“why only have 20% gold? why not 40%?”
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The expectation that cash in the short-term when the SHTF will be extremely valuable. You’ll have green pieces of paper that others don’t to buy goods and services. Those with just debit/credit cards will be screwed.
Groupthink will not have fully devalued the fiat currency yet nor have merchants had time to recognize and adjust for transactions involving precious metals instead.
Remember, this is short-term taking advantage of SHTF chaos and the lack of cash in the pockets of most people.
The unanswered question is whether one can take advantage of having cash on hand before the EBT crowd decides to simply loot the businesses you’d buy from with cash.
“Alas, Babylon” by Pat Frank has a pretty good take on this issue. At first, there’s a run on the bank. It takes a little bit to sink in that the money they’re trying to get from their accounts is worthless pieces of paper. Written in 1959, based on a nuke SHTF, it’s still timely because people haven’t fundamentally changed.
I wouldn’t be out bargain shopping.
when gold spikes and stops trading as the dollar crashes, I’ll be traveling to my bug out spot without stopping. I’d guess you’d have 3-5 days from the time gold spikes to get secured