My Money Shrugged :: Where Atlas Shrugged meets Personal Finance

November 2011 Net Worth: Update

2011-11-09T15:28:00.002-05:00

Sorry, I have been extremely busy at work and have not had the time to devote to maintain the site on a weekly, much less a daily basis. My last update was June and from the chart above you can see the last few months have been an roller coaster ride for our net worth. These have been the most wild swings since I have started to log our net worth. This is mostly because our exposer to the precious metals, they swing pretty violently depending on what is happening in the world. Right now, I have us set up in the the McAlvany Triangle which is the 1/3 the "Foundation" – Precious Metals, 1/3 in "Savings" – Cash, Bank Accounts, and 1/3 "Growth/Income" – Stocks, Bonds, & Mutual Funds. Anyways, I have to admit that I have to ignore the everyday noise of the market and look at the long term. I still feel very good at the plan of attack and will change accordingly as we get closer to the crisis window.

Next month I will try and have a break down for our net worth.

Mike Maloney - Debt Collapse Presentation

2011-08-19T08:07:00.003-04:00

Take the time to watch this. Mike Maloney has a way of simplifying a complicated subject to the point the average person can understand what is going on with the world economy and the collapse of fiat money.

Mainstream Media and Ron Paul

2011-08-16T10:27:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder why our mainstream media has lost its relevancy?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Indecision 2012 - Corn Polled Edition - Ron Paul & the Top Tier

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

Nixon Speech - Closing the Gold Window

2011-08-15T23:23:00.003-04:00

40 years ago today Nixon closed the Gold Window:

If you really want to know what it meant read King World News with Jim Rickards

Obama Stop Digging

2011-07-28T12:06:00.003-04:00

Yes, Bush drove us into the ditch, but Obama will not stop digging!!

Here is a A Brief History Of Obama's Fiscal Record

Obama 2006 On Raising the Debt Ceiling

2011-07-25T15:26:00.004-04:00

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies.

Over the past 5 years, our federal debt has increased by $3.5 trillion to $8.6 trillion.That is “trillion” with a “T.” That is money that we have borrowed from the Social Security trust fund, borrowed from China and Japan, borrowed from American taxpayers. And over the next 5 years, between now and 2011, the President’s budget will increase the debt by almost another $3.5 trillion.

Numbers that large are sometimes hard to understand. Some people may wonder why they matter. Here is why: This year, the Federal Government will spend $220 billion on interest. That is more money to pay interest on our national debt than we’ll spend on Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. That is more money to pay interest on our debt this year than we will spend on education, homeland security, transportation, and veterans benefits combined. It is more money in one year than we are likely to spend to rebuild the devastated gulf coast in a way that honors the best of America.

And the cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy, robbing our cities and States of critical investments in infrastructure like bridges, ports, and levees; robbing our families and our children of critical investments in education and health care reform; robbing our seniors of the retirement and health security they have counted on.

Every dollar we pay in interest is a dollar that is not going to investment in America’s priorities.

Senator Barack Obama
Senate Floor Speech on Public Debt
March 16, 2006

Not sure who wrote this for Obama in 2006 but he should go back and read his speech again. This is all a farce, the debt ceiling will get raised at the last minute and both parties will come out shaking hands taking about how that they got a deal done…"Status Quo" err "Kicking the can down the road"

I lean more toward Jim Rogers take on this subject:

June 2011 Net Worth: Another Down Month

2011-07-10T14:30:00.004-04:00

Another down month for our net worth, with our assets down -1.31% and overall percentage change being -3.88%. This is the FIRST TIME since I tracking my net worth that we had a falling net worth back to back months. It is also the biggest percentage drop since September 2009.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Down this month big...this is because my wife does not receive her regular pay check for July/August. We put money a side so that money goes into our budget but it comes from saving over the two months. She will be receiving a paycheck from her part time job which we will just be putting into savings. This might drop again over the next month for the same reason, along with summer vacations and have a lot of fun over the summer(smile).

Precious Metals: (Spot : Gold - $1485.00 / Silver - $33.77) (Gold/Silver Ratio: 43.97)(Dollar cost - 28.94) Another big down month for the metals portfolio, but this allows us to purchase more at a lower price. Currently, we are still buying monthly and the plan is still to keep buying until we see fiscal restrain from our government. Currently, this part of the portfolio feels the best. I sleep very well knowing we have invested in PMs (this could change, but as of right now I feel very good) Just my thoughts from the people I read and the feeling from them is that come this fall we could possibly see some fireworks in the metals market.

...we are currently investing mostly in silver which I plan to sell and purchase gold when the silver to gold ratio is 30/1 then 20/1 the finally 10/1 if it make it that far which I do believe it will at least reach 16/1(its historic ratio). I plan on always owning silver and gold bullion to pass along to my kids/grandchildren. We own silver as an investment and we hold gold as an insurance policy on our investments. We currently prefer to keep a percentage of our wealth in PMs instead of federal reserve paper(dollar bills).

Stocks/Brokerage: Pulled the trigger on (AG - FIRST MAJESTIC SILVER CORP @ $17.82) bought a initial position and might look to add if we see it back down near $18.00)

I am also looking into buying some options on (AUY) that I am still trying to figure out. Have also been thinking about getting in to some Natural gas plays like a Marathon(MRO) or Chesapeake Energy (CHK).

The list of stocks we currently own: (AG)(FVITF)(SLW)(SVM)(SSRI)(PAAS)(AAU)(DNN)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)((LYSCF)(RGLD)(XOM)(CVX).

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Retirement IRA's: (Same as last month) Still having some cash on the sideline and will figure out what this market wants to do and see if I can put it to work. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX, VGPMX)

Real Estate: All units of our development have now sold. This is a huge relief as we were the second purchase out of the eight that were available. We will try and hedge our payments with trying to pay off the home in 10-15 yrs depending on what comes our way. This might change along the way depending on kids, economy, jobs and so forth.

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt from couple monthly purchases - will be paid in full.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. When it hits 3k I might just write a check and pay it off. Will see how the economy and money goes the next couple of months.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

So we have had a couple of down months and will be looking to have a positive month for July. I believe it might be hard unless the stock market helps us out. The cash(flow) situation is a bit tight for right now and will hopefully get back on track once the summer comes to an end. It is hard to save with everything we have going on this summer. We might just have to tighten our belts come the fall. We will be enjoying the rest of the summer and wait to see what comes our way...

Economic Armageddon and You

2011-07-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

This is the best example I have seen of summing up the economic mess we are in. It is easy to understand and the average joe on the street should be able to grasp.

Tim Geithner on US financial System is Ponzi

2011-06-30T08:06:00.002-04:00

"If investors chose not to purchase a sufficient volume of new Treasury securities, the United States would be required to pay the principal on maturing debt, and not merely the interest, out of available cash. Yet the Treasury would be unable to make these principal payments without the continued confidence of market participants willing to buy new Treasury securities." Tim Geithner

This is full admission by our Treasury Secretary that the Us financial system is a Ponzi Scheme

http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=7371d3a9-9435-4277-87ef-330fcf689087

Ultimate unraveling of a Ponzi scheme

The catch is that at some point one of these things will happen:

1. The promoter will vanish, taking all the remaining investment money (minus payouts to investors already made).

2. Since the scheme requires a continual stream of investments to fund higher returns, once investment slows down, the scheme will begin to collapse under its own weight as the promoter starts having problems paying the promised returns (the higher the returns, the greater the risk of the Ponzi scheme collapsing). Such liquidity crises often trigger panics, as more people start asking for their money, similar to a bank run.

3. External market forces, such as a sharp decline in the economy (e.g. Madoff and the market downturn of 2008), cause many investors to withdraw part or all of their funds; not necessarily due to loss of confidence in the investment, but simply due to underlying market fundamentals. In the case of Madoff, the fund could no longer appear normal after investors tried to withdraw $7 billion from the firm in late 2008 as part of the major worldwide market downturn affecting all investments.

Ferdinand Lips and "Gold Wars"

2011-06-27T08:52:00.002-04:00

Listen to this video, I learned a great deal from this interview with Lawrence Parks of FAME.

May 2011 Net Worth: Down -1.39%

2011-06-02T19:28:00.011-04:00

Sorry I took last month off net worth even though it was one of best months we have had in 2011. That being said we came off last month and had our first down month of 2011 which was down -.97% on our assets and overall our net worth was down -1.39%. This was all because of the surge in silver the month before when it ran up from $36oz. to $49oz. and back down to $33oz. Needless to say that our portfolio has taking a wild ride over the last couple months. Hopefully it has stabilized, but I have a bad feeling that this summer is going to take us for an even crazier ride with all markets. Think we might be on the edge of another downturn and will wait and see what the Fed does once the market heads south.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Small growth in cash, we are going to start to raise a little more cash in the next coming months. I think there might be an opportunity to buy some cheaper stocks or that we could see a slow down with the economy. Still trying to get to that 50k mark...

Precious Metals: (Spot : Gold - $1542.00 / Silver - $36.29) (Gold/Silver Ratio: 42.56) Saw a huge hit to this bracket with the run up and then crash. This is good for us as I still believe over the next 3-5 years silver will break $100.00 and we want to keep dollar cost averaging in a lower prices (we are sitting at around $28.00 cost average). So we have done fairly well with this so far...

Stocks/Brokerage: Sitting tight with our brokerage accounts right now. Raising some cash to and watching some oil, gold and another rare earth company. Also looking a purchusing some Whole Foods.

Also looking to purchase some oil companies if we get a pullback. My plan is to keep purchasing Mining and Energy companies, as I still believe that Gold, Silver, Rare Earths, and Oil are in a bull market and I will ride the trend until I feel it is not undervalued. Gold and Silver mining stocks are so undervalued right now, my only concern is if we see a big stock market pullback then these stocks will get crushed. Once institutions come into this sector the gains could be huge, so we will have to wait and see which way the wind blows.

The list of stocks we currently own: (FVITF)(SLW)(SVM)(SSRI)(PAAS)(AAU)(DNN)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)((LYSCF)(RGLD)(XOM)(CVX).

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Real Estate: Couple more units in our new development have sold so this is good. 6 out of 8 homes have sold and they are looking to break ground on a new set of town homes. The plan here is to keep our money that we were going to put down as a down payment in the bank or investments. We will try and hedge our payments with trying to pay off the home in 10-15 yrs depending on what comes our way. This might change along the way depending on kids, economy, jobs and so forth.

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt from couple monthly purchases - will be paid in full.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

We are almost at the half way mark for the year. We are feeling pretty good about our situation. These summer months the wife will not be getting a pay check so the cash might be a tad bit tough to save as much as we have been. Battling between saving up 50k in cash vs. buying silver while the price is still relatively cheap. Still trying to figure all this out and will remain nimble and remain learning every month. Till next month...

Reminder for days like today

2011-05-05T23:03:00.004-04:00

With Gold and Silver taking a huge hit and the main stream media talking bubble bursting around gold and silver I think it is a good time to post this from jsmineset.com

Contemplate what each of the following means to you one at a time. Do not try to do them all at once. You do not want to do this as a routine memory exercise as much as a meditation on why you have bought the insurance you have.

- Gold is a currency with no liabilities attached.
- Gold is competition to paper currency.
- Gold is not a commodity.
- Gold is a barometer of fear.
- Gold is a barometer of confidence in Government.
- Gold is insurance.
- Insurance is not something to trade.
- Gold is money when money fails.
- Hyperinflation is a currency event, not an economic event.
- Hyperinflation is a currency event described as a loss of confidence in the currency.
- Gold in your hand eliminates counter-party risk.
- Gold is the high ground when the global tsunami hits.
- Gold removes financial agents between you and your assets.

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

2011-04-28T09:54:00.001-04:00

Round 2:

Round 1:

John Hathaway on Paper Money

2011-04-19T10:08:00.001-04:00

April 15th - Taxman vs Upside Down

2011-04-15T12:53:00.001-04:00

Happy Tax Day!

March 2011 Networth: 4.73%

2011-04-09T09:42:00.006-04:00

March is in the books and another month of growth. Nothing to interesting going on. We had a couple trips and have been spending more freely. So to see a jump is good for us but mostly through our precious metals and s stocks. We did not see much in our cash savings. I have added the break down of Precious metals below so that I can start to keep myself in check as this market is starting to heat up.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Small jump in our cash savings. This would be jumping a lot more but we are currently putting a percentage of our savings in Precious Metals as our insurance of our fiat paper. I feel that PM's are a store of wealth where our cash is only a currency.

