Retirement planning

[300UGUY]

Hum, I'm stumped as to how Wall Street is corrupt as a whole. There is certainly criminal activity involved in trading, Martha Stewart a good example. Where there's vast sums of money exchanged, there's crime. We will never get around that. As far as taxes, yes they suck however at the moment I'm not ready to relocate to another country which, by the way, is an option for all of us. Speaking for myself, if I hadn't invested in American business through mutual funds for the last 20 years, I would have missed a great opportunity to retire in comfort early. To each their own.

Martha Stewart was a very small fish. The whole thing was over a trade of 200K, which wouldn't cover some of these guys latte tab. Meanwhile, these banksters are getting bonuses of hundred million + ? And the losses were socialized? I've done pretty good in the market, the last 5 years were probably the best. You gotta fish where the water is.

 

[newbury]

You're missing my point. Those plots certainly call the value of cash into question. I'm asking what the intrinsic value of gold and silver are. What, in your mind, makes gold worth many hundreds of dollars an ounce. Is that value logical?

Even more important how do you ensure your buying and selling gold and not tungsten?
Tungsten Filled Gold Bars Found In New York - Business Insider

 

[Tomtint]

Hum, I'm stumped as to how Wall Street is corrupt as a whole. There is certainly criminal activity involved in trading, Martha Stewart a good example. Where there's vast sums of money exchanged, there's crime. We will never get around that. As far as taxes, yes they suck however at the moment I'm not ready to relocate to another country which, by the way, is an option for all of us. Speaking for myself, if I hadn't invested in American business through mutual funds for the last 20 years, I would have missed a great opportunity to retire in comfort early. To each their own.

I agree. To each their own. IMO, for every "honest guy in a suit on Wall Street, there are 10 crooks. Many will show you fancy spread sheets but are in actually underfunded and insolvent houses. Money managers have figured out how to raid investment vehicles, load them with management fees and service charges. all the while porking the retail investors. The good old boys club pump sectors or individual stocks only to bail out at market open and leave everyone else in the wake. Everyone has a strategy, mine is to keep our earnings away from variables I have no control over.

 

[ultrarunner]

Lucky that gold bar wasn't chocolate filled....

 

[Steppenwolfe]

If one is to invest in metals, let them be lead cased in brass. Could be worth their weight in gold someday, no pun intended...

 

[wmonroe]

I keep forgetting to mention... The OP should consider an Health Savings Account(HSA) insurance plan if one is available. The HSA allows you to save tax free dollars for health care expenses and the money rolls to the next year if it has not been spent. If I had had such a plan when I was younger, we would be much better off money wise, since this money stays around until spent. Later, Dan

We just signed up for a health savings account recently. I need to check out the details but I think only $500 can be rolled to the next year. This is provided by my employer and is at no cost to me so I can't complain.

 

[wmonroe]

If one is to invest in metals, let them be lead cased in brass. Could be worth their weight in gold someday, no pun intended...

Yep, not a bad investment.

 

[TnAndy]

You're missing my point. Those plots certainly call the value of cash into question. I'm asking what the intrinsic value of gold and silver are. What, in your mind, makes gold worth many hundreds of dollars an ounce. Is that value logical?

OK, now we get into the discussion of what is money, and why do we even need it.

Money has several properties that make it money.

1. It must be easily recognized as money. Gold and silver have filled that role for thousands of years.

2. The item serves as a medium of exchange. In order for an item to be considered money, it must be widely accepted as payment for goods and services. Until just very recently, gold and silver did this. Only with the advent of paper receipts for metals, followed by weaning us off even that tie to JUST paper, the world only knew gold/silver. (and many places in the world this is still the case)

3.It is a store of value. In order for an item to be considered money, it has to (to a reasonable degree) hold its purchasing power over time. Again, thousands of years of history show this to be the case. Govt issued paper COULD well do the same, except for the tendency to overprint. The relatively short history of ALL paper currencies shows they have one thing in common....they are all destroyed over time by the govts that issue them.....because they can.

Gold and silver are relatively rare. You can print them up, it takes work to go wrestle it from the ground, which lends to it's 'intrinsic' value.

So, I'll ask you....what is the 'intrinsic' value of a paper note ? WHY is a piece with 100 printed on it more valuable than a piece with 1 printed on it ? Heck, why not just print up a piece with 20 trillion printed on it, pay off the national debt and ask for change ? .......hey, wait a minute...been tried !

 

[TnAndy]

If one is to invest in metals, let them be lead cased in brass. Could be worth their weight in gold someday, no pun intended...

Nothing to prevent one from investing in both. I have.

 

[TnAndy]

Even more important how do you ensure your buying and selling gold and not tungsten?

How do you ensure yourself that some of the hundred dollar bills that guy that bought your Bushhog you had for sale aren't counterfeit North Korean models ? (The US $100 bill is THE most counterfeited paper in the world )

Point is, anything can be faked. Invest in pre-65 US dimes by the $1000 bag. Nobody has bothered to try to duplicate them at this point.