Precious Metals, Real Estate, Deposits?

All of my friends and co-participants here on ATS - it is my honor to welcome you all here today. I am thankful you are here!

I'm absolutely certain that by posting this thread, especially on ATS of all places, that I will hear all sorts of thoughts on this topic. Experiences, opinions, beliefs, etc. I think we can all agree that there is no single "perfect" answer as to what type of investments are a good bet amidst the current global economic troubles, but I do value everyone's input and look forward to hearing from you.

I know a lot of you may not even think about investing, and paying the bills (or school loans) is eating up any income you have right now anyway. I am in a similar situation (just finished a 4-year degree, moved to a new state, no real savings of any kind), but I would like to know what investment approach will be feasible for me if I start budgeting a certain amount to put aside moving forward. Perhaps I will have to bring my lunch to work every day so I'm not going to the vending machine or gas station for food - anyway, I digress -

I'm wondering how my ATS friends do or would approach making any type of investments in this economic environment. Any financial news publication would suggest marketable securities and they are always pushing for gold and silver etc. etc.

First of all, I don't plan on investing in the stock market knowing how manipulated and sketchy it is, especially recently - but that's not to say that I wouldn't want to hear from other members who do or would invest in stocks!

I've also heard from my parents and other people from prior generations that real estate can be a great investment (BUT you obviously should know a lot about the land/property, the housing market, the local tax and zoning regulations, etc.)

Then you've got the option of putting it away, just save it up in a bank account. 2 things worry me here: 1) remember the "haircut" that went down in Cyprus? (Link: Zerohedge) 2) inflation and monetary policy right now is devaluing the dollar, which when it comes down to it, it is mainly hurting the working class people who want to put away savings for a rainy day.

Silver is hovering at around $15-16 an ounce, and that's a hard asset that I would consider investing in. Gold is so expensive (it's like $180 for 1/10th of an ounce right now!), so maybe I could get small pieces of gold to put away here and there.

ANYWAY I'm sorry if that was somewhat of a rant/unorganized, but I wanted to share my thoughts and understanding of these options before opening it up to everyone else. I can't wait to hear from others - as you can probably tell, I really have no idea where to begin and would love to just hear from others' experiences and thoughts on this.

FC

a reply to: FamCore




My other concern with hard assets like gold and silver is that once you have it, what are you going to do with it if you ever want to cash it in?

Is there enough demand for precious metals that if I wanted to sell a huge cache of metal that I'd been adding to for a long time, that I could easily find a buyer and get a worthwhile trade out of it?

I would not overlook the stock market. There are tons of different angles there, but generally you should be in it for the long haul, or it's not worth it come tax time. I used to make $500 a day trading on 7k and it just tapered down gradually for me to a break even point after taxes. You will hear a million and one opinions on the subject, but I would do long holds(5 yrs +) on established companies that pay dividends. You will do better than a "high interest" savings account etc. The big companies have and will continue to grow generally.

I can tell you how to get ahold of a house for free, or cost of rent, if your interested. There are a lot of potential pitfalls in the business, but nothing you can't learn quickly on the net.

a reply to: FamCore

Magic the Gathering cards are very liquid and have gained roughly 15% per year for the past 10 years. Being a small time collectables market it's also completely outside the scope of any regulation, so with enough money to throw around you can completely corner the market and spike prices guaranteeing profit (a few big time traders do this on specific cards already)

You can't eat gold, buy you might be able to grow food on some land you buy.

But, you might have to keep it from being stolen/invaded, and then there's always being able to pay property tax. You never really ever "own" land ... you still have to pay whatever government is in charge the taxes on it.

I say spend it on fun stuff and enjoy life right now. Who wants to live in a bunker eating freeze dried food after the apocalypse has killed everyone else off? What kind of world would that be, and why would anyone want to exist in it?