Precious Metals: Keep adding to this with bi-monthly purchases. The thought process before here is that we were investing in 8% into my 401k. This was going into mutual funds that I have very little to no management over. My company matches up to 5% so I decided to drop my 401k investments back to 5% and invest the 3% into something that might be more liquid. This allows us to use this money to invest in ourselves or just keep accumulating wealth. Right now I am just dollar cost averaging every couple weeks into bullion. At this point mostly silver which I plan to sell and purchase gold when the silver to gold ratio is 30/1 then 20/1 the finally 10/1 if it make it that far which I do believe it will at least reach 16/1(its historic ratio). I plan on always owning silver and gold bullion to pass along to my kids/grandchildren.

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks had a slight jump this month with some more purchases and that the silver/mining stocks are on fire right now. We purchased FORTUNA SILVER MINES INC (FVITF) this month and still waiting for some pullback in silver stocks before purchasing some more...

Will keep looking to add here...I am looking for SLW to pull back to around $37 to purchase some more. Also looking to purchase some oil companies if we get a pullback. My plan is to keep purchasing Mining and Energy companies, as I still believe that Gold, Silver, Rare Earths, and Oil are in a bull market and I will ride the trend until I feel it is not undervalued. Gold and Silver mining stocks are so undervalued right now, my only concern is if we see a big stock market pullback then these stocks will get crushed. Once institutions come into this sector the gains could be huge, so we will have to wait and see which way the wind blows.

The list of stocks we currently own: (FVITF)(SLW)(SVM)(SSRI)(PAAS)(AAU)(DNN)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)((LYSCF)(RGLD)(XOM)(CVX).

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Real Estate: Couple more units in our new development have sold so this is good. % out of 8 homes have sold and they are looking to break ground on a new set of town homes. The plan here is to keep our money that we were going to put down as a down payment in the bank or investments. We will try and hedge our payments with trying to pay off the home in 10-15 yrs depending on what comes our way. This might change along the way depending on kids, economy, jobs and so forth.

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt from couple monthly purchases from work and such, will be paid in full.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

More of the same o'l same o'l and we will take it. I just want to be in the business of growing our wealth each and every month. We are extremely blessed and cannot be happier right now. I see a storm on the horizon and not sure when it will hit, but we remain doing what I feel is best for our family at the moment. No one knows what is going to happen, but hopefully we will be prepared to weather the storm. Not sure how long we as a country can remain to ignore the challenges that we face and star them in the face. We need to take control of our situation and realize we are going to have to make sacrifices. We have to take control of our debt.

Mike Maloney Gold & Silver When To Sell? Real Estate-When To Buy?

2011-04-07T08:24:00.001-04:00

The Truth About The Greatest: Warren Buffett

2011-04-06T08:07:00.001-04:00

Why Martial Law Cannot Happen in USA

2011-03-28T08:20:00.004-04:00

So this weekend I was surfing youtube and came across:

US v. Emerson, Fifth Circuit, Case No. 99-10331:
1. Testimony of Norman Olson of the Michigan Militia; and,
2. John Trochman and Bob Fletcher of the Militia of Montana before the Senate Subcommittee on Anti-Terrorism, June 15, 1995.

I found this to be very interesting and thought I would put up Mr. Olson statement. Another interesting thing I see is that a couple Senators that where there, seem to have made a career out of politics, Arlen Specter and Dianne Feinstein.

Not only does the Constitution specifically allow the formation of a Federal Army, it also recognizes the inherent right of the people to form militia. Further, it recognizes that the citizen and his personal armaments are the foundation of the militia. The arming of the militia is not left to the state but to the citizen. However, should the state choose to arm its citizen militia, it is free to do so (bearing in mind the Constitution is not a document limiting the citizen, but rather limiting the power of government). But should the state fail to arm its citizen militia, the right of the people to keep and bear arms becomes the source of the guarantee that the state will not be found defenseless in the presence of a threat to its security. It makes no sense whatsoever to look to the Constitution of the United States or that or any state for permission to form a citizen militia since logically, the power to permit is also the power to deny. If brought to its logical conclusion in this case, government may deny the citizen the right to form a militia. If this were to happen, the state would assert itself as the principle of the contract making the people the agents. Liberty then would depend on the state's grant of liberty. Such a concept is foreign to American thought.

While the Second Amendment to the US Constitution acknowledges the existence of state militia and recognizes their necessity for the security of a free state; and, while it also recognizes that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, the Second Amendment is not the source of the right to form a militia nor to keep and bear arms. Those rights existed in the states prior to the formation of the federal union. In fact, the right to form militia and to keep and bear arms existed from antiquity. The enumeration of those rights in the Constitution only underscores their natural occurrence and importance

According to the Tenth Amendment, ultimate power over the militia is not delegated to the Federal government by the Constitution nor to the states, but resides with the people. Consequently, the power of the militia remains in the hands of the people. Again, the fundamental function of the militia in society remains with the people. Therefore, the Second Amendment recognizes that the militia's existence and the security of the state rests ultimately in the people who volunteer their persons to constitute the militia and their arms to supply its firepower. The primary defense of the state rests with the citizen militia bearing its own arms. Fundamentally, it is not the state that defends the people, but the people who defend the state.

The second line of defense of the state consists in the statutory organization known as the National Guard. Whereas the National Guard is solely the creation of the statutory law, the militia derives its existence from the inherent inalienable rights which existed before the Constitution and whose importance are such that they merited specific recognition in that document. While the National Guard came into existence as a result of legislative activity, the militia existed before there was a nation or a constitutional form of government. The militia consisting of people owning and bearing personal weapons is the very authority out of which the United States Constitution grew. This point must be emphasized. Neither the citizen's militia nor the citizen's private arsenal can be an appropriate subject of federal regulation. It was the armed militia of the American colonies whose own efforts ultimately led to the establishment of the United States of America! While some say that the right to keep and bear arms is granted to Americans by the Constitution, just the opposite is true. The Federal government itself is the child of the armed citizen. We the people are the parent of the child we call government. You, Senators, are part of the child that We the People gave life to. The increasing amount of Federal encroachment into our lives indicates the need for parental corrective action. In short, the Federal government needs a good spanking to make it behave.

One other important point needs to be made. Since the Constitution is the limiting document upon the government, the government cannot become greater than the granting power, that is the servant cannot become greater than his master. Therefore, should the Chief Executive or other branch of government, or all branches together act to suspend the Constitution under a rule of martial law, all power granted to government would be canceled and defer back to the granting power, the people. Martial law shall not be possible in this country as long as the people recognize the Bill of Rights as inalienable.

Since the power of self defense and the defense of the state is ultimately vested in the people, there is no possible way that a Governor or the Chief Executive of the United States, or any legislative body can "outlaw" the citizen militia for to do so would rob inherent power from the people. If that were to happen, our entire form of government would cease.

Historically, we have found that the Governor's militia, that is the National Guard, is intended to reduce the need for the citizen militia. Simply, if the National Guard did it's job in securing the state, the citizen militia would not emerge. That it has emerged so dramatically seems to indicate that the people do not feel secure. Simply stated, the growing threat of centralized Federal government is frightening America, hence the emergence of the citizen militia. When government is given back to the people at the lowest level, the citizen militia will return to its natural place, resident within the body of the people. Civil war and revolution can be avoided by re-investing governing power to the people.

To summarize: Citizen militia are historic lawful entities predating constitutions. Such militia are "grandfathered" into the very system of government they created. The Constitution grants no right to form militia, but merely recognize the existing natural right of all people to defend and protect themselves. The governments created out of well armed and free people are to be constantly obedient to the people. Any attempt to take the means of freedom from the people is an act of rebellion against the people.

In order to resist a rebellious and disobedient government,the citizen militia must not be connected in any way with that government lest the body politic loose its fearful counterbalanceas the only sure threat to a government bent on converting free people into slaves.

Submitted by Norman E. Olson

You can find the rest here: http://www.potowmack.org/emerappb.html

February 11 Net Worth: 11% Growth

2011-03-04T07:35:00.010-05:00

Wow, two months already into the year...time is flying by. Sorry about not posting, but am really focus on doing what I need to set my self up later down the road. I just don't have time with work and really doing research for investments. I'm still not sure how everything still plays out, but I feel good with what we are doing with our money.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Another jump in our cash savings. This would be jumping a lot more but we are currently putting a percentage of our savings in Precious Metals as our insurance of our fiat paper. I feel that PM's are a store of wealth where our cash is only a currency.

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks jumped this month with some more purchases and that the silver/mining stocks are on fire right now. One of my mining stocks (Fronteer Gold) got purchased my Newmont and the the stock jumped. I sold it with a percentage gain of 65%. I also sold Avalon Rare Metals with a percentage of 196%, this was a speculation buy so figured I should take my gains and reinvest them.

I've purchased SSRI, PAAS, AAU and DNN in the last couple months. I also added to my position of RGLD. Will keep looking to add here...looking to purchase some oil companies if we get a pullback. My plan is to keep purchasing Mining and Energy companies, as I still believe that Gold, Silver, Rare Earths, and Oil are in a bull market and I will ride the trend until I feel it is not undervalued.

The list of stocks we currently own: (SLW)(SVM)(SSRI)(PAAS)(AAU)(DNN)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)((LYSCF)(RGLD)(XOM)(CVX).

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Real Estate: So this is a new category, based off getting 100% financing, right now its not even an asset based of not having any equity in our home. The plan here is to keep our money that we were going to put down as a down payment in the bank or investments. We will try and hedge our payments with trying to pay off the home in 10-15 yrs depending on what comes our way. This might change along the way depending on kids, economy, jobs and so forth.

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt from couple monthly purchases from work and such, will be paid in full.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

There you have it. We remain being blessed and keep making the right moves with our money. I am still keeping a close eye on what all is going on with the stuff going on in the middle east. These oil prices are going to effect our economy and could do even more if the Dollar keeps falling like it has over the past couple months. Until next month, wish us luck.

Purchasing Power of the Dollar

2011-02-14T13:50:00.002-05:00

I am a visual person...This pretty much sums up a lot

How does gold "get away" with paying no interest?

2011-01-18T18:37:00.001-05:00

Question -- How does gold "get away" with paying no interest?

Answer -- Gold pays no interest because it is ultimately safe. Gold is the only currency that has lasted through the centuries, going back 6,000 years. Currencies have to pay interest so that they will be attractive enough for people to hold them. As a rule, the poorer and riskier the nation, the more its currency must pay in interest in order to attract investors. Normally, the dollar would be paying an attractive rate of interest, except for the manipulations of the Fed. Thus short rates in the US are around zero, courtesy of the Fed.

-Richard Russell

Source: King World News

MUST WATCH - The American Dream (Animated)

2011-01-06T14:42:00.003-05:00

Year End Update: Net Worth and More

2011-01-01T17:03:00.014-05:00

What a year...

End of last year our total net worth was 43k, this year we have more than double it. Partially because my wife and I combined finances. Another reason is that the stock market has had an incredible run(I believe I read somewhere the Dow was up 10%). Our investments have worked out really well across the board and are keeping on budget and saving money.

If 2011 is anything like 2010, we will be well on our way. That being said, I am still overall bearish and looking for another major crisis between now and 2015. Whether it be a debt crisis, dollar collapse or peak cheap oil, I will try and put ourselves in a position to hopefully not only survive the crisis but hopefully prosper. We remain blessed but our attitude remains to still prepare for the worst and prey for the best.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: This grew this month based off a year end bonus along with saving. Which is really nice considering that December is money pit usually with Christmas and such. Our first goal remains to get about 50K in the bank(cash) for saving before we really start putting our money to work. This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. It also holds our monthly budget in it which is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, mortgage, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Wow, what can I say...This is the first year I have been managing a stock portfolio outside my 401k. I have been studying and listening to financial sense (www.financialsense.com), I have been listening to analysts who are interviewed and when they throw out a stock I research a little and see if it is worth a purchase. I am absolutely floored how well I have done with these stocks. Maybe its beginners luck, maybe it real that I believe in these stocks that I purchase and I hope 2011 will be as good as 2010. My plan is to keep purchasing Mining and Energy companies, as I still believe that Gold, Silver, Rare Earths are in a bull market and I will ride the trend until I feel it is not undervalued.

Here are the gains/losses based of percentages this year. I am currently up 22%, I try and keep a level head and not get to excited. I keep reminding myself that I need to be nimble and be ready to sell if the trend changes. The latest stock we purchased was Lynas Corp and am thinking of selling off some of my Avalon Rare Metals based off the run up lately:

The list of stocks I currently own: (SLW)(FRG)(SVM)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just both my wife and my retirement, adding money to our retirement funds every month.

