I’m seriously considering pulling out of the market. I’m very concerned about protecting my retirement nest egg from the spindly claws of the slobbering thieves and criminals (but then, I repeat myself) in Congress, the dark lord of Mordor in the White House, and his army of drooling, knuckle-dragging regulators who are poised to snatch the billions sitting in brokerage firms — billions we have worked our lifetimes to set aside for our golden years.
Yep. I called my broker today and made arrangements to meet with him on Monday. He knows why I’m coming, and he also knows I’ve been thinking about pulling it all out for some time now. He also knows that once I’ve made up my mind, there’s nothing he can tell me that will convince me that I should keep my little nest egg parked with his employer.
Yesterday I watched Glenn Beck talk to renowned investor Jim Rogers on his GBTV Show. Rogers said — unequivocally — that the feds are coming for it. “They’ll take your pensions and 401Ks and then turn them into government bonds at three percent interest…”
Here… watch what he said (at 2:38)
So, what do we do with our nest egg once it’s out of the market and back in our hands?
Ann Barnhardt, who I — along with many others — consider to be among the smartest folks around, educates us:
Various Resources
Posted by Ann Barnhardt – December 5, AD 2011
1. PRECIOUS METALS
I personally use www.APMEX.com, but there are lots of online precious metals vendors and they all seem to be quite competitive. APMEX has very good and knowledgeable customer service. The online vendors tend to be more competitive because of the ability afforded by the internet to A.) comparison shop and B.) have real-time gold and silver quotes posted at all times. I have heard lots of horror stories of massive markups from people who have seen coin vendors set up at Tea Parties and so forth.
VERY IMPORTANT: DO NOT BUY COLLECTOR GRADE ANYTHING. I personally buy cull grade US Morgan and Peace silver dollars (77.4%) minted between 1875 and 1935. You can also buy 90% silver dimes, quarters and half-dollars by the bag for “small change”. “Shiny” is meaningless for the purposes of survival and barter. I buy the tarnished, heavily circulated coins, which weigh EXACTLY the same as the non-circulated, non-tarnished coins. Who cares if it is shiny or not? DO NOT pay a premium for shiny.
DO NOT buy bars or industrial silver products such as silver shot. The entire point of struck coins is so a person can look at the coin and know exactly what it is, what it is made out of and how much it weighs. Bars and shot are all uncertain to a counterparty. Heck, for all they know it could be zinc. And do you really want to carry scales around with you? That’s silly. Human beings started minting coins all those thousands of years ago for a very, very good reason: instant identification of the metal and denomination.
If you have a lot of money that you want to reallocate, you can pack a heck of a lot of wealth into a small space with gold. A quarter of a million dollars weighs less than 10 pounds in gold right now. But I wouldn’t go 100% gold as SILVER IS THE METAL OF PRACTICAL BARTER AND EXCHANGE. You will need silver in order to make day-to-day purchases and make change.
What if the government outlaws gold and silver? They have done it before. Answer: An attempt by the government to confiscate precious metals (or firearms) will be viewed by the sane and sentient contingent of the population as an act of war, so at that point, the entire question becomes entirely moot. Laugh in their faces, give them the middle finger salute, and keep your boomsticks close.
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2. Guns, ammo and survival prep gear? I love http://www.CheaperThanDirt.com . Again, they have great customer service. To buy long guns, visit your local gun store or armory. Usually the folks who work the counters at those stores are fountains of information.
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3. Freeze-dried food. I bought Mountain House brand in bulk, but shop around. Provident Pantry is supposed to be good too. http://www.BePrepared.com is one website to check out.
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4. LEARN TO USE GOOGLE or other internet search engines. You have the near total sum of human knowledge literally at your fingertips. Take advantage of it. Don’t worry about the powers that be “spying” on you. It doesn’t even matter at this point. And besides, if 100 million people simultaneously start doing google searches for “AR-15”, “buy silver coins”, and “buy freeze dried food”, what the hell are they going to do about it? J-Nap can put us on whatever list she likes, and then she can ponder just how long that list is. BE NOT AFRAID.
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5. WORD OF WISDOM: You cannot successfully spec trade “the end of the world”, because even if you call it right, there will be no solvent counterparty to pay out on your position/wager. So don’t even try. This isn’t about “winning”. Everyone is going to lose to some degree in this mess. This is about holding it together in a horrible situation as best you can. Big difference.
