Economic collapse!!What should be done to prepare?

[professor]

According to Generational Dynamics , a USA and world economic collapse will take place in the near future.
I was wondering what readers think is the best way for an investor to prepare.
What investments should do well or best preserve your assets ?
i.e. Gold, Chinese or Singapore currency,T Bills, Commodities, Swiss franks, Options, Real Estate, etc.
Please write your opinion and most important, the reasons WHY you think certain investments should do better than others.
Thank you.

[John]

> According to Generational Dynamics , an economic collapse will
> take place in the USA and the world, in the near future. I was
> wondering what readers think is the best way for an investor to
> prepare. What investments should do well or best preserve your
> assets ? i.e. Gold, Singapore currency,T Bills, commodities,
> Swiss franks, etc. Please write your opinion and most important,
> the reasons WHY certain investments should do well. Thank
> you.

This is all we've been talking about for the last three years.

If you have an hour or so, please read through the following threads.
You'll find a great deal of information about the questions you've
asked.

If you want any specific investment advice, you're mostly likely to
get a response from the Financial Topics thread.

** Financial Topics
http://generationaldynamics.com/forum/v ... p?f=14&t=2

** Inflation, deflation, gold and currencies
http://generationaldynamics.com/forum/v ... ?f=14&t=12

John

[professor]

Hi John:
Most of your readers appreciate Generational Dynamics .... In short, what are YOU doing to prepare for the economic collapse?

[John]

Hi John: Most of your readers appreciate Generational Dynamics
.... In short, what are YOU doing to prepare for the economic
collapse?

I'm in kind of a special case because I was unemployed most of
the last ten years, after the Nasdaq crash in 2000. As a result,
I went into debt just to survive.

Being unemployed gave me lots of time to develop Generational
Dynamics. I saw as early as 2002 what was coming, and I've been
living a very anxious, Spartan life since then. In 2005, I sold my
condo at what turned out to be the top of the housing bubble, which
everyone else was saying didn't exist. Between that and borrowing
money I've survived, paying off as much debt as I can when I'm
working. If I hadn't been aware from Generational Dynamics what was
coming, I probably wouldn't be alive today (which may or may not be a
good thing). My current software engineering employment contract with
CSC and the FAA is about to expire, since the government is cutting
back on everything, so I'll soon be entering a new personal crisis
period with no income.

Too much information.

John

[Higgenbotham]

My sister and I just went through this because she realized for the first time a few months ago that the economy might collapse (shows you how different family members are - I've been telling her this for years and urged her to sell her house right at the top of the real estate bubble - she thought I was nuts). She thought she should sell her house now and find some land in a remote area where they could hunt and so on. I told her I didn't think that was the right approach to take so late in the game, or maybe at all.

In my opinion, the 3 main cornerstones of any preparation plan would be: savings, income, and a residence in a safe location that is paid for, probably in that order. As to where to put your savings so as to keep them secure, there is no one answer in my opinion, but the forums here give a starting point. If a person has a very secure income, then the other requirements would be less important. However, someone needs to be able to objectively recognize whether their income is secure or not and few can really do that. In my sister's situation, they have enough savings to last a few years, a business that should be able to provide a secure enough income to meet living expenses even if the depression is severe, and a house in a good neighborhood that is paid for. I told her the main weakness I saw in her preparations is that the house is located about 20 miles from a slum. I said at some point they may need to think about how to work with the neighbors make a plan to block the street off (it's like a cul de sac), make sure everyone is armed and set up a schedule to patrol the neighborhood. I know, I know, this sounds as nuts as what I said at the time about selling at the top of the housing bubble. In my case, I have a lot of savings, but no secure income and currently rent an apartment. Therefore, my plan is to work on creating an income that meets my living expenses and pay cash for a house in a secure location, which will get rid of the rent payment and reduce living expenses (if interest rates were over 3% on short term money I'd probably not do that). Just to add what may not be obvious, I believe as the depression deepens most neighborhoods that have a high concentration of rentals and apartment complexes are going to become unfit to live in and any savings achieved by renting may not offset the risk. Again, there's no one size that fits all.