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt from Christmas, will be paid off without any interest.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. I was blessed enough to receive a pay raise and with this I will add to my monthly payment to my vehicle and see if I can get this paid off earlier than the end date.

Home Mortgage: Mostly paying interest on our home at the moment, so not much of a dent here.

Not only did we surpass 100k, we went beyond it by 6k. I just feel so blessed and we are thankful everyday to have a good jobs in this economy. It is nice to have the success that we have with our personal finances at the moment. I am not taking anything for granted and definitely not trying to get big headed, but I am certainly proud of us in 2010. We had a wedding, attended a few out of town weddings, traveled, honeymoon, and purchased a home all along while saving somewhere between 25-30% of our income. I cannot imagine, even though it is a goal, that we will be able to do this (kids and etc...) down the road, so we will try and remain saving and investing for our future.

November 10 Net Worth 97K: Thankful for

2010-12-01T08:52:00.005-05:00

November is done and whew...what a month! If you look closely you will see there is a new value in "Real Estate/Home Value" and in Mortgage. We purchased our first home this month. We did it despite my thinking that the housing market is going remain falling. We are trying to start a life and we found a home that we love. We also do not look at this an investment but more of a home where live and become a family, which is way more valuable than any price of money. We feel we got a great deal and we are not going to look back. We are happy and thats all I have to say...
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: We have been saving up for a house down payment but looks like we got one heck of deal on a home, so we will be keeping most of this. Our first goal is to get about 50K in the bank(cash) for saving before we really start putting our money to work. This has grown despite purchasing some major things for our new home(washer, dryer, and fridge). This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. It also holds my monthly budget in it. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, mortgage, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Has been remained a good run with my brokerage account the last couple of months. I have purchased a few other stocks Silver Wheaton(SLW), Fronteer Gold (FRG) and Silvercorp Metals, Inc. (SVM). I sold off my GLD with a 20% gain from where I purchased and hoping these remaining gaining like they have the last couple months. I am just saving up some cash in the mean time to start dollar cost averaging into these. I am up around 13% in these. The list of stocks I currently own: (SLW)(FRG)(SVM)(EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

Debts and Liabilities -

Credit Cards: Debt for home stuff, will be paid off without any interest.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. Now that we don't need to save up on the downpayment we might have to start paying a bit more per month even though our mortgage will be higher than we are paying now...will keep you posted.

Home Mortgage: Sending off first payment today, more to come in the next few years :)

I am so looking forward to hitting 100k in net worth hopefully in the next month or two, we have come so far in just two short years. I am blessed to have what I do and during these hard time for most families, we have been able to create a small amount of wealth.

In this time of year we will be thankful for what we have and hopefully spread some cheer over the holidays! We will be supporting a child at an elementary school, along with a family that is in need. My family decided not to give gifts this year but to sponsor a family who's mother is dying. We will try and donate to more as they arise.

Brilliant!! QE II Explained

2010-11-15T16:32:00.000-05:00

Is Gold a dead asset?

2010-11-02T08:46:00.003-04:00

The following if from one of my favorite websites FOFOA:

'The falling price of Gold has had various effects on people. The common person says, "Of course it is falling, because Gold has been demonetized." The Goldheart knows better, so the falling price has a more remarkable effect, bringing out insecurities and irrationalities of some. Though these people don't question that Gold is money, their insecurities start to question whether the world really needs money at all... that somehow this greatest device of mankind has been antiquated. Simply preposterous. If they knew the truth they would confidently buy today at triple the price and call it a bargain of a lifetime. People ask, "Why waste effort to dig up Gold from the ground, only to rebury it in vaults?" I say, "For the same reason the central banks toil to print millions of fancy notes that nobody reads. If you've read one, you've read them all." The effort is needed to prevent cheating, though we easily see the fancy cash does not stem the abusive tide of money from nothing. People also say, "Gold is a dead asset. It does not earn interest." What is the point of such a comment, to demonstrate their naiveté? Did banks not pay interest when coins were stamped from Gold?

You see, it is not the nature of money itself to earn interest, but rather, it is the investment risk that maybe earns a reward. A modern dollar in a shoebox is as a Gold coin beside it. No interest for either. You should know the interest paid by a bank savings account is not a product of the money itself, but instead it is the rewards on the risk the bank takes with the money you have provided for their investment use. Sometimes these banks choose poorly, and in those cases even the modern dollar earns no interest, and does not come back at all--lost with the closing of the bank doors. Money must be risked (invested) to expect a yield, and in this regard, the big players in the world risk Gold money as they do paper money (though often not as aggressively), while the small players are content with the shoebox yield. You are forced to be more aggressive (more risky) with paper because its value dies quickly, unlike Gold that stands forever even in a shoebox of no risk.'

How I See the World Today | Jim Rogers

2010-10-21T08:36:00.001-04:00

Jim Rogers is one of my favorite investors to listen to. These are a must watch:

September 2010 Net Worth: 90K, I can smell 100K!

2010-10-01T09:04:00.008-04:00

August and September are all in the books and things keep looking up despite whats going on. Thats because the wife and myself have combined all of our money. We still have some tinkering to do with her retirement and such but overall we are feeling good. That is another reason I did not put up our net worth last month so bear with me.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Huge jump since last time I posted our net worth, this is mainly due to combining my wife's saving and my savings. We have been saving up for a house down payment but looks like we got one heck of deal on a home, so we will be keeping most of this. Our first goal is to get about 50K in the bank(cash) for saving before we really start putting our money to work. We have to purchase some major things for our new home(washer, dryer, and fridge) so this will be drained a bit over the next couple months. This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Has been a good run with my brokerage account the last couple of months. I decide to go ahead and pull the trigger on Exelon Corp. I am just saving up some cash in the mean time to start dollar cost averaging into these. Overall I am up around 10% in these. The list of stocks I own (EXC)(PWE)(PHYS)(GLD)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 7K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: don't have much to say here! $0.00

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. Now that we don't need to save up on the downpayment we might have to start paying a bit more per month even though our mortgage will be higher than we are paying now...will keep you posted.

I am still extremely bearish on the world economy and the US economy...We are headed for a financial storm and it is very important for all of us to be up to date on current events. It time to be prepared for the worse and pray for the best.

Thing will be getting shifted here and there over the next few months with everything we have gong on with the home purchase and combining finances but overall I feel pretty good and cannot wait to see what happens come of end of year to see how far we have come. Until then good luck with your own budget and growing your wealth.

Gold & Silver Represent Freedom From The Matrix - Mike Maloney in Red Sq...

2010-09-29T09:02:00.001-04:00

Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis

2010-09-14T17:17:00.001-04:00

Is Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged Future Possible?

2010-09-09T07:47:00.004-04:00

I highly suggest you read Dollar Commentary's post "Is Ayn Rand’s Future Possible?" DC has done an great job of summing up Atlas Shrugged and where we as a country could be heading.

Read More at www.dollarcommentary.com

I have been saying, if you have ever wanted to read Atlas Shrugged,now is the time because as you read the book, you turn on the TV and the ideas and situations that Rand talks about in the book are happening everyday.

The Sacred Cow

2010-09-02T19:20:00.002-04:00

Socialism: If you have two cows, you give one to your neighbor.

Communism: If you have two cows, you give them to the government and the government then gives you some milk.

Fascism: If you have two cows, you keep the cows and give the milk to the government; then the government sells you some milk.

New Dealism: if you have two cows, you shoot one and milk the other; then you pour the milk down the drain.

Nazism: If you have two cows, the government shoots you and keeps the cows.

Nanny Stateism: If you have two cows, we’re going to show up at your house at dawn with a cease-and-desist letter and forbid you to do anything useful with their milk until you comply with General Laws Chapter 94, Sections 13 and 16 through 16K, Chapter 94A, and the regulations found in 330 CMR 27.00 et seq.

Capitalism: If you have two cows, you sell one and buy a bull.

Jim Sinclair's Mindset on Federal Reserve

2010-08-30T07:55:00.003-04:00

Seriously, it is hard to hide my contempt of this disgusting scene. This band of fools somehow believes that prosperity can be created by printing money without any consequences whatsoever. The US is sinking under a mountain of indebtedness and the Fed chairman tells us that it stands ready to engage in even more QE should the need arise. Flash to Ben – the need shall arise. China is already balking at buying US debt meaning you are going to have to buy it all yourself Ben.

What we are witnessing is the death throes of a debt-based monetary system of which those presiding over it apparently have come to believe their own delusions. The US public is learning what our grandfathers learned as a result of the Great Depression – Debt is something to be avoided – not heaped up and accumulated. That the borrower becomes the lender’s slave and that living beyond ones own means is inherently foolish and dangerous. That saddling one’s children and grandchildren with a debt burden that they did not create is immoral and wicked. Yet, all of this is lost upon the monetary lords who have their noses so close to the ground sniffing out the scent that they cannot see the path ahead leads off the edge of an abyss from which there is no escape. Or perhaps they do see and are attempting to secure their own parachutes before leading the rest of the masses over the edge.

I repeat – if lasting prosperity could be created by printing money and giving it away, previous generations that were wiser and more frugal than ours would long ago have stumbled upon this axiom.

That brings us to the war on gold. I am still amazed that after all these years and notwithstanding all the evidence to the contrary, there are still those obtuse enough to insist that there are no official sector attempts to manage or stem the rise in the price of gold. Gold is the only currency that these debasement thieves cannot pollute by conjuring more of it into existence. It rises when distrust of paper currencies is high and confidence in the ability of those who supposedly manage monetary affairs wanes. Thus it is and always will be in direct competition with unbacked fiat currencies.

Our money masters hate the yellow metal because its rise mocks their absurd assertions and debunks their claims of being able to “manage the economy”. It strikes, dagger-like, at the very hubris of these elitists who think that they are wiser than the collective judgment of the entire market, they alone possessing such keen insight into the nature of these matters that we should entrust our financial health to their hands. Imagine the conceit of a few men who think that by pulling on this lever or pushing on this button, that they can assure continuous prosperity and lasting wealth for all. Every generation considers itself wiser than the previous one which is why history does indeed repeat itself. Arrogant men never learn for they lack the one thing essential to make one truly wise – the ability to admit that we do not know all things nor that we mere mortals can always fix what ails us.

-Dan Norcini

Taken from Jim Sinclair's MindSet

Tony Robbins Economic Warning 1-2

2010-08-25T08:53:00.001-04:00

Part I: Eric Janszen interviews Elizabeth Warren for The Postcatastrophe...

2010-08-17T08:18:00.001-04:00

The Story of Spending

2010-08-10T08:05:00.003-04:00

Again I have learned with my studies that its really not a left or right, Republican or Democrat, all politicians love to spend our money...

Jesse's Café Américain: The Inflation and Deflation Debate Deconstructed

2010-08-07T00:32:00.000-04:00

Jesse's Café Américain: The Inflation and Deflation Debate Deconstructed: "'What most people call reason is really rationalization. Given a new set of data, most people will search through it only for those example..."

July 10 Net Worth: $58k Overall 6.59% Growth

2010-08-02T08:43:00.006-04:00

Another good month for us with the total net worth jumping up by 6.59%. This is the last month before we join our finances! We didn't have much going this month, we did have to put new breaks on one of our vehicles. We just need to keep this up we are feeling really good about our situation...
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: We saw a slight dip in our cash savings because of the purchasing of stock and PMs. Hopefully in the next few months we will see some growth as were have started to really kick up the saving for a downpayment for a home. This money grows from money directly transferred from paycheck into my money market, savings account and checking. This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: This month we was slight tick up but that is mostly because purchasing of a gold stock Sprott Physical Gold Trust(PHYS) and Penn West Energy (PWE). I have about another 1k in the account which I am eyeing Exelon Corp (EXC) or more Exxon (XOM). As of right now I am holding back and hopefully save up some cash. The list of stocks I own (GLD)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

*As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for the USA.

Retirement 401k: This bracket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Slight tick up this month...we will wait and see how the stock market plays out come the fall. Until then not tinkering with this.

Retirement IRA's: Slow growth here this month. I still think the market is going to correct itself. I pulled back half of my Roth into cash, so have about half my retirement in cash right now. I will keep cash on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX)

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 8K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: Breaks on one of our vehicle and flights out to a wedding on the west coast, they will both be payed off by end of the month. I pay off any Credit Card debt monthly.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

May is now in the bank, I am still extremely bearish on the world economy and the US economy...We are headed for a financial storm and it is very important for all of us to be up to date on current events. It time to be prepared for the worse and pray for the best.