Nah, I'll go have fun right now while I can. I bet if I was in a bunker some day eating powdered eggs -- i'd wish I had more fun and would trade scraping by in a fall out shelter for more fun memories.

a reply to: Aazadan

I thought Pogs would be a good investment. Oh how wrong I was...

a reply to: Aazadan

shhhhhhhhhhhhh now I have to sell mine off. ( no really I have a bunch but not selling )

probably have to sell off my Bazooka Joe comics to
j/k

I would invest in land and grow as much as possible. Get a close friends to invest with you. Maybe family. Larger plot more people to help , you made a small community! Gate it!

if shtf you have your people , don't bar b que / cook you food outside , you wouldn't want bandits going to your gated community because they smell that good food cooking.

a reply to: Aazadan

I have a Captian Picard from the ST CCG....



Used to be one of my most prized possessions as a kid.

I've never understood the point of buying land to grow food on. You have to spend a lot of time maintaining it, protecting it, growing it, and harvesting it. Then you have the upfront costs of the land, and you have property taxes on that land. If you're not doing it as a full time job it seems like a poor investment especially if you're just looking for self sufficiency.

Look at it this way, how much would it cost you to buy 15 years of food supplies vs the land and maintaining it for 15 years, and putting that food into storage?

originally posted by: EvilBat
shhhhhhhhhhhhh now I have to sell mine off. ( no really I have a bunch but not selling )

I have a bunch too, been trying to get into Legacy lately but ABU lands (some of the best investments) are way out of my budget.

I should add that I'm only half serious in my suggestion, it's an unregulated volatile market full of risk but there's high reward too if things pan out.

A more serious answer would be government bonds, short of a dissolution of the US government they're not going anywhere. They're low yield though, but if you're young a low risk investment is perfect because you have a long time for it to grow.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
a reply to: Aazadan

I thought Pogs would be a good investment. Oh how wrong I was...

A lot of people have predicted a collapse on Magic cards, it's probably going to happen one day, the current growth is unsustainable and many of the high priced cards are facing reduced tournament demand legacy (one of the popular/expensive formats is being supported a lot less than in past years). Unlike pogs though the company that prints Magic cards tries pretty hard to maintain collector value, they've even done it in ways where reprinting a card has resulted in that cards price increasing (such as Tarmogoyf jumping from $80 to $200). Of course, that relies on the company maintaining card prices, and it relies on the chinese knockoffs that are getting to be a problem not destroying collector confidence.

As far as I'm aware pogs never had that type of inbuilt protection.

You are at a great place in life. A great time for you as a young adult. If I had life to over again I would have taken the path of www.mrmoneymustache.com...

I started this approach quite a bit later than where you are now, but this method of living and self investing is the best thing anyone can do. IMOH.

You'll be retired in no time. Please check it out. And good luck to you.

P.s. Another good source book The Alpha Strategy. By John a pugsley

on PMs,,, you will be paying too much in Premiums for Gold... as for Silver - I cringe as I pay $18++ for 14.88 Ag, but I have quit buying silver and I am renewing my stocking up on more rice/beans/vegetables & or meats & sauces to make meals out of those staple foods....freeze dried fruits, etc.

for a starter (which I began in 1998) I bought targeted stocks in businesses that provided the required 'One (1) Share' of stock to be enrolled in that Companies DRIP (Dividend ReInvestment Plan)... little or NO fees to purchase more shares of that company stock on a monthly basis (so you won't be getting $50 brokers fees on that purchase of 5-10 shares of stocks in the DRIP.

I started with 13 individual DRIP Accounts, I now have only 5 active accounts left ~ as 8 previous companies merged or went Private, leaving me with modest profits (all but Motorola/Martin Industries were winners for me)


with the current reset of the stock market (reset to the 25% drop of the China Yuan as the benchmark) I would look up the current companies who supply you with a share of stock in a Company with a DRIP... price of share +$15. fee

in fact I intend to have 2 slush accounts... ABX-&-GG started next week (prior to 1 Sept '15)...

the reason for these accounts is to rotate out of my IRA custodial account and have pure stock certificates in major gold miners instead... because the IRA/bank account 'haircuts' will be taking place before 2017... at about a 30% seizure rate of the govt' stealing real equities and replacing that wealth with Treasury Paper that is virtually worthless... if you have savings in government certified custodial accounts your in danger of getting 30+% seized...

