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To: presidio9
SO WHAT THE HECK SHOULD WE DO WITH OUR MONEY IF STOCKS AND BONDS AREN'T SAFE??

8 posted on 03/14/2003 12:16:03 PM PST by KantianBurke (The Federal govt should be protecting us from terrorists, not handing out goodies)
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To: KantianBurke
Ammo?
9 posted on 03/14/2003 12:44:47 PM PST by Andiceman
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To: KantianBurke
I been touting younger women, older whiskey and faster horses for years.
10 posted on 03/14/2003 12:49:57 PM PST by razorback-bert
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To: KantianBurke
Contrary to what the article says, there are safe money market instruments that beat inflation. But as of today's closing bell, stocks are now positive for the year. I'm not saying get into the stock market right now, but people need to understand that the last few painful years have been the hangover from the worst market bubble in history. Long term returns from properly diversified equity portfolios should be positive.
12 posted on 03/14/2003 1:11:30 PM PST by presidio9
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To: KantianBurke
The author left out one class of assets -- physical -- that ought to be part of a well-balanced portfolio.

I recommend gold be included to ensure against low interest rates along with a stagnating economy. But the truth is, any physical asset, even houses if bought cheaply, would serve the same purpose. Gold is just the most compact and fungible physical asset I can think of.

The public library in our small town is not well funded, and as a consequence, there are a lot of old books on its shelves that haven't been replaced in many years. It's a real eye-opener to browse the financial shelves and see all the books written during the stagflation period of the late-1970's. Some of the writers of these books recommend some seemingly outlandish schemes to defeat inflation, like stocking barrels of heating oil in your backyard (the author includes directions for adding stabilizing agents to the barrels), and building a covered platform and buying steel products like girders and sheet steel for long-term storage.

These seem like ridiculous ideas now, but the important point is that they seemed reasonable at the time. In the late 1970's there was inflation as far as the eye could see. Of course, by the time these books were written and published and finally stocked on library shelves it was way too late to take advantage of any of these ideas, but the writers were writing their "wish I hadda done it" stories in light of their current situation.

This writer is suggesting diversification among monetary instruments; money market funds, stocks, and bonds. But he left out the "real" money of final analysis; gold.

Now it's not likely the world will completely devolve into anarchy, but just the same, the value of gold will likely stay relatively constant, while the value of money market funds, bonds, and stocks will always depend on the value of the underlying currency. Who can say how many dollars it will take to buy an ounce of gold down the road a ways?

13 posted on 03/14/2003 1:17:31 PM PST by Siegfried
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