One thing I am excited about next month is the we will be combining our finances in August and will be showing it next month...looking for a jump in total net worth. Until then good luck with your own budget and growing your wealth.

Personal Strategies against a Government Policy Sponsoring Destitution

2010-07-23T08:43:00.001-04:00

Fiat Designed to Fail

2010-07-20T08:25:00.001-04:00

How To Save On a Wedding

2010-06-14T06:30:00.005-04:00

This is a guest post by Sharon Smith. She is a financial writer and is associated with the Oak View Law Group. She offers advice on frugal living and various debt management programs. She can be contacted at findsharonsmith@gmail.com

Church Bells, Wedding Day,
Dating Hell gone away,
What I've Dreamed all my life,
soon to be man and wife.

Are you humming this in your mind? Is it time for you to get betrothed? This is one of the biggest moments in our life. We tie the knot and take vows to be together for a lifetime. Getting pronounced and Man and Wife always call for a beautiful ceremony. Even I had one, so in order to fulfill my desire I got too extravagant and had to part with all my savings. However the lesson here is for a beautiful wedding you need not always put your bank balance at stake. Instead a smart approach towards spending can fetch a better result. Through my own experience I can throw some light on how you can save money on wedding with out giving up on the grandeur of your dream marriage.

Stop spending all your fortune behind wedding. Money can never buy love as the adage goes. So a good planning and some frugal tips can really make your D day worth cherishing.

Here are snippets of some of those frugal wedding mantras that I learnt from my wedding and now letting it out to you.

Wedding guest list needs to be pruned: You can save an enormous amount of cash if you start pruning your guest list. Often there are people who are your acquaintance and not friend. Try to cancel them from the list. Call people who are close to you and your family. Don't take the pressure of inviting all your office colleagues. Invite only the couples instead of inviting their whole family that includes the children.

Save on wedding invitation card as well as on postage: Send an e- card instead of a printed card. It would surely help you save a lot. You can also order a plain invitation and decorate it yourself. Show your creative streak. It's fun! Instead of a reply card ask your near and dear ones to reply on line. This also saves you postage expenses.

Make your wedding dress, make up and hair simple yet elegant: Simplicity is the toughest job. Did you know that? With expensive gowns or an uptown hair-do, you can always look beautiful. But a simple and classic look can actually make your fiancé smitten by love! Try not to hire a designer to design your gown as they won't give you some thing out of the world. If your mother's wedding gown is in perfect condition then you can alter as well as redesign it and use it for your self. It would be nostalgic wearing your mother's wedding gown. This would save a lot of money too. Try to hire someone who is competent in hair do as well as in make up.

Use cash instead of credit cards: Try to use cash while you go out for shopping instead of depending on the credit cards. There is always a tendency to spend more when we use these plastic cards. It becomes really difficult to pay off the piling debts soon after marriage. If you do not use the credit card then you do not have to settle credit card debt. If you get things on cash you can keep a check on the amount you are spending. It would even restrain you from being a spendthrift as well as help you to save money without incurring debts.

Save money on decoration: Decoration means making the wedding place beautiful. That can be a simple gladiola or some nice white drapes! So you can always choose something that will cost you less. You need not go for a rose-laden pathway. Rather just sprinkle some wild flowers and walk away with your spouse. What is important is being together. Before shopping for the decorative item go through an Internet search looking for the cheap stores and bargain prices. Dollar stores have nice and simple products that can be used as an item for decoration like candles, candle holders and plastic flowers. Use silk flower to decorate the reception venue and the church. Silk flowers instead of original flowers can be pocket friendly. The flowers can be too expensive especially during the off season. So some chic artificial flowers can also make your day. Save money by getting silk flowers.

Select a cost-effective menu when it comes to Wedding Food and Drink: Wedding calls for sumptuous brunch or a nice cocktail dinner. But you can always go for a simple yet filling menu. Talk to your caterer stating the motive that you are planning to save money. They would tell you whether a buffet would be less expensive than a seated dinner. The liquor provided by the caterer might cost you more as they would levy extra tax on the total amount. It would be cheaper for you to shop for the liquor in a bulk as they might give you concession. Serve the cocktail after the dinner is laid. And if your fiancé is not too fond of drinking then you may consider organizing a dry wedding.

Don't hire a professional photographer: Even if you hire a professional photographer give him the contract to capture some special moment. If you ask him to take picture of the whole occasion then he might charge you much more. You can afford to pay him for few snaps he would be clicking. Ask your family members and friends to click the wedding photographs. There might be few members in the family as well in the friend circle who can be talented enough to take photographs. In this you can avoid the unnecessary expenses of hiring a professional photographer.

Take my word and do what others might not have done before. A simple wedding can be way above an expensive ceremony. Get closer with your family and friends on this auspicious day! The essence is being together and sharing the best moment of your life! You can have a beautiful wedding and save money at the same time. Just make sure, not to start your newly married life on debts.

Wedding Time

2010-06-11T06:16:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, sorry for not posting in a long time. I am headed out for my wedding so I will not be posting here for the next couple of weeks. Check back though, because I will have a guest post on saving money on weddings.

In the mean time, check out some of these previous post:

Surfing, To Big To Fail, and Capitalism

Thomas Sowell: The Pattern of Failure (this applies so well today)

Capitalism vs Socialism - What about Freedom?

What Happens If The Debt Ceiling Is Not Raised?

The Federals Papers and a Country Divided

Gold and Economic Freedom

May 10 Net Worth: Chugging along...

2010-06-02T08:42:00.008-04:00

Another increase in net worth, only by 2.4% but we will take it! This is the first time in last five months that my total assets have gone negative. It fell only -.23% so not a big hit but still not a gain, mostly from stock market pullback. Either way still positive growth overall.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: This month we managed to grow by $550.00. Not a lot but considering how much we are spending on the wedding, I feel this is still really positive. This is probably going to take a hit this coming month because the wedding and the honeymoon which has out vacation fun in this bracket. This money grows from money directly transferred from paycheck into my money market, savings account and checking. This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Slight move down for the stocks that I own...mostly Exxon and Chevron with the decline of crude oil and the BP oil spill. With gold movement it is making all the mining and etfs I have go up as well. Still watching Silver Wheaton Corp (SLW) and could pull the trigger if stock/silver declines. As of right now I am holding back and hopefully save up some cash. The list of stocks I own (GLD)(SLV)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

*As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for the USA.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Took a slight loss this month in 401k and feel we will be losing a lot more down the line. Think we might be headed for another downturn in the markets until Zimbabwe Ben starts up the printing press again, which should reflate the market.

Retirement IRA's: Slow growth here this month. I still think the market is going to correct itself. I pulled back half of my Roth into cash, so have about half my retirement in cash right now. I will keep cash on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX)

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 10K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: This is just a more wedding stuff purchased with credit (Wedding outfit), it will be paid off before I am charged - I pay off any Credit Card debt monthly.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

May is now in the bank, I am still extremely bearish on the world economy and the US economy...We are headed for a financial storm and it is very important for all of us to be up to date on current events. It time to be prepared for the worse and pray for the best. I will be saving as much as I can but with the wedding I am going to be running low on cash flow. (sorry used the same statement as last month but I am still in the exact feelings)

Ayn Rand's Egalitarianism and Inflation: Production to Consumption

2010-05-17T08:28:00.002-04:00

In Ayn Rand's Egalitarianism and Inflation she demonstrates the consequences of the introduction of paper money into a thriving agrarian gold-based economy. And she shows how the resulting inflation actually destroys the real-world capital that had previously been accumulated by shifting society's focus from production to consumption.

"Now project what would happen to your community of a hundred hard-working, prosperous, forward-moving people, if one man were allowed to trade on your market, not by means of gold, but by means of paper—i.e., if he paid you, not with a material commodity, not with goods he had actually produced, but merely with a promissory note on his future production. This man takes your goods, but does not use them to support his own production; he does not produce at all—he merely consumes the goods. Then, he pays you higher prices for more goods—again in promissory notes—assuring you that he is your best customer, who expands your market.

"Then, one day, a struggling young farmer, who suffered from a bad flood, wants to buy some grain from you, but your price has risen and you haven’t much grain to spare, so he goes bankrupt. Then, the dairy farmer, to whom he owed money, raises the price of milk to make up for the loss—and the truck farmer, who needs the milk, gives up buying the eggs he had always bought—and the poultry farmer kills some of his chickens, which he can’t afford to feed—and the dairy farmer can’t afford the higher price of alfalfa, so he cancels his order to the blacksmith—and you want to buy the new plow you have been saving for, but the blacksmith has gone bankrupt. Then all of you present the promissory notes to your “best customer,” and you discover that they were promissory notes not on his future production, but on yours—only you have nothing left to produce with. Your land is there, your structures are there, but there is no food to sustain you through the coming winter, and no stock seed to plant.

"Would it make any difference if that community consisted of a thousand farmers? A hundred thousand? A million? The entire globe? No matter how widely you spread the blight, no matter what a variety of products and what an incalculable complexity of deals become involved, this, dear readers, is the cause, the pattern, and the outcome of inflation."

Jim Rogers on Sovereign Debt

2010-05-13T08:21:00.001-04:00

Ron Paul : Greece Is Just The Beginning!

2010-05-10T19:06:00.002-04:00

Time to sit down and start to really listen...

April 10 Net Worth:

2010-05-04T08:54:00.006-04:00

Another great month even though we didn't see a huge amount of growth. We didn't see the stock market do it normal routine of going straight up daily. Still pushing through and hoping we don't hit a bumpy road with the stock market and wedding expenses.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: This month we took a bit of a hit, mostly because purchases of stocks. I am not sure we will see much growth here the next couple of months, the wedding expenses are starting to add up, and do not see it stopping for the next couple months. This money grows from money directly transferred from paycheck to my money market. I do not see this money unless I have a big emergency. It is the money that we are saving for a downpayment on a house.
This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: My stocks seem to perform well for me this month as gold is moving up everyday. With gold movement it is making all the mining and etfs I have go up as well. One of the best performing miner that I hold right now is Eldorado Gold Corp. (EGO) I am really happy with the purchase of this and wish I would have bought more. One of the stocks I have on my watch list is Silver Wheaton Corp (SLW) which some think is easily worth $30/share. As of right now I am holding back and hopefully save up some cash. The list of stocks I own (GLD)(SLV)(EGO)(AUY)(AVARF)(RGLD)(ZQK)(XOM)(CVX).

*As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for the USA.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Saw a nice little jump this month with the stock market. I'm not really checking on this bracket(daily/weekly) as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: Slow growth here this month. I still think the market is going to correct itself. I will keep cash on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX)

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 10K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: This is just a more wedding stuff purchased with credit (Wedding outfit), it will be paid off before I am charged - I pay off any Credit Card debt monthly.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next year. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

April is now in the bank, I am still extremely bearish on the world economy and the US economy...We are headed for a financial storm and it is very important for all of us to be up to date on current events. It time to be prepared for the worse and pray for the best. I will be saving as much as I can but with the wedding I am going to be running low on cash flow. We will see how it all plays out here...

The Great Con Job: Must Watch

2010-04-28T14:34:00.001-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Big Government Rewards Failure

2010-04-27T08:34:00.002-04:00

"Big government rewards failure, that's the way it sustains itself, it needs a constant failure as a way to justify its existence and expansion. It fails ultimately, but the saddest thing is, that before it happens, big government would suck a lot of resources from anything even distantly productive that the economy ends up completely destroyed with multiple generations of people being impoverished in this process."

Found in the comment section of one of the blogs I follow. In its simplest form, this statement sums up big government.

Debating a Lunatic

2010-04-22T19:52:00.007-04:00

This is a debate I had over the heath care bill with a friend over facebook. Unfortunately, I feel we have a major problem in our country and I want to have an open minded debate and hear the other opinions to see if we can come to a common ground and start to fix the problem. I laid out my side to the best of my ability. This is what took place with commentary on the side...

I am the yellow square, I have a couple other friends jump in as well.

The only modifications of this exchange is the names, and any irrelevant discussion ie. Mike-"Let's get together and the first round is on me."

Please let me know what you think of this debate!