Also building
~ a faraday cage for my 48volt car
~ growing Moringa trees
~ grain production in Amaranth seeds'
~ rainwater drip irrigation system(s)


good fortune on your journey

Get right with God its too late your nation is about to undergo judgement,brush up any handyman skills-you'll be working for food.

Wow! ATS proves me right again - great minds

Thank you for all of sharing your experiences and approaches to investments (or lack thereof)

a reply to: khnum

I'm not good with my hands or practical things. Looks like I'm *snip

I buy my companies stocks - North American Palladium.
3%of my pay goes into shares, then the company tosses in another 5%.
I cash out every couple of months when i want to spend stupid amounts of money over the weekend.

Palladium and gold are the only precious metals i personally would recommend buying.

a reply to: Macenroe82

platinum a no-go?

Also - I know very little about it or its uses, but I do know it's extremely expensive. Can you enlighten me a bit Macenroe? Much appreciated brother

If I were in your position I would do my very best to rid myself of debt as quickly as possible and resolve to never take on debt again. The way to do this systematically is to sit down each month and write out a budget that tells each dollar where it will go.
Once you are debt-free you can invest the money you've been using to make payments.
In today's climate I would accumulate some cash first then when my "cash needed" goal is met, (I'd suggest three to six months of expenses for this amount) I would begin buying silver.
The trick to buying silver (or gold in some cases) is to buy it at cheaper than market prices. This usually means getting it at a pawn shop. If you don't know how to buy the real thing I'm sure there are Youtube videos that will explain it.
It's not that hard to accumulate it if you are careful with your selections. It's not hard to store it either. It may take a bit of creativity if you are worried about theft but "hiding in plain sight" is always an option. For example, when we were collecting old gold and silver I had a collection of old tins that I displayed on a high shelf in my kitchen. We simply stashed our stash in them. There's also room in the freezer for such things if they're sealed into a perfectly normal looking food container such as an ice cream container that isn't see-through.
We spent five years using most of our "mad money"---money left over at the end of the month---to buy old gold and silver. When the time came that a relative was heading to college and needed a bit of help we sold it off and made a tidy profit. In addition to helping him out we also had money left over to take a really nice vacation that we hadn't included in our budget.
The discipline of budgeting is your best weapon----telling your money what to do rather than letting it just disappear. (This is the voice of experience speaking.)
Yes, I would make sure I had stocks of food and household supplies before I started buying any stocks or other investments.
You can save money by growing your own food if you have a plot of dirt to work with, even if you are renting that plot. Don't go into debt to buy land, rent and save until you can afford to buy the land outright or at the very least, put down a HUGE down payment---like 50% and the remaining payments won't adversely affect your standard of living.

originally posted by: EvilBat
a reply to: Aazadan

shhhhhhhhhhhhh now I have to sell mine off. ( no really I have a bunch but not selling )

probably have to sell off my Bazooka Joe comics to
j/k

I would invest in land and grow as much as possible. Get a close friends to invest with you. Maybe family. Larger plot more people to help , you made a small community! Gate it!

if shtf you have your people , don't bar b que / cook you food outside , you wouldn't want bandits going to your gated community because they smell that good food cooking.

And Waco happens to you in a short minute. Good Luck!

a reply to: iDope

And why would Waco happen to us if we are small community?

We are not advertising I am Jesus Christ or abusing children
or do we have illegal weapons , not advertising a removal of Gov?

a reply to: FamCore

Sorry for the late reply.mfor some reason i do not get notified anymore when i have a reply.

Platinum and palladium are both used in catalytic converters in vehicles. Like i stated its just my personal opinion about palladium and gold. But as the demand for palladium increases, platinums demand will have to continue to rise. you need both of the metals for catalytic converters. Also, computer electrodes, circutry and various other uses for both.
A big one is cold fusion. There was a lot of talk earlier in the year about one of the automobile companies releasing a new battery that was run by cold fussion. I havent heard much since. But i imagine there are companies that Wouldn't want cold fusion batteries in cars because the battery business would lose to much money.