 by the pallet for a start. There is probably some law preventing that.

no law that I'm aware of yet. Have pards that buy ammo by the pallet.

I don't think it's a bad idea at all, I doubt very much ammo prices will ever drop significantly and hey if you like to shoot and things never get bleak, you've bought quite a few hours of entertainment for tomorrow in today's dollars.


it gets bandied around here quite a bit, but in truly troubled economic times and/or social unrest, those with extra guns and ammo to sell, barter, trade, will be in better shape than those without.


medicines, and sin products, alcohol, tobacco, etc. will also be good trade items

Kend,

There's a lot of politics in the price of ammo. If you think Hitlery will win, sure buy a couple of pallets. If a decent Republican wins the Whitehouse, we could see .223 Ammo back down to $200 a case.

Done very well with stocks in the last couple of years

Question - Keep thinking about cashing out the stocks and using the money to pay off the mortgage.

That could turn into a "wish I woulda" pretty fast. I wouldn't think about it much longer, but do it. Good for you.

Gentleman I know did just that. He paid by credit card and within weeks the ATF sent him a letter and (asked) him to drive 200 miles to their St Louis office for an interview. He complied and told them that he had split the ammo with three friends. After a long interview they advised him that they would be watching him for unauthorized ammo sales. I'm thinking that they would have had to made the 20o mile drive as they were the ones requesting the interview. GW

In finance, you address this as a "present value" calculation. If you have a fixed mortgage, you only have uncertainty on one side of the equation, the stock market side, but if you have a variable mortgage, then you have uncertainty on both sides, which adds to the complexity.

The simple way to look at this is to compare the rate on your mortgage vs your expected risk adjusted market return and keep your money in which ever is greater.

The solution isn't hard.

The timing is.

The Fed has ended QE and is preparing to raise rates. Rising rates are bad for corporate earnings. Earnings drive stock prices.

There's your hint.

If you have a variable rate mortgage, there is another hint.

I'd buy some good farm ground for a reasonable price.



No mortgage here.

Regardless, the USA is still the largest super-power ever and we're a long way from Greece's position.

yep, its known as the 401g in my family.

Yup! It very well could happen here but I believe it's at least 10+ years off. Maybe not even in our lifetime.

There's a whole lot of other stuff I would take over just pallet loads of guns and ammo.

Like most things in life its a little more complex. As I understand it, the home/mortgage are what
the lawyers call Tenancy in Common. Meaning the wife and I need to agree on this.

yah David, but have you seen what a pallet load of strippers is running these days?

I can't afford it, the wife told me so

Of course it's always a good idea to have your better half on board with any such decision, but I do believe the only thing you would legally need your wife's signature for would be to sell the house, not to pay it off. Still, I fully understand and concur with your point.

My personal leaning is property but then again they tax that around here. I need to make some decisions too, as it's time to start cashing in some IRA's.

Property can be a good long term investment, but it's no different than any other investment. You need to do your research to be able to assess whether a property is a good property or a bad property and whether or not it is fairly priced. If the funds available for investing in land need to be fairly liquid, land is a bad investment.

You can plan on it going up via the coming election. nuther thread fodder.

So what seller ratted him out to the Bat boys?

I see what Mama did there Randy!! Smart lady!!