Another Must Listen: Dr. Lawrence Parks

2010-04-15T08:46:00.003-04:00

Dr. Lawrence Parks Executive Director Foundation of the Advancement of Monetary Education (FAME) Topic: Collapse of the Dollar

via: Financial Sense News Hour

Ron Paul at SRLC

2010-04-12T08:30:00.003-04:00

Ron Paul is the type of leader/s we need in Washington. I am not sure why Ron Paul isn't more popular than he his? If anyone would just listen to him, they should see why he is the only guy in Washington making any sense. His is one of few that believes in The Constitution and let me leave you with this statement for the people that believe that The Constitution is a living and breathing document(that the document is old so we should just take the parts relevant to todays times):

"We are not sufficient of ourselves to stand against it, and if we knock down the law, the Constitution, to chase it with expediency and private justice, what will protect us when it turns around to devour us?

But we should never be a willing victim, and even worse, a silent bystander or mocking accomplice. This is why were you born here and now, to stand witness to the truth, as you can find it and value it above all else."

-via Jesse

Moral Hazard and the Silent Majority

2010-04-09T16:06:00.001-04:00

via: wepollock

March 2010 Net Worth:50K! 100k On Deck

2010-04-06T07:55:00.004-04:00

After a few months of saving a little more and trying to get over the $50,000.00 mark, we finally reach another goal. This month was a little crazy with having to pay close to $700.00 in vehicle maintenance. Along with having to pay for a few wedding things. The stock market is really the reason we jumped up this month. We are going to enjoy March because the next few months are not going to be a good to us(at least I believe)
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Still smooth sailing with the cash savings, a nice little $1500.00 jump. I would love to have this growth every month. This has a few fund in it that we are saving instead of reinvesting. For the most part, this money grows from money directly transferred from paycheck to my money market. I do not see this money unless I have a big emergency. It is the money that we are saving for a downpayment on a house.
This bracket holds the funds for insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA, and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks still seem to be slowly growing. I bought more stocks and sold out of my (FAZ). I have decided to hedge with commodities rather than a leveraged ETF. I bought the rare earth metals I was watching last month (AVARF). I purchased some Royal Gold Inc. (RGLD) at the end of the month as well. The other gold/silver and mining stocks and couple other random ones - (GLD)(SLV)(EGO)(AUY)(ZQK) ZDK finally took off after their earnings report, now I wish I owned more, it is up 103% since I bought it. I am one month from dollar cost averaging in silver every month. I believe that silver is going to be one of the best investments and that it could get up to $100 (spot).

As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for the USA.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Saw a nice little jump this month with the stock market. I'm not really checking on this bracket(daily/weekly) as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: Slow growth here this month. I still think the market is going to correct itself. I will keep cash on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year. In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX)

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 10K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: This is just a more car maintenance along with purchase of airplane flights to a wedding that I put on credit, it will be paid off before I am charged - I pay off any Credit Card debt monthly.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next ear. I ended paying near $458.00 dollars in interest last year, but still just contemplating paying off early. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

March was another great month considering how bearish I am on the economy, sovereign debt, and our government. Next few months are going to remain crazy with all the wedding stuff with time and money so we will see how everything goes, would love to keep having months like this one.

Greenspan, Summers and Economy

2010-04-05T08:41:00.002-04:00

"One cannot fight this sort of evil with hatred and violence, or hysteria and intemperate accusations, for these are its creatures, and it uses them always to further its ends. The only worthy adversary of the darkness is transparency, openness, justice, and truth based on facts, in the light of reason, with the guidance of the light of the world. We are not sufficient of ourselves to stand against it, and if we knock down the law, the Constitution, to chase it with expediency and private justice, what will protect us when it turns around to devour us? But we should never be a willing victim, and even worse, a silent bystander or mocking accomplice. This is why were you born here and now, to stand witness to the truth, as you can find it and value it above all else.

It is not easy to find the truth, as it is a journey, a way that never ends. And without a proper guide and companionship, it may be all too easy to grow weary or panic, and lose one's bearings and one's heart. But sometimes it is easier to discover where and what is not the truth by its acts, its results, the fruit that it produces, and the darkness and secrecy in which it dwells."

via Jesse's Café Américain

Liberty

2010-03-28T18:42:00.001-04:00

"The fact is that liberty, in any true sense, is a concept that lies quite beyond the reach of the inferior man's mind. He can imagine and even esteem, in his way, certain false forms of liberty - for example, the right to choose between two political mountebanks, and to yell for the more obviously dishonest - but the reality is incomprehensible to him. And no wonder, for genuine liberty demands of its votaries a quality he lacks completely, and that is courage. The man who loves it must be willing to fight for it; blood, said Jefferson, is its natural manure. More, he must be able to endure it - an even more arduous business. Liberty means self-reliance, it means resolution, it means the capacity for doing without."

- H.L. Mencken

Economics: Fiat Currency

2010-03-24T11:02:00.004-04:00

The Making Work Pay Credit

2010-03-14T18:41:00.003-04:00

Part of the government's 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, this credit was designed to put more money in taxpayers' pockets by taking less money out of their paychecks throughout the year. With less money being withheld, fewer people are getting large refunds. Remember, getting a tax refund means you've given the government too much and now you're getting your money back. Since the government took less, you have less to get back.

I believe there are going to be a lot of pissed off people when they realize this when they pay taxes this year. You do not want to owe the government and do not want the government owing you. If you are a saver than you would rather owe than be receiving tax return. This is why you set up a fund and withhold taxes(you want to be around $0.00). So when it is time to pay uncle sam you have that money sitting somewhere making a little interest rather, than letting the government borrow it from you and they make interest off it.

Jim Rogers on Bailouts

2010-03-11T08:49:00.001-05:00

Daily Bell: Do you believe in the bailouts taking place in America?

Jim Rogers: Of course not. This is what the Japanese tried to do in the 1990s and it led to zombie banks, zombie companies, lots of problems generally. And the same thing is going to happen this time too. America already has its zombie companies. We are going deeper and deeper into debt. With Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the debt is just staggering. And of course all those derivatives and off balance sheet items are obligations of the US taxpayer. This will continue to get worse and is a horrible disaster.

The way things are supposed to work is, when somebody goes bankrupt or somebody fails, he goes bankrupt. Then competent people come in, take over the assets, reorganize and start over from a sounder base. Just as what happened in Scandinavia, Korea or Mexico or Russia, or many other countries in the past twenty years. Yes it is horrible for two or three years but then things get much better. The Japanese did it the other way round, and they still have not recovered. What America is doing is taking the assets away from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people - and then saying, "OK now you can compete with the competent people with THEIR ASSETS." I mean it is absurd economics, it's outrageous morally and the politicians don't care about morality of course, and it's a disaster that is being imposed on America and the rest of the world.

See rest of interview at The Daily Bell

The Great American Bubble Machine

2010-03-08T11:34:00.001-05:00

February 2010 Net Worth: More Growth

2010-03-02T08:05:00.006-05:00

Another month in the books and another positive growth- 4.68% Not quite as good as last month but still growing. Last February my net worth was $35,410.64 that is a growth of around 65% or so. That is real encouraging to me! This is why I add these number every month, to see how my wealth is growing.

I started my taxes and it looks like I will be owing uncle sam this year with the new Making Work Pay Tax Credit. I will not go their because we are happy, but it will effect a lot of people not expecting to owe the government this year. So, the next couple of months might not be as good to us as these last few. I am also hoping that we do not see another downturn in the economy which could start to kick in later this year.
Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: This category jumped this month and I actually thought I would have saved a little more than I did. I did have one of our vehicles worked on for around $400.00 which would have been nice to add. For the most part, this money grows from money directly transferred from paycheck to my money market. I do not see this money unless I have a big emergency. It is the money that we are saving for a downpayment on a house.

This bracket holds the funds for my down payment on house(which is pushed back until after the wedding), insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA(before I max it out), and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks have been slowly growing over the past few months. I have bought some stocks I've been watching along with with some hedging. I bought some Exxon(XOM) and Chevron(CVX) stocks as a hedge for crude oil prices, which I see going up (I expect 100 a barrel in 2010). I drive around 40 miles to work everyday so gas is a big expense. I bought the stock while crude oil was around 76 a barrel. If crude oil goes down the stock goes down, but if it raises, my stocks hopefully will raise with it. I also have gold/silver and mining stocks and couple other random ones - (GLD)(SLV)(EGO)(AUY)(FAZ)(ZQK) I have also added on to my watch list (AVARF - Avalon Rare Metals Inc.)

As you can see I am heavy in commodities in my brokerage account. This is all based on my thought that over the next decade the best investments are going to actually be in hard assets. My Roth/IRA/401k are in pretty common index funds and mutual funds so I figure I can go more risky with brokerage. I believe these will out perform equities in the next decade and if nothing else I feel more comfortable with my portfolio diverse. I am bearish on the US Dollar and US Economy, I believe that trillion dollar deficits are not going bode well for us, citizens of the USA.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Saw a nice little jump this month with the stock market. I'm not really checking on this bracket(daily/weekly) as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: Not much growth here this month - I still have a big chunk of cash sitting on the sidelines which will hopefully be maxed out before April 15th. If I still think the market is going to correct itself I will keep it on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year. I am currently still waiting with cash on the sidelines - In this bracket I have all Vanguard Funds (VTSMX, VGSTX, VEIEX)

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 10K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: This is just a car maintenance that I put on credit, it will be paid off before I am charged - I pay off any Credit Card debt monthly.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little, but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next ear. I ended paying near $458.00 dollars in interest last year, but still just contemplating paying off early. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

February was another great month considering how bearish I am on the economy, sovereign debt, and our government. Next few months are going to be a little crazy with all the wedding stuff with time and money so we will see how everything goes, would love to keep having months like this one.

Weekend Listening: James Dines Author of GOLDBUG!

2010-02-27T13:09:00.003-05:00

This is one of the most interesting and most entertaining interview I have heard. I would take the time and listen to this interview. This is from Financial Sense Newshour Enjoy!

James Dines has become legendary for having made correct forecasts that were in complete contradiction to the rest of the financial community. He has a new book called "GOLDBUG!"

The Hidden Cost of War

2010-02-26T08:40:00.000-05:00

1975 New York = 2010 California

2010-02-25T07:48:00.008-05:00

Take the time and view this series, it is very scary. I know my generation doesn't know much history, much less situations like this. Especially events that happened before we were born, besides the major wars and the great depression. I ask anyone who was born after 1975 to watch this because this can happen and it will happen if we do not get our fiscal house in order. I believe that California will go first...

Found from iTulip.com TARGET="_blank">a new window

My Money Shrugged Turns 1 Year Today!

2010-02-22T09:00:00.003-05:00

My Money Shrugged turns 1 today! I want to thank everyone who has checked out the site and who continues to come back daily, weekly or monthly! It is the viewers of this site that keep me posting things I find and other thoughts and ideas I have.

This site started out as a personal finance blog and has evolved into a personal finance/political blog. I know I probably lost a lot of viewers when I started posting about government intervention...*shrugged*. When I started looking at my finances and how I wanted to always be a saver and be prepared for the future, I realized there are so many outside factors that influence my capital. I also dove deeper into economics and now see how government intervention can strongly decrease not only mine but others people's saving through taxation, inflation, and a loss of our freedoms.

I only other thing I would say, is that I would love to start more of a community here, if you feel like commenting on anything I post please do and we can start a conversation so we can learn and exchange ideas and solution that could help with our personal finances and most importantly our freedom.

Thanks again for everyone who reads and send out my links to friends/family/twitter/etc...

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” - Thomas Jefferson

Peter Schiff - Unhappy Stimulus Anniversary

2010-02-18T08:51:00.000-05:00

Capitalism vs Socialism - What about Freedom?

2010-02-16T05:23:00.000-05:00

Read this in the comments section over at Zerohedge:

Statism; and socialism, corporatism, fascism are all variants of the same authoritarian dynamic, where the state exerts authority over individuals. The difference between socialism and fascism is, in terms of the principles involved, one of degree, not kind. I.e. You Do Not Own Your Own Life.

The cause to rally behind is, in general umbrella terms, freedom. The fight is against centralized power and the curtailment of individual rights. The facilitator of that power, right now in the US, is the Federal Reserve. Get the government and quasi-government entities out of trying to manipulate and manage currency and the economy, and the rest becomes just quibbling. I would love it if the fundamental debate nowadays was simply capitalism versus socialism, but the fact is there is no capitalism now. All we've got now is massive government intervention and manipulation of the economy, and whether the intervention favors the rich or the poor, at this point doesn't matter because they're running on fumes, over the edge of a cliff. Getting back to a real and healthy economy means breaking the government's power to distort markets, especially the currency. Once we get back to that point (if ever), then I'm happy to talk capitalism versus socialism, and what can we afford to allow the government to provide, etc. But until then, to me all forms of state interference in the economy are part of the problem, not the solution.