There are some common sense details I am leaving out like food storage.

Also, what I've discussed here hasn't been discussed much elsewhere in these forums.

[shoshin]

John, does this mean I need to treat you to lunch again??

David

[John]

John, does this mean I need to treat you to lunch again??

David

Yeah, that sounds great!

Also, if you have some old cans of soup that you don't want,
I'll take them off your hands.

John

[professor]

My sister and I just went through this because she realized for the first time a few months ago that the economy might collapse (shows you how different family members are - I've been telling her this for years and urged her to sell her house right at the top of the real estate bubble - she thought I was nuts). She thought she should sell her house now and find some land in a remote area where they could hunt and so on. I told her I didn't think that was the right approach to take so late in the game, or maybe at all.

In my opinion, the 3 main cornerstones of any preparation plan would be: savings, income, and a residence in a safe location that is paid for, probably in that order. As to where to put your savings so as to keep them secure, there is no one answer in my opinion, but the forums here give a starting point. If a person has a very secure income, then the other requirements would be less important. However, someone needs to be able to objectively recognize whether their income is secure or not and few can really do that. In my sister's situation, they have enough savings to last a few years, a business that should be able to provide a secure enough income to meet living expenses even if the depression is severe, and a house in a good neighborhood that is paid for. I told her the main weakness I saw in her preparations is that the house is located about 20 miles from a slum. I said at some point they may need to think about how to work with the neighbors make a plan to block the street off (it's like a cul de sac), make sure everyone is armed and set up a schedule to patrol the neighborhood. I know, I know, this sounds as nuts as what I said at the time about selling at the top of the housing bubble. In my case, I have a lot of savings, but no secure income and currently rent an apartment. Therefore, my plan is to work on creating an income that meets my living expenses and pay cash for a house in a secure location, which will get rid of the rent payment and reduce living expenses (if interest rates were over 3% on short term money I'd probably not do that). Just to add what may not be obvious, I believe as the depression deepens most neighborhoods that have a high concentration of rentals and apartment complexes are going to become unfit to live in and any savings achieved by renting may not offset the risk. Again, there's no one size that fits all.

There are some common sense details I am leaving out like food storage.

Also, what I've discussed here hasn't been discussed much elsewhere in these forums.

You are quite fortunate that you have lots of savings.
Is it all in a savings account?
How are you securing it ?
Are you thinking of investing it or just leaving it alone?

[Higgenbotham]

Is it all in a savings account?

No, the vast majority of it is in T-bills.

How are you securing it ?

The accounts are secured by security measures and processes. As an example, one account has an electronic keyboard popup and the password is entered using a mouse instead of typing it. It even goes beyond that.

Are you thinking of investing it?

Probably not for several more years. The Fall of 2013 might be the earliest. Once the tide starts to go out, the word "investing" has very little applicability.
As mentioned, I may buy a house before then but don't consider that an investment, as the value of it will probably go down.

Or just leaving it alone?

Yes, for now.

[RDRUNR]

For us (I'm 1971, my wife 1980) we are a little different than the typical Gen-X'er, we value saving for a rainy day over debt = weath (I think this comes from growing up middle lower class). We are also more risk adverse than other Gen-X'ers and see happiness is worth more than money.

Thus we are in cash, socked away in 3 banks with the majority in one that guarantees 100% of the deposit. I won't touch gold or silver for "investment" (although I do collect silver coins as a coin collector) and we have few stocks.

We are renting (although we have owned homes) and always have enough food stocked up for 3+ months. When the crisis hit in 2008/9/10 we went a purchased 6 months of food (canned goods).

Motto: Always save for a rainly day when it's sunny because you never know when it might come.