There are a whole army of ‘licensed financial planners,’ who for a percentage of your worth, will instruct you what to do, or usually do it for you. Whether they do anything, nothing, or cause you to lose; their percentage continues. Are they smart? I have no idea, as I have never met one that I am aware of anyway. They will usually, as least in part of their actions, invest their clients in ‘T Bills” or usually ten year government bonds, because they are ‘safe’ and backed by the ‘full faith and credit of the federal government.’ Currently, for a ten year bond, they are paying 2.95% a year. Close to 3%, right? Really? They may pay close to 3%, but does that mean your money, invested in these, improves your net worth or buying power?
Think about it. The Treasury Secretary was happy last week, to inform America that we are right on target to having the desired 2% inflation rate. This means that your dollar will lose 2% in value every year, if statistics furnished by the government are correct. Do you trust statistics issued by the federal government, and especially economic ones? You decide, but if they are true, and you own a ten year T-bill paying 2.95%, you simply have to subtract 2% of that because of inflation, leaving you with less than 1%, and most financial planners, I think, charge 1% a year or thereabouts. This leaves you with a net loss
Federal government securities are backed by a government that currently has a current debt of over $21.4 trillion dollars, and a committed long term debt (Medicare, Social Security, etc.) of close to $200 trillion dollars, an amount totally incomprehensible, at least to me. How can it ever be paid? It can’t, other than Monopoly type economics. Young people many times say they will never get their Social Security, and I disagree. The federal government can issue their bonds to eternity, which is the same as ‘printing the money,’ for all practical purposes. The presses can repay government debts continually, with constantly lowered value dollars, which is the same as virtually cancelling the debt or paying it with ‘Monopoly money.’ Governments may be crooked and liars, but with printing presses, they can stay ahead of the debt till it all collapses, and it always has in history. Naturally, the Social Security increases are never increased as much as inflation decreases them, but that’s the way the D.C. ‘swamp’ operates. A recent Journal (Wall Street) article said that the total world indebtedness is $230 trillion, in all currencies, leveled out into dollars.
However, there is one sort of bright economic spot currently visible, and that is that the month of April showed a federal government surplus of $214.3 billion! I can’t remember that ever happening since I have been paying attention to such things. Trump is doing very well. Federal employment is shrinking, as are regulations, unemployment is at 3.9%, and there are thousands of unfulfilled jobs, because everyone seems to be working that has brains enough, and isn’t addicted to welfare and food stamps. Unfortunately, they are in the millions. The national debt clock is rising much slower under Trump than it ever was under Obama. Still, I am ancient, and vividly remember my young years when prices were LESS THAN A TENTH OF CURRENT LEVELS in everything, be it cars, produce, fuels, furniture, or anything your mind can conceive. And this is in my lifetime, and if prices were placed on a graph, the line would be going up, not staying level. I still remember a life insurance guy trying to sell me a $5,000 policy when I was in my early 20’s. If you are a typical American, and live a middle to lower middle class life style, that might cover a month’s expenses in 2018.
What to do? You might consider going to the technical charts on our web site. You will discover that if you had bought gold in May, 2008, or ten years ago, you would have more than doubled your money today. The same charts under silver, would indicate a purchase in May, 2008, would be now worth more than twice your investment ten years ago. This assumes you decided that you were intelligent enough not to pay a percentage of your money to some advisor, and just put the stuff away in a safe place, and done nothing for ten years. Had you died in the ten year period, your kids would have the gold and silver with no inheritance taxes, assuming you told them were it was stored, and didn’t tell a lawyer and get the whole thing into probate.
Gold and silvers’ guarantee of purity in coins or bars, rests on their ‘hallmark’ or label. You wouldn’t go to a grocery store and buy an unknown brand of something you eat, would you? You wouldn’t put “Joe’s motor oil” in your car, would you? You would want Valvoline maybe. I hear there are fake brands of gold and silver bars and coins out there. I have never seen one, but I have seen pictures of them, and they are so obviously fake as to be comical. Can there be real looking ones? I suppose so, but the source of any gold and silver you may purchase is very important. Your source is ours if you deal with us, and our source, A-Mark, is the largest distributer in the world, who purchases directly from the mints, be they government or private, but with sterling reputations. Our Better Business Bureau rating is a solid A +, and has been so since we started in November, 1977. We’ve never had a complaint or corrected a mistake to keep our rating, and when we have maintained that for over 30 years, we are trustworthy.