GLD
Two metals. GOLD and LEAD.............
weaponry, munitions, defense
My investment guy just put out a letter to clients saying that he is going to start advising his clients to invest in gold, silver, oil, and other commodities ... things that should hold their value until the economy recovers. He’s getting less and less optimistic that things will get better soon.
Barrel staves.
Perhaps gold.
GOLD, GLD, Precious metals funds, stainless steel and lead is always a good investment.
Beans, bullets and bandaids... you can’t go wrong.
Putting “a major amount” of your money in any one thing is economic Darwinism.
I think it’s quite possible gold may be peaking, too. Gold isn’t an investment, it’s a hedge.
Think about buying a few cash-flow positive properties. Just account for a possible slide in rents. But when/if inflation hits, it’s a good deal.
Diversify the rest and be content.
Gold ETF (GLD). I also like agriculture in the next 5 years - ipath (JJG) is good as is Powershares Global Ag (PAGG). Muni bond funds are also good - NEA, PMF, & NUV.
Stocks are rough, but if you’re young, a lot of stuff is on sale. Personally, I own Exxon, Chevron, Marathon Oil, Apple, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Transocean, & AT&T. Banks are terrible at the moment, but I think if you’re thinking long-term, I like BB&T as well as Goldman Sachs.
Then again, I’m a quasi-amateur. ;)
Physical gold and silver, 90 percent and 40 percent junk silver. Gold stocks GTU and CEF, stay away from GLD and SLV etf’s, they are run by the Wall Street combine and lease, trade, hedge the metals and no one really knows if they own it or not.
Invest in a high quality pistol you can carry, and learn how to use it, keep your cash in a big bank such as ChaseJPMorgan that you can access from abroad, and if you want a 401k put it in a Schwab money market or Vanguard money market fund to get the match from your employer. Putting 30% of savings in physical gold is a good idea, and physical silver is also a good idea. Stay out of equities (will go down) and stay out of bonds (counterparty risk) for at least the next 2 years. If you must buy a house buy a small one in an area with high turnover. Anyway that is my advice for someone just starting out.
It moves up and down at THREE TIMES the rate that the price of oil changes, so it can be quite volatile. But I think it's a great long term opportunity.
Oil spent years above $60 per barrel, and was 2.5 times that at its high last summer. Oil WILL be over $100 per barrel again. Might take 3 years. Might take even more, but it will get there. This is almost like buying a long oil contract on a futures market, but there's never a margin call, and you never take delivery of any oil.
Oil might go over $200 a barrel if Israel bombs Iran. This ETF will go to the moon if that happens.
Trading at about $25 per share right now. I made my wife buy some in her ROTH IRA today. No matter what it price it goes to, when we sell it, we don't pay tax on the gain, in a ROTH IRA.
Invest in Funeral parlors, they are a good investment right no, everybody has to die, but when Obama’s health rationing starts there’s gonna be real gold in funerals.
Walgreens (WAG) is a good business. They’ve been expanding, but they’ve done so on capital, not on credit. Their debt-to-assets ratio is outstanding! They’ve been around through both world wars and the Great Depression, and because they already accept Medicaid and most insurances, they are well-positioned for the growing baby-boomer prescription market.
PS: I am not currently a certified Financial Advisor, but I AM working on my degree.
Buy a basket — that is at least three funds, and make sure their portfolios don’t overlap. Some suggestions of areas — small cap growth, Brazil, covered dividend payers. The energy portion should only be one third at most. Learn a skilled trade everyone needs, push comes to shove, we’ll run on barter for a while.
Precious metals have already been touched by other posters—you may be interested in mining companies too.
Basic consumer goods—things that people will buy anyway regardless of the economic status. Think down-market items.
Anything left, look for bargains—the stuff you wanted to buy last year, but couldn’t afford. Bear in mind that this will be speculative.
Guns and ammo. We will all be the WWII Warsaw ghetto district soon and need to be better prepared this time.
Oil and gold.
Also, to everyone, do as much of your transactions as you can in cash. Charge more for documentable transactions.
Let obama suck eggs.
Check out ETFs that short the S&P.
I'm serious as a heart attack. These gold bugs will lose everything if the dollar collapses. If the dollar declines in an orderly manner, well maybe he will let you keep the winnings. Remember, you haven't actually won anything, you just have protected what you had. When we are in soup lines, you will have the dough to buy farms and other things to be the next wave of Robber Barons.
Now this is the "rosy" scenario. If sheite hits the fan, someone with an AR15 will rake your house, take your daughters innocence, and carry your gold bars back to his cave leaving you in a large gut pile wishing you had bought that Barett .50 cal with the gold plated trigger, bayonet lug, and flash hider.
The truth is, nobody knows. I would recommend commodity producers, if not the commodity. Oil exploration should do ok if we don't collapse. Some gold or miners should do ok unless the world economy collapses. With Citi and Many LARGE banks in trouble, ATT, who needs phones anymore? UNH and other health care providers in trouble, many large companies cutting dividends to try to stave off bankruptcy, I don't know of anything "safe" for widows and orphans.
I could suggest you "go short" or buy leap puts, if you think as I do, we are in more trouble than anybody can grasp right now. But what if we bounce on support? It has been my experience that bubbles go higher than anyone can believe, and busts go much lower than anyone can fathom. There is a saying that the market can go lower, longer than I can stay solvent. At some point, we will MOST LIKELY have high interest rates. If that happens, you will want to be in cash to buy CD's. But what about the mean time? Just by asking the question, you probably know as much as I do.
I'm day trading right now and trading strictly on charts. Don't fall for the crap that Obama is going to prop up solar and windmills. They will either make it or don't because the science works. Well, it doesn't work or the money would have already flocked there by now. They may get a bump when the Obama check clears, but that's just payback for the Siera club and will dry up eventually. Whatever you decide to do, do it small and diversified. Don't be afraid to admit you were wrong and bail out. Don't ride it to the bottom. Keeping what you have is half the battle in these times.