An Asset for the Keeping...and Nurturing!

Recently, a money manager that I otherwise greatly respect, said this rather despairing, if not delusional, statement:

"Ultimately, there may be no such thing as a safe asset anymore and investors may want to take a diversified approach to something as mundane as cash." [Emphasis added] The Rising Dollar Myth by Axel Merk.

 I know what he means, but it reminded me of the fool's remark you may have heard:


"I don't believe a word that anyone says...except my words."

An "asset" either is an asset, that is, it has value, or it isn't...and doesn't.  So whence comes this danger of assets becoming non-assets?  What makes an asset "unsafe"?  Can "cash" be a danger?  To all appearances, it seems Mr. Merk has lost trust even in his "hard currency" views.

In fact, there are two issues here that are being conflated.  The first is the curious deterioration of the value of our money and assets.  And the second is the idea of trust and its relationship to investing and society at large.  For the first issue, I have provided below links to resources that will help you understand the real cause of our economic woes.  However, I first want to address the second and more insidious problem, the idea of saying, "You can trust nothing and no one." 

Let's face it, when it seems that lying and cheating are the order of the day, even we might be tempted to deny such foundational realities as the necessity of trust.   And here I use the word "necessity" in its strict, philosophical sense, that is a condition that must be.

Indeed, trust is so fundamental to society's well being that it is easy to see that if its opposite were to rule, then society would cease to exist...at least any "society" that we would recognize or that would be worthy of the name, society.

Society-Derived from the Latin word "socius" which means ally or friend.

So is there a growing distrust and, if so, what is its cause?  Further, how do we combat it?  Or are we damned to live without allies or the ability to make alliances?

To the first query it is obvious that distrust is on the ascendancy.  Society is breaking down because we no longer trust the people and institutions we heretofore relied upon.  Even more troublesome is that this distrust is justifiable to a point.  In other words, we properly trusted, but the powers-that-be gave us ample reason to trust no more. 


The causes of this are many, varied and complex.  No single, simple answer will suffice, but in the financial world I believe the beginnings of this trouble started with the creation of our dishonest money system.  Just as you would have a healthy skepticism of your neighbors after your house was burglarized, it is natural to
have reservations about your government (or banking/financial institutions) when there is an ongoing theft  being perpetrated against your production and savings through inflation.  [For a full treatment of this scandal, I recommend The Creature From Jekyll Island.]

Similarly, just as your trust in the neighborhood would be resurrected as soon as the burglar was apprehended, I believe we can combat the growing distrust of our societal institutions by ridding ourselves of the dishonest money mechanism, the Federal Reserve.   

And for those who would say that this is whacked out, crazy talk, I can only respond that our Constitution says that our Congress has the power "to coin Money [and] regulate the Value thereof..." not some private, banking cartel.

Until that happens (and we should all join the growing movement to make it happen), we must all be on alert.  However, we should not fall prey to the temptation to go beyond "alert" and move toward distrusting everything and everyone.  For that would be the end of the very thing we truly desire: a peaceful, loving, trustworthy society. 

Instead, we must recognize the dangers around us, form plans that take into account the dishonest money system and prosper with allies worthy of the name.  We may even be called to create the enterprises into which people may place their trust.  Now who can conceive of a more noble mission than that?

Seek out good groups and companies.  Work with people you know and trust.  Oppose those who have shown themselves untrustworthy.  Be honorable in your own business dealings.

In doing this we will maintain the society and the value of the assets we work hard to produce. 

Silver Bullets, Silver Linings and Silver Savings

At the risk of being misconstrued, I will be short and to the point in this blog: There are no quick fixes to the problems plaguing our society, its government or our economic system.  Just as the sky did not fall in the morning after we re-elected the one who is arguably the worst president in American history, it is equally true that our country would not have seen a revival if we had elected the one who was arguably the worst nominee for that position.  The very idea that we should place that much hope and faith in a man is, well, blasphemous.  In short, there are no silver bullets to kill the hounds haunting our formerly fair land.

But there is a silver lining to this sad state of affairs and our realization of it.  If the problems are so big that not one of us alone could fix it, then it becomes perfectly clear that we must turn to the One who can fix it and then do our simple part in following His will. Fixing America starts with each one of us, our families and our communities.

I have built my financial planning strategies around one simple concept:  Helping to build productive, self-reliant and secure families through sound financial advice.  To me it is just applied common sense, but it does have to be "applied" and it can be tricky to maintain common sense in this increasingly complex world.  But one bit of common sense that perennially rings true to the people I counsel is that we ought always to invest some of our money in "hard assets."  I call them intrinsic worth items since the value, its worth, is IN the item rather than in a piece of paper or some other evidence of value (think of an account statement here).

Of course the most famous intrinsic worth items are gold and silver.  And it is wise to have a portion of your net worth in such things.  What to buy and how much can be debated, but one should never neglect adding to this important wealth preservation tool.

Recently I came across a simple and automated way to build up a personal, hard-currency reserve.  It is called Silver Saver and it allows you to buy silver or gold on a relatively low monthly (or weekly) allotment.  Further, you can take delivery of your metals when your account reaches certain minimums.  I recommend this since I think it is better to have physical possession of your intrinsic worth items rather than relying on being able to get them in more uncertain times.

The negatives of this program are that the premiums are a bit higher when you purchase small amounts (but you can buy larger ones and cut these down) and there are storage fees while the company houses your metal.  Still, for the ease of use and investment, I think Silver Saver is hard to beat.

Finally, and this will help offset some of the higher costs associated with this program, you can share in the profitability of Silver Saver if you share the site with others and they begin purchasing too.  And, yes, I am participating in this "profit from sharing" program, but that is not why I am recommending it.  Rather, I am hoping that all my friends and clients who have yet to take me up on investing in intrinsic worth items will finally begin doing so by taking me up on this easy and valuable program.  Check out Silver Saver by clicking on the hyperlinks above or by going here: https://silversaver.com/share/RYQZA/