"The cause to rally behind is, in general umbrella terms, freedom. The fight is against centralized power and the curtailment of individual rights." This is where we are...People get so wrapped up in fight against this or that but we have to get to the point of it being about individual's freedoms . I highly suggest you watch the video in the last post.

The American Form of Government

2010-02-13T10:26:00.001-05:00

This is a must watch...

¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!

2010-02-04T08:03:00.008-05:00

More comments from Zerohedge.com this time from a commenter JR - These are well thought out comments that address history and how free people are willing to fight/die for freedom:

The US fiat dollar did not become the global ”reserve currency” until 1944. That is not what built America. But in the hands of the Fed, IMO, it is what is destroying America.

The American Dream was about individualism and the opportunity to achieve success without interference from others. The American Dream was about freedom; its lifeblood was free enterprise.

Its heartbeat was America’s superior patent system. That’s what gave men the incentive to burn the midnight oil--a chance to own a property right in their own invention. A 1997 study of the inventors honored in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, revealed that 91% of the world’s greatest inventors worked in America and only 9% in other countries.

Global fascism or Red China pseudo capitalism can never give the spring to invention that our Founding Fathers gave to Americans when they included in the United States Constitution the provision “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

I have faith that men who have known freedom will always, in the end, sacrifice everything to retain that freedom. Americans are close to that point now where they will tap into that thirst for freedom that brings revolution if the few now wielding raw power do not respond to the call for change – real change, not Obama “change.”

“Government exists off surpluses created by the people whom they rule. The ruling classes, i.e., those people who refer to themselves as ‘government,’ do not produce wealth, thus their existence depends upon the expropriation of assets from others.” -- Robert J. Ringer in “Restoring the American Dream.”

It is now a question of opportunity—as things get worse, and they are going to get much worse, and when the government clamps down more and more with no redress, that desire for freedom is going to kick in, and men are going to drop everything to get that freedom back. And they are going to fight: and will kill if they have to kill as they always have, in the cause of freedom.

I hope it doesn't come to this point. We as citizens of this country have to get together and get the government out of our business. Governments, since the beginning of time, have always been oppressive and the bigger and bigger it grows, the harder it is for the people to gain control. This isn't about politics as usual, its about government growing to a point that they want more and more control and power. Once they get drunk off power, they will do whatever it takes, to not lose control, including what are in these videos. They have a strangle hold on the US economy and are a part of almost every aspects of our life...

medicare
medicaid
social security
SSI
extended unemployment benefits
emergency unemployment benefits
socialized medicine
corporate welfare
bailouts
just to name a few..

They tax us to death, and they try to tell us what to spend and not spend our money on, and they claim to know what is best for us. Last time I checked, they are the ones that got us into this problem, why do I believe they are going to get us out of it? I DON'T, it is time for this government to step aside and allow for the free market to get us out of this recession. Wake up America? Demand less involvement of you incompetent government and its policy makers!

Read Atlas Shrugged and open you mind, trust me I know very little, but I have started to open my mind and what I am finding out is scary. At least I know that I am doing my best to wake up the people to be united.

¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! (The people united will never be defeated!)

Money As Debt

2010-02-02T05:51:00.001-05:00

This should be mandatory viewing in order to get a High School Diploma.

January 2010 Net Worth: Starting Off Right

2010-02-01T05:23:00.001-05:00

The start of 2010 was a good month for us even though the market was down. We have a lot on tap for 2010—our wedding, honeymoon, bachelor party, 2-3 friends wedding. If we can just keep it up in 2010 as we did in 2009 we will be truly blessed.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: We saw cash savings drop 5k, but that was because we paid off our credit cards which were interest free that had my fiancé diamond and our honeymoon. It feels amazing to know that our honeymoon is paid in full. This is why I was didn't see much growth in this area over the last few months. I also bought some stock at the beginning of the month. Hopefully we will start to see some growth in this area over the net coming months, even though with wedding stuff, it might not grow the way I would like. This bracket holds the funds for my down payment on house(which is pushed back until after the wedding), insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA(before I max it out), and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 13-15k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: Stocks have been slowly growing over the past few months, as I have bought some stocks I have been watching along with with some hedging. I bought some Exxon(XOM) and Chevron(CVX) stocks as a hedge for crude oil prices which I see going up in 2010. I drive around 40 miles to work everyday so gas is a big expense. I bought the stock while crude oil was around 76 a barrel. If crude oil goes down the stock goes down but if it raises my stocks hopefully will raise with it. I also have gold/silver and mining stocks and couple other random ones - (GLD)(SLV)(EGO)(AUY)(FAZ)(ZQK)

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Not seeing much growth here this last month. I not really checking on this bracket as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck. This month it jumped up based of my company 401k match which is nice since the match was suspended in 2008.

Retirement IRA's: Overall I lost money this month with my Roth as I have started to dollar cost averaging in to max it out the rest of the year. I still have a big chunk of cash sitting on the sidelines which will hopefully be maxed out before April 15th. If I still think the market is going to correct itself I will keep it on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year.

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle under 10K!! Credit Cards done...

Credit Cards: All the credit card debt we had was from a credit card with a 12 month 0% APR. Last month also I had a balance because we paid for our honeymoon, and it was on the balance but we paid it off before we accrued any interest. This is a great feeling even though I could have paid the other credit card off but we had cash sitting in a high yield saving account gaining a small amount of interest.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal this or next ear. I ended paying near $458.00 dollars in interest last year(dang) but still just contemplating paying off early. We are still saving up for a house so not sure its in our best interest to get rid of our cash sitting to be debt free on my vehicle.

So overall January was a exciting month with our credit card debt being gone. Still kicking up the saving as we have the wedding and possibly home owning in our future.

A Scared Trust: The American Experience

2010-01-31T12:16:00.009-05:00

This is a sermon that is a must listen to about our freedoms as a God given unalienable Rights:

What Happens If The Debt Ceiling Is Not Raised?

2010-01-29T08:33:00.007-05:00

Yesterday America just got permission to hit 100% Debt/GDP. The Senate approved an amendment increasing the US debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion. for a total of $14.3 Trillion. I was reading Zerohedge when someone asked what would happen if the ceiling wasn't raised? This is what came out of the comments section that I found very interesting.

(The following are from comments by readers on Zerohedge.com)

Short answer: Nothing happens (but you knew that)

Long answer: Current law requires a budget ceiling and a vote to raise it. Violating that law would open up violation of other similar laws. Not too far down the path of similar broken laws, the states start printing their own money. In US dollars. At which point hyperinflation ignites and the USofA ceases to exist as a functioning union. Much hilarity ensues.

The monetary system of the world (not just the USA) is based upon the illusion that there will always be greater fools available to pay the last greater fool.

The only reason people remain in the room that's about to be flooded with poisonous gas is the complete and utter belief (supported by group think and conventional wisdom along with healthy dollops of denial and self interest trumping rationality) that each person can get out before the gas can over come them.

As long as the majority continues to believe in the lie, the lie remains solid and fully formed. Thus the illusion is reality because the belief (and by extension the actions) of the people makes it real. One of the realizations one has when looking at this philosophically is that reality is simply what the majority says it is.

The banks are stable despite horrendously convoluted and distorted balance sheets and non-performing assets simply because the government says they are and people want them to be. Thus they are. If a rule or law threatens to upset the illusion, it's changed to conform to the group think.

What most people don't understand is that this "reality" is extremely fragile and will fail quickly. The Fed, Treasury and the President understand this extremely well. This is why this is considered a National Security issue and every lie, theft, payoff and Ponzi is encouraged and endorsed at the highest levels. Our reality is supported by a lie and thus by extension is a lie. Since there is no more real support under our economic reality, every effort must be extended to support the lie.

Do or Die! Seen from that point of view, everything that's going on is perfectly understandable.

The lie holds until the first person breaks the pact and heads for the exit. It takes no more than one. Then the stampede erupts because while nobody wants to be first, everyone wants to be second.

I think California is that "person" at the sovereign level. As goes Cali, so goes the nation, so goes the world and in rapid fashion. We will see, come summer, if Cali stays within the illusion or bails.

Someone pointed out this video as metaphor for our current situation:

Cunning lions await the herd as it lumbers forward, trustingly, behind their dear leader. If divided, the weak in the herd are slowly picked off, unless...

Anyways, if someone has a better explanation to what would really happen, send it to me!

Which Pill Will You Choose?

2010-01-25T07:58:00.013-05:00

I have just recently started to look down the rabbit hole and it has been uncomfortable at times, thinking, could this really be the country that I live in. Do not get me wrong, America is the best country in the world and it truly is the last hope for the rest of the world.

We have to get back to knowing history and start moving in the opposite direction of what we have being doing the last 50+ years, Darryl Robert Schoon writes:

In the early stages of capitalist systems, interest and principal can be serviced out of the debtor’s cash flow. In the final stage of “mature capitalist systems”, they cannot.

Capitalism’s final stage is what Minsky calls “ponzi-financing”, when debt payments can only be made by additional borrowing. This is what the US, the UK and Japan are doing today, having to borrow against tomorrow in order to pay yesterday’s bills.

For 50 years, not one Dollar of new debt created by the US government to fund the activities it does not wish to tax for has been repaid. The debt has simply been “re-financed” with new debt being sold to retire the existing debt.
(www.the-privateer.com)

At some point, the end finally arrives. Ponzi-financing cannot service debt forever. Investing in unhedged paper assets is the bet that it can.

I only have a few agenda's on this blog, which is growing and preserving my wealth and helping people see that what I am just starting to see. What is the use of creating wealth if a government can destroy it, tax it, steal it from its people. It is becoming more and more clear to me that government is not our answer. It is not a right(Rep.) or left(Dem.) fight, it is about believing in the America people and that we do not need a group of people telling us what decisions are good for us. Both parties have grown government to bigger and bigger proportions. It comes down to one word "FREEDOM"!!! Through out history, governments have oppressed it's people. There was a reason our founding father wanted us to question our government:

"Any people that would give up liberty for a little temporary safety deserves neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government." - Patrick Henry

"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Thomas Jefferson

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." -George Washington

"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicity." - Thomas Jefferson

So I ask you...Which pill do you pick?

If you picked the Red Pill here is where to begin:

Gold and Economic Freedom by Alan Greenspan

America's Impending Master Class Dictatorship by Stewart Dougherty

I certainly do know know a lot, and there is so much corruption going on in Washington these days? I am constantly trying to form my own opinions about our situation and look what is going on currently and how we got where we are today. I think Ron Paul is the best fit person right now for President, but I would always watch and keep a close eye on him. One thing I do not understand is how we think politicians are some how better or smarter than we are and trust them to do what is right by us? All I can ask is for you to join me in taking the red pill...are you ready?

USA watchdog Greg Hunter

2010-01-21T18:04:00.003-05:00

Audio from Greg Hunter of USAwatchdog would take the time and listen to these men. They address the deficit's, spending and entitlements.

And David Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S. On America's economic comeback. He is the guy in I.O.U.S.A, you can read more about that here.

Audio from Brad & Brit Show

Ron Paul: "Prepare for Revolutionary Changes in the Not-too distant Future."

2010-01-17T16:28:00.001-05:00

“Could it all be a bad dream, or a nightmare? Is it my imagination, or have we lost our minds? It's surreal; it's just not believable. A grand absurdity; a great deception, a delusion of momentous proportions; based on preposterous notions; and on ideas whose time should never have come; simplicity grossly distorted and complicated; insanity passed off as logic; grandiose schemes built on falsehoods with the morality of Ponzi and Madoff; evil described as virtue; ignorance pawned off as wisdom; destruction and impoverishment in the name of humanitarianism; violence, the tool of change; preventive wars used as the road to peace; tolerance delivered by government guns; reactionary views in the guise of progress; an empire replacing the Republic; slavery sold as liberty; excellence and virtue traded for mediocracy; socialism to save capitalism; a government out of control, unrestrained by the Constitution, the rule of law, or morality; bickering over petty politics as we collapse into chaos; the philosophy that destroys us is not even defined.

We have broken from reality--a psychotic Nation. Ignorance with a pretense of knowledge replacing wisdom. Money does not grow on trees, nor does prosperity come from a government printing press or escalating deficits.

