Retirement

This is a link to a podcast I am fond of called The Survival Podcast, hosted by Jack Spirko. He does a great show on retirement here and makes some good points. Namely, that the advertisements you see on TV give you a picture of retirement that is often not realistic. Strolling down a beach with your wife and living life to the fullest.

Often people who are 65 or more have health problems and may have to deal with loneliness. The idea of waiting for most of your life to finally get out of the rat race seems stupid and Jack offers some suggestions on how you can go about planning for retirement (and rethinking what retirement is) so that you can achieve freedom and independence earlier.

I think a reexamination of what retirement is and what it should be for YOU is long overdue. With the problems we have with Social Security (a generation put its faith in that and it looks like Uncle Sam may have trouble paying out), I think people will become more and more receptive to this message.

Preparedness as a Retirement Plan

Work, Taxes and Death

I know this is not really connected with precious metals investing but I want to occasionally post articles and commentary that I think are important for an overall understanding of finances and the world we live in.

This article talks about something I myself think about : Should I try to earn as much money as possible? If I work extremely long hours in a 5 or 6 day week, miss time with my family and friends and neglect projects and interests that I enjoy, is it worth it? It's not just a mathematical calculation for me, it's a question of what is really important in life and what makes one truly happy and fulfilled.

I generally don't like the government and I don't like paying taxes to finance its often stupid and occasionally evil initiatives (I recently saw a commercial for some government organization called the National Fatherhood Institute or something - do we need government to tell us to spend time with our kids?). Maybe if we weren't taxed so much to pay for the National Fatherhood Institute we could spend more time being fathers!

But I digress. I think that one does not need a lot of junk and extravagant expenditures in order to be happy and if we did not chase after money and prestige we might have a better chance at achieving freedom and independence. We need to think outside the box not only when it comes to investing, but also to work, retirement and life.

When Work Doesn't Pay for the Middle Class

Currencies and Rumours of Currencies

There has been a lot of talk about a new currency for the world, something to act as an alternative to the dollar. The article I am linking to today is just one out of countless articles now swirling around the net where some official person or bureaucracy calls for a new currency.

The one thing I can say on all this is that we should not get ahead of ourselves. By that I mean : Yes the US dollar is and will continue to decline into insignificance, but that is a long process. The world has been using the greenback for oil and other things for quite some time now and you don't just switch over to something else in one fell swoop. Moreover, China and others have significant dollar holdings and though they would like to get out of them, that too cannot happen instantaneously.

I'm sure many gold bugs are pleased as punch to see gold now well over 1000$ but this process we have been predicting will happen over years.

UN calls for new reserve currency

A Picture Says a Thousand Words ...

(Special thanks to Jim Sinclair's Mineset for this image)

Interview with Byron King

This fellow worked as a geologist in the exploration and production division of a major oil company, so he has some views on gold from a 'geological' point of view. I never looked into the concept of 'peak gold' that much but it is something I've heard before. Byron King brings it up in this interview. In response to a question about why gold would go to 2000$ he said :

"Because we're in a world that appears to have encountered peak gold as well as peak oil. If you look at historical production, worldwide gold output reached a top right around the year 2000–2001. Overall output has declined and we're not replacing output from the big mines of the past. Despite discoveries here and there, miners have to dig deeper and deeper into the reserves."

He also mentioned inflation and interest in gold from China as reasons for being long gold.

His opinion on silver is that it should outperform gold percentage wise, an opinion I agree with. In fact I think many of us overlook silver, perhaps because decades of watching the Olympics have conditioned us into thinking gold is somehow better. I think everyone should have at least a sock full of coins stashed somewhere in their house.

Endless Stimulus and 2000$ Gold

The Arguments for and Against Gold

This is a good article that condenses a lot of the arguments for gold and finishes with a few links to a guy who does not like the metal. In it you will find comments from such luminaries as Alan Greenspan, Marc Faber, Adrian Ash and others.
I found the comments on gold in a deflationary environment interesting. I never really thought of deflation as being good for gold, I just knew I did not want to be at the mercy of a currency that I fundamentally do not believe in as a store of wealth. I wanted the stability of gold, and regardless of whatever deflation there was, I was sure that in the long run we would have inflation due to all the paper and digital dollars being created. But some of the pundits in this article say it doesn't matter if there is deflation or inflation, gold is a 'go-to' asset that will be much sought after.

Is Gold a Reasonable Investment?

Lorax2013 on the Importance of Taking Action

I posted a video by this fellow awhile back. I just thought I'd put this one up as well, as he makes the point that people who are aware of the problems with the dollar and the general direction of the US economy should not just sit and worry about it - they should take some very simple steps to control their own situation as best they can.

It's a point that ought to be emphasized. An individual has a surprising amount of control over the conditions in their life. The election of 'The One' (Barrack Obama) highlights the tendency of people to look to others, often politicians, to save them or to change the conditions they feel assailed by. Loren Howe (aka 'Lorax2013' on YouTube) explains this well in this video, where he talks about a book by a well-known Libertarian.

Taking control of your finances and mitigating (or eliminating) the influence of the banking industry on your life is one of the reasons to invest in gold and silver. This blog is not just about investing, but about financial freedom and self-governance. I think taking your fiat dollars and converting them to something (not just precious metals) that retains value is one of the most important steps you can take.