The U.S. Economy Crisis

[Lex]

I think what you are looking for dalebert is not investment advice but a change of lifestyle. Investing is a tool for increasing wealth and not for securing it. You secure your wealth by creating a certain lifestyle for yourself which is independent of your wealth. There are many wealthy people who live 'simply' because they know that they may lose their investments if things go bad and they would have to support themselves on a much smaller income if not on a null income all together.

Here is a rough idea of such a lifestyle: Own your own home in the clear with enough land to be completely self-sufficient (growing your own food, etc), that is your bottom line so if the SHTF you can live comfortable without a job and not owe anyone anything. Once you have achieved the bare minimum that you are comfortable with you can start adding luxuries. At this point you have several options. You can save up money with investments and then purchase the things you want, etc. You can purchase things on credit but only if those things can be used as collateral. You can buy a nice car or  a boat, etc. Make sure you have full insurance on those things, etc. Throw away your credit cards since they are not collateral based. Essentially what you are doing is renting things from society that you do not need for survival and you can return to the bank if the economy goes bad. This is the best of both worlds: You have peace of mind because you know that you have something to fall upon (your home and land) and yet you have all the nice things that the sheeple have.

In summary: All of your needs should be met with things you own outright (home, land, solar panels, well, garden) and everything else you can rent from society. This approach works well even if the S never HTF because in the end you will have your wants paid off and now you will have a home and all your toys free and in the clear.

Everyone should be paying off their mortgage religiously and you should never limit yourself to the minimum monthly payment. Always pay more on the principle than what the bank is asking, you'll save a lot in interest and in time.

[dalebert]

I watched the Death of the Dollar video again and paid more attention to some of the people he interviewed. Here's an article by an organization he references.

http://www.gata.org/node/11

[tracysaboe]

Step 1... get out of debt.

Word

Tracy

[Libertariangoddess]

"Everyone should be paying off their mortgage religiously and you should never limit yourself to the minimum monthly payment. Always pay more on the principle than what the bank is asking, you'll save a lot in interest and in time."

I agree. I wish I could afford to do that, but can't right now. I hope to in the future.

[dalebert]

I am actually looking at preserving my assets. I'm not actually looking for "lifestyle" advice. I liquidated my biggest asset- my condo, because I needed to get the Hell out of California. I think they may bust sooner than the rest of the country. I have that money invested in really safe short term investments for now primarily to just protect from inflation as best as possible until I'm ready to buy a house again and settle down. I don't want to do that until the housing market stabilizes some. In the meantime, based on all the bullshit the Fed is doing, I'm worried if I'm doing the right things to protect my largely liquid assets until I'm ready to buy a house again and possibly invest in some kind of entrepreneurship. The short term stuph is what really worries me. The things most think are safe may not actually be with a potential recession or depression lurking based on currency manipulations. On the other hand, I really don't want to get into really specualtive stuph with that money. I'm not looking to get rich off of it. Gold SEEMS smart right now but it can fluctuate a lot very rapidly.

As for my IRA (long-term) when I talked about gold, my friend suggested moving some of my IRA into gold mining companies who are doing well for obvious reasons. I may do that and maybe those would do ok in a huge economic downturn. Then again maybe nothing will.

Hopefully the big bust will hold off long enough for me to at least buy a house.

[Russell Kanning]

My dads retirement plan is what seems to be one of the most common sense plans I have ever heard of.  A person should 1. on their own home, with as little debt as possible, pref ably free and clear.  He should have a 2. source of income, a pension, job part time, an existing business, ect.  There should be 3. long term investments or savings.  And short term liquid cash savings, mostly for emergencies. 

I recommend 1. owning your own island, have other people owe you money. Having 2. a source of income, 2 pensions, 2 part time jobs, and owning a chain of franchises ect. There should be 3. billions in long term investments including precious metals, commodities, stocks, and bonds. And short term liquid assets in dollars, foreign currency, 10 years of living supplies, cigs and brew.

[Russell Kanning]

I watched the Death of the Dollar video again

Death to the dollar!

[Russell Kanning]

Step 1... get out of debt.

Word

Tracy

4-6 words

[error]

Are there any islands for sale in New Hampshire?

[Russell Kanning]

I recommend diversifying and buying foreign islands also.

[Lex]

Are there any islands for sale in New Hampshire?

There was a little bit ago, don't know if someone bought it already, it even had a small house on it ready to live in. There are quite a bit of islands in NH in general because of all the lakes that we have.

Here is one on Lake Monomonac in southern NH, they want $975,000 for it and it's only 2.5 acres:

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/isleofmews.htm

If it was a bigger island then there would be room for people to pitch in and buy it together and then split it up but at 2.5 acres that's barely enough for one famiily to be self sufficient. I would say 5 acres per family is the minimum comfortable size.

[aworldnervelink]

Monomonac (doo doo de do do)
Monomonac (doo do do dooo)

[David]

I recommend diversifying and buying foreign islands also.

Domestic or foreign, would not matter.  Every inch of land on this planet, is claimed by some gov't.  There's always seastead.   
Of course mountains are somewhat inaccessable to gov't.  That is a problem that anyone living there will not have, because once you are there, you are there.