We're now in the midst of unlimited spending of the people's money, exorbitant taxation, deficits of trillions of dollars--spent on a failed welfare/warfare state; an epidemic of cronyism; unlimited supplies of paper money equated with wealth.

A central bank that deliberately destroys the value of the currency in secrecy, without restraint, without nary a whimper. Yet, cheered on by the pseudo-capitalists of Wall Street, the military industrial complex, and Detroit.

We police our world empire with troops on 700 bases and in 130 countries around the world. A dangerous war now spreads throughout the Middle East and Central Asia. Thousands of innocent people being killed, as we become known as the torturers of the 21st century.

We assume that by keeping the already-known torture pictures from the public's eye, we will be remembered only as a generous and good people. If our enemies want to attack us only because we are free and rich, proof of torture would be irrelevant.

The sad part of all this is that we have forgotten what made America great, good, and prosperous. We need to quickly refresh our memories and once again reinvigorate our love, understanding, and confidence in liberty. The status quo cannot be maintained, considering the current conditions. Violence and lost liberty will result without some revolutionary thinking.

We must escape from the madness of crowds now gathering. The good news is the reversal is achievable through peaceful and intellectual means and, fortunately, the number of those who care are growing exponentially.

Of course, it could all be a bad dream, a nightmare, and that I'm seriously mistaken, overreacting, and that my worries are unfounded. I hope so. But just in case, we ought to prepare ourselves for revolutionary changes in the not-too-distant future.”

Thoughts from Chumbawamba

2010-01-15T07:15:00.000-05:00

Here is some thoughts from (Chumbawamba) poster over at Zerohedge.com:

In a nutshell (because my education took years, so you can't expect me to give you the important background to my argument in one posting, or even several) this system is f*cked. Our debt-to-GDP ration is well beyond what other empires experienced just before their collapse. Our central bank is monetizing thin air to pay off the financial blackholes created by unregulated/out-of-control over-the-counter derivatives that are valued at well over $600 trillion globally, and our government is planning to borrow every last unit of currency under the moon in order to keep from falling into a fiscal abyss. How the hell does anyone expect this is going to turn out anything but very, very badly?

There are now literally tens of trillions of dollars of liabilities stretching from here on decades into the future. Our debt-based monetary system means these liabilities will only increase in cost and interest as time goes on. From where are the revenues going to come? The pace of productivity and wealth creation in this nation will have to inflate accordingly. How is this going to be accomplished? Do you have any answers? Does anyone?

We took a quantum leap from billions to trillions--a thousand-fold increase--in our economic discourse. It follows then that our GDP will have track this increase to keep up with the new normal. Again, from where are the revenues going to come? Are they going to be conjured up again like magic, so that we go from trillions to quadrillions as the new new normal? Or are you going to be expected to magically increase your productive output 1000 times to make up the difference, along with every other American (including children 1 and older, since we’ll also be needing more manpower for the job, way more than we have even if you include the illegals)?

WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS?

The answer never comes. Oh yeah, this is simple to solve, they say. They'll just "add liquidity" to the market, then "drain it", as if this was just a matter of doing the dishes, and all the complaining and fussing and fearing and loathing and hemming and hawing was all just a matter of no one wanting to pony up to the sink to actually do the deed. But no, that’s just a cheap distraction. So the question remains:

WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR ALL OF THIS?

I’ll tell you who: Us. As in you. And I. Or at least those of us that are silly enough to file and pay taxes (I don't know about you two, but I do not submit to extortion, otherwise known by the letters I-R-S). And how many people like me do you think there are now? Probably just a relative few. We're the "out there" nutballs. We're the ones that make wild-eye predictions of economic collapse and social chaos to follow. We're the ones who get pooh-poohed. Until the government keeps pulling shit like this. Then we grow in numbers. The disgusted; the disenfranchised; the disaffected. We find each other, learn from each other, and spread the wisdom. We watch as the government creeps upon our God-given freedoms like a depraved predator, one after the other, picking them off until one day we’ll be left naked and defenseless. But we prepare, and in the meantime we keep introducing new people to the mouth of the rabbit hole. And if you’re courageous, and intelligent, you’ll go in. And the deeper down the rabbit hole you go, the more you realize that real money—gold and silver—is the answer.

As more people discover the answer, the dollar takes one step closer to irrelevancy. Once it reaches that point, you have hyperinflation. Once the dollar enters hyperinflation the game is over; or rather, it just begins. But then that's a matter of perspective :)

Will the dollar cross that line of confidence? After all of my study, I sincerely believe it will and am convinced beyond a shadow of doubt about that conviction. I’ve been waiting for someone to come along and explain how I’m wrong about this. Despite my rhetoric, my eyes and mind are open. Convince me. Anyone?

In short: follow Austrian school of economics. I'm not saying they have ALL the answers, but so far it seems they have pretty damn nearly all of them.

----------------------------------

Ask yourself these questions:

1) What system is collapsing? The one in the US? I.E. the dollar?

1a) If the dollar collapses, what does that mean domestically?

1b) What does it mean internationally?

2) Is the FDIC solvent?

2a) If not, how safe are your bank accounts?

3) Are the firms in which you have your various retirement accounts solvent?

3a) Really? Are you sure? Did you check their balance sheet?

3b) Including all their hidden liabilities?

3c) If not, how safe are you accounts with them?

4) Does America strike you as a financially strong country?

4a) If not, do you think America will remain the world's sole superpower indefinitely under these conditions?

4b) If not, what does that mean for the dollar, the world's reserve currency, and the unit of account upon which all other world currencies (except gold) are based (again, domestically and internationally)?

Mull that over.

But here's a spoiler. The answer to all the above is:

Don't wait until inflation eats away your savings. Every day you wait is like an ounce of silver slipping out of your hands, lost forever.

History is your teacher. All others are substitutes. Including me.

I am Chumbawamba.

This might seem extreme, but he does ask some tough questions...cannot say I disagree and yes I tend to ignore what he says but doesn't mean that I don't feel this way down deep within my beliefs.

The Federals Papers and a Country Divided

2010-01-07T06:11:00.000-05:00

The following is an excerpts from The Federalist Papers, © Copyright, 1961, by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

But whatever may be our situation, whether firmly united under one national government, or split into a number of confederacies, certain it is, that foreign nations will know and view it exactly as it is; and they will act toward us accordingly. If they see that our national government is efficient and well administered, our trade prudently regulated, our militia properly organized and disciplined, our resources and finances discreetly managed, our credit re-established, our people free, contented, and united, they will be much more disposed to cultivate our friendship than provoke our resentment. If, on the other hand, they find us either destitute of an effectual government (each State doing right or wrong, as to its rulers may seem convenient), or split into three or four independent and probably discordant republics or confederacies, one inclining to Britain, another to France, and a third to Spain, and perhaps played off against each other by the three, what a poor, pitiful figure will America make in their eyes! How liable would she become not only to their contempt but to their outrage, and how soon would dear-bought experience proclaim that when a people or family so divide, it never fails to be against themselves.

PUBLIUS.

This is very interesting...let's go down the check list:

U.S. National Government:

efficient: No

well administered: No

our trade prudently regulated: Yes but having problems

our militia properly organized and disciplined: Yes but spread thin

our resources managed: No

finances discreetly managed: No

credit re-established: No

our people free: Yes (but losing more and more everyday)

contented: Definitely Not

united: Definitely Not

"what a poor, pitiful figure will America make in their eyes!"

Person's Financial vs Government Risk Viability

2009-12-26T10:28:00.004-05:00

When calulating an individual person's financial risk and viability, we look at his/her debt to income level (DTI), but when talking about a country we always look at debt to GDP.

However, is this valid?

Every dollar government borrows and spends makes the GDP go up.

This is akin to looking at an individual person and counting everything he has purchased with his credit cards as "income".

(Also, the GDP is not the Government's income. It is ours. As soon as the government starts creating something of value and selling it at a profit, it can count it as it's income.)

Liberty and Tyranny

2009-12-11T07:16:00.001-05:00

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names -liberty and tyranny."

The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18, 1864), p. 301-302.

What an amazing quote...

Zimbabwe Ben

2009-12-03T20:27:00.000-05:00

Gold Thoughts: Arnold Bock

2009-12-03T08:35:00.000-05:00

It is because an affinity for and an understanding of the political mindset causes me to understand what decision makers will do…and why. Because a politician follows the political calendar, s/he only concerns himself/herself with the time horizon leading to the next election.
Anything requiring decisions beyond the date of the next election will be the responsibility of whoever is on the next watch. If the politician in office today is in office after the next election, a shrug of the shoulder indicates that worries of that kind can be dismissed for now to be dealt with later.

So major and difficult, but necessary, decisions are inevitably deferred. In their place spending money gives the appearance of concern and of doing something to fix the apparent problem. Aren’t those elected officials doing what we elected them to do? It certainly looks as if they are.
More cynical observers would characterize these actions by the political class and their senior bureaucratic minions as buying time hoping that something positive might magically emerge.
Those who are super cynical would even conclude give-away programs are designed simply to bribe the voters in order to curry goodwill for another term at the levers of power.

What all this means is that there is no discipline or inclination to do anything of real value in fixing the core economic and financial problems. That being the case, new programs, more spending stimulus and money creation will always be the order of the day. Hence the currency will devalue and investors will find gold as their best safe-haven refuge.

The dollar will devalue because massive dilution caused by incessant money creation allows future obligations to become more manageable – for government – because it is the only way that it can meet its future obligations for employee pensions, accumulated debt, Medicare and social security.

A nominal dollar which buys much less in the future than it does today is still a dollar. Unfortunately the holders or recipients of those devalued pieces of paper will find they are essentially fraudulent promises.

These realities make gold the closest thing to a sure-bet investment. They are also the reasons why gold will go much higher than most of us allow ourselves to contemplate.
Buckle your seatbelts and enjoy the ride ahead!

I still think Gold is overbought, it is always a good reminder to keep myself honest by reading stuff like this. I have a lot of events coming up this year wedding, honeymoon, trying to buy house, etc...With all these I am going to need liquidity and not sure holding on to bullion is going to be my best option. I am looking to buy some on the dip (if that ever happens) think I might as well get into som Sliver and Oil.

November 09 Net Worth: Not Much Changing

2009-12-01T08:41:00.006-05:00

November was a another solid month with a 5.89% growth. I am looking forward to breaking down my yearly net worth in January. I didn't do to much this month and don't really see December being an exciting month, as I am going to ride it out the rest of the year, unless gold has a strong decline.

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Saw only a small jump this month as we added some cash into our brokerage account. I still do not see much growth in this area over the next 4-5 months with all the wedding and honeymoon stuff that we will have to pay for. This bracket holds the funds for my down payment on house(which is pushed back another year), engagement ring, insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA(before I max it out), and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 16-17k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: As you can see I sold all my stocks this month. Most all of that $688 is all shorting the financials/stock market and the rest sitting in cash in my brokerage account.

Precious Metals: All the money from selling my stocks I bought gold stocks and looking to buy more on the dip, which we just had, but did not pull the trigger.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Not seeing much growth here this last month. I not really checking on this bracket as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: I have finally moved all my IRA/Roth IRA into the same bracket. I still have a big chunk of cash sitting on the sidelines which will hopefully be maxed out before April 15th. If I still think the market is going to correct itself I will keep it on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year.

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle and Credit still high

Credit Cards: All of this is still the engagement credit card with a 12 month 0% APR, I am not going to put much of a dent into this debt until the 12 month or January/February, when I will pay it off in full. I have that money going straight into my saving account creating a little interest off of it till I pay it in full.

Car Loan: I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal next year.

November was great month. It was the third month in a row with positive gain, and five out of last six months, so I cannot complain, especially since this is through this recession.

Gold and Money - Atlas Shrugged

2009-11-26T08:26:00.000-05:00

"Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion--when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing--when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors--when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you--when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice--you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.

Whenever destroyers appear among men, they start by destroying money, for money is men's protection and the base of a moral existence. Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.' "

"Francisco's Money Speech" by Ayn Rand

National Debt

2009-11-25T07:34:00.003-05:00

We recently just passed $12 trillion, keep stepping on that gas administration, no one is watching, we are all to busy watching American Idol and enjoying the recovery...

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Total: $12,030,203,408,433.00

Debt Per Person: $39,058.00

Debt Per Taxpayer: $110,681.00

Timing the Market

2009-11-24T07:24:00.004-05:00

I feel like this sometimes, good thing my risk tolerance is strong...I am just praying that the game hasn't changed like some are saying because I have a lot riding on long term investments. This even while I hold my IRA in cash at the moment.

The Vampire Squid and Their Politicians

2009-11-20T20:12:00.004-05:00

Can I rant for just a second? Please take a good look at this list of Representatives who voted nay on an amendment offered by Rep. Ron Paul (R., Texas) to give federal watchdogs massive new authority to audit the Federal Reserve. If they are in your State/District please do all you can do to make sure they are not re-elected. I am sorry, they do not deserve the right to serve this great country one more day. It is laughable that Barney Frank is still in office, I would be ashamed if I lived in Massachusetts.

The Federal Reserve is robbing Americans right in front of our faces and our politicians are allowing for it to happen. Here are a list of the these politicians who are in bed with the Federal Reserve:

CA-35 Rep. Maxine Waters
CA-42 Rep. Gary G. Miller
CA-43 Rep. Joe Baca
CT-04 Rep. Jim Himes
FL-22 Rep. Ron Klein
IL-04 Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez
IL-08 Rep. Melissa L. Bean
IL-14 Rep. Bill Foster
IN-02 Rep. Joe Donnelly
IN-07 Rep. Andre Carson
KS-03 Rep. Dennis Moore
MA-04 Rep. Barney Frank
MA-08 Rep. Michael E. Capuano
MA-09 Rep. Stephen F. Lynch
MN-05 Rep. Keith Ellison
NC-12 Rep. Melvin L. Watt
NC-13 Rep. Brad Miller
NY-05 Rep. Gary L. Ackerman
NY-06 Rep. Gregory W. Meeks
NY-14 Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney
OH-06 Rep. Charles Wilson
OH-15 Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy
TX-09 Rep. Al Green
WI-04 Rep. Gwen Moore
WV-02 Rep. Shelley Moore Capito

Comment by Cognitive Dissonance

2009-11-18T21:37:00.004-05:00

This post is from a regular reader By the name of Cognitive Dissonance over at Zero Hedge, and thought I would share it with you:

This post is about

by Cognitive Dissonance
on Wed, 11/18/2009 - 16:47

I am convinced more and more every day this bill is DOA. They simply can’t let this pass in any form whatsoever other than purely ceremonial. The Ponzi can't be exposed to the light of the day for it will not survive.

As I've talked about repeatedly, all Americans (not just corporate or white collar, but blue and green collar as well) have been deep captured by the Ponzi. Their future is wrapped up in their homes, their 40(k)’s and their public and private pensions. They knew deep down inside their hearts this train ride would end some day and they’re sick to death that time might be now. And they don’t wish to face that truth.

Given the choice of exposure now, causing asset classes to drop like a rock when the true extent of the corruption, counterfeit Treasuries and MBS, blatant influence peddling by the Fed and so on (followed by what I believe will be slow but sustainable growth over 10 years) or the slow melt down into deep recession/depression most people hope and pray will be the preferred outcome (unless you are a double shot espresso Kool-Aid drinker and you believe nirvana is around the corner) the choice is obvious. Do nothing and hope for the best.

We The People are addicted to false hope because false hopes bind us to impossible conditions and situations. As long as we can convince ourselves that recovery is just around the corner, we won't do the really hard work required to stop this madness, cut out the corruption and filth and get on with building a more sustainable world.

It’s just not going to happen until people want it to happen. I beg everyone to work on the people you know who are in denial. Don't give them huge doses of reality all at once because they’ll simply turn you off like the TV. And don't talk at them. Please don’t point the finger at them and say you should know this or that. It’s poison and all it’ll get you is hostility.

Present your ideas as a narrative about yourself and your own personal road to understanding and awareness. Tell them “I used to believe this about the world but when I began to look in some uncomfortable places, I found this and that.” People have a tendency to listen if they don't feel they’re being lectured to, that the speaker is exposing a personal, hidden and vulnerable side to the listener. Allow the listener to feel empathy towards you rather than force the listener deeper into his or her denial. Seduce them with an honest look at yourself by yourself.

It works. I do it all the time and people listen. Don't make yourself out as a hero for learning the truth. Expose yourself as a reluctant truth seeker who was shocked and saddened by what you found. But now that the shock has worn off, you’re even more determined to stop the insanity. I suspect you won’t need to lie about that fact.

Focus on 5 people and slowly spread the word. It’s our only hope folks.

This is how I try to approach thing when speaking with people about this, but I am not doing so well at it? I will keep trying though as it is the only way to make it stop is to reach we the people.

Reading on Gold/Money/Fed/Dollar

2009-11-16T23:16:00.003-05:00

There is a great guest post over at Weakonomics on Money, Gold, the FED, and why you should be concerned about the US Dollar. It is written by askmrcreditcard who has guest posted on my site before. Check it out, in the meantime I am waiting and hoping that gold comes back down around the 1000.00 mark and will purchase some if so.

Ron Paul: On Market Economy & Creating Money Out of Thin Air

2009-11-13T11:04:00.002-05:00

House Gambles with Economic Future

2009-11-04T13:46:00.002-05:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Dylan's four (shockingly logical) proposals on how to fix the broken financial system:

Inject transparency, primarily to bring almost $500 trillion in swaps to the forefront.

Capital to back Wall Street's gambling. It is a guarantee that very few firms will have Goldman's trading pattern each and every quarter.

Enact a tax-code to discourage short-term profits. "Fortunes should not be made in minutes but over years through the creation of value to society."

Break up the Too Big To Fail banking institutions. Start with Goldman Sachs. Right Now. Christine Varney, we are still looking at you.

October 09 Net Worth: Out of Equities into Precious Metals

2009-11-02T08:19:00.005-05:00

October was a another good month for me, my net worth was up 10% and broke the 40k mark—50k is on deck with 100k sometime soon!

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: We saw cash saving jump up 3k mostly because of a bonus at work, I am so blessed that my company is doing well at the moment with all that is going on with this economy. I still do not see much growth in this area over the next 4-5 months with all the wedding and honeymoon stuff that we will have to pay for. This bracket holds the funds for my down payment on house(which is pushed back another year), engagement ring, insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA(before I max it out), and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 16-17k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: As you can see I sold all my stocks this month. Most all of that $688 is all shorting the financials/stock market and the rest sitting in cash in my brokerage account.

Precious Metals: All the money from selling my stocks I bought gold stocks(see previous post)

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Not seeing much growth here this last month. I not really checking on this bracket as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: Overall I lost money this month with my Roth as I have started to dollar cost averaging in to max it out the rest of the year. I still have a big chunk of cash sitting on the sidelines which will hopefully be maxed out before April 15th. If I still think the market is going to correct itself I will keep it on the sidelines and just try and max out my fiancés and my Roth's next year.

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle and Credit still high

Credit Cards: All of this is still the engagement credit card with a 12 month 0% APR, I am not going to put much of a dent into this debt until the 12 month or January/February, when I will pay it off in full. I have that money going straight into my saving account creating a little interest off of it till I pay it in full.

Car Loan: See last month with starting to think abut paying it off in full at some point—This will probably be next year, as I don't want to take that big of chunk of saving out for it t the moment. I am paying 4% APR on it so I am paying a little but not a ton. Still looking to pay it off early-will probably be a goal next ear.

So overall October was a good month. Still kicking up the saving as I have wedding and honeymoon expenses coming down the line.

Adding Gold Stocks to Portfolio

2009-10-29T08:46:00.004-04:00

So this week I have added some Gold stocks to the mix. Honestly, it is a tad bit scary, as I have only recently been researching gold. Commodities in general kinda freak me out, but this move is something that I truly believe in. I have been following every camp from inflationist, deflationist and stagflationist and even reflationist. I realize that some are calling for a gold bubble and that it could all come crashing down. Personally do see it that way, but I take that into consideration. I think of it more as a hedge against everything. The more I research gold and look into it, I believe I will always keep a percentage of my portfolio as precious metals.

I think that with all the economic turmoil and the continuation of the Fed's total disregard for the dollar that at least I need to protect a certain amount of my cash I have sitting around.

I haven't yet, pulled the trigger on purchasing hard gold or silver. I have been checking it out though.

I like to believe I will always be a saver and that any purchase of hard gold/silver will be the protection of my wealth. As a saver I believe in gold, and the value your wealth has attached to it. Again I would not buy gold as an investment, but more of safe haven of my wealth (which hopefully I will have one day!)

So, I have added a small bit of (AUY, GLD, EGO) and will be showing up in my net worth this coming week.

Your Wealth Being Destroyed Daily

2009-10-14T19:33:00.001-04:00

Cash For Clunker Revisited

2009-10-13T10:18:00.004-04:00

If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000.

However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come April 15th (something that no auto dealer will tell you). If you are in the 30% tax bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.

So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded in a car that was most likely paid for. Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments that you will now be making.

But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off by the dealer.

For example, most dealers in LA was selling the Ford Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission, power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the "cash for clunkers" program started.

When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped discounting them and instead sold them at the list price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota , and Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy did).

So lets do the final tally here:

You traded in a car worth: $3500

You got a discount of: $4500

---------

Net so far +$1000

But you have to pay: $1350 in taxes on the $4500

--------

Net so far: -$350

And you paid: $3000 more than the car was selling for
the month before

----------

Net -$3350

We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car, along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets just stop here.

So who actually made out on the deal? The feds collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500 they "gave" you. The car dealers made an extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars they could not give away the month before. And the consumer got saddled with even more debt that they cannot afford.

Your government convinced the consumer that he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the "government" when in fact Joe was giving away his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.

When will we wake up?

Gold and Economic Freedom

2009-10-09T08:37:00.006-04:00

So you think Gold shouldn't be in your portfolio? See what ex-fed chairman Alan Greenspan wrote 1967. I learned a great deal reading this article.

An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense-perhaps more clearly and subtly than many consistent defenders of laissez-faire -- that gold and economic freedom are inseparable, that the gold standard is an instrument of laissez-faire and that each implies and requires the other.

In order to understand the source of their antagonism, it is necessary first to understand the specific role of gold in a free society.

Money is the common denominator of all economic transactions. It is that commodity which serves as a medium of exchange, is universally acceptable to all participants in an exchange economy as payment for their goods or services, and can, therefore, be used as a standard of market value and as a store of value, i.e., as a means of saving.

The existence of such a commodity is a precondition of a division of labor economy. If men did not have some commodity of objective value which was generally acceptable as money, they would have to resort to primitive barter or be forced to live on self-sufficient farms and forgo the inestimable advantages of specialization. If men had no means to store value, i.e., to save, neither long-range planning nor exchange would be possible.

What medium of exchange will be acceptable to all participants in an economy is not determined arbitrarily. First, the medium of exchange should be durable. In a primitive society of meager wealth, wheat might be sufficiently durable to serve as a medium, since all exchanges would occur only during and immediately after the harvest, leaving no value-surplus to store. But where store-of-value considerations are important, as they are in richer, more civilized societies, the medium of exchange must be a durable commodity, usually a metal. A metal is generally chosen because it is homogeneous and divisible: every unit is the same as every other and it can be blended or formed in any quantity. Precious jewels, for example, are neither homogeneous nor divisible. More important, the commodity chosen as a medium must be a luxury. Human desires for luxuries are unlimited and, therefore, luxury goods are always in demand and will always be acceptable. Wheat is a luxury in underfed civilizations, but not in a prosperous society. Cigarettes ordinarily would not serve as money, but they did in post-World War II Europe where they were considered a luxury. The term "luxury good" implies scarcity and high unit value. Having a high unit value, such a good is easily portable; for instance, an ounce of gold is worth a half-ton of pig iron.

In the early stages of a developing money economy, several media of exchange might be used, since a wide variety of commodities would fulfill the foregoing conditions. However, one of the commodities will gradually displace all others, by being more widely acceptable. Preferences on what to hold as a store of value, will shift to the most widely acceptable commodity, which, in turn, will make it still more acceptable. The shift is progressive until that commodity becomes the sole medium of exchange. The use of a single medium is highly advantageous for the same reasons that a money economy is superior to a barter economy: it makes exchanges possible on an incalculably wider scale.

Whether the single medium is gold, silver, seashells, cattle, or tobacco is optional, depending on the context and development of a given economy. In fact, all have been employed, at various times, as media of exchange. Even in the present century, two major commodities, gold and silver, have been used as international media of exchange, with gold becoming the predominant one. Gold, having both artistic and functional uses and being relatively scarce, has significant advantages over all other media of exchange. Since the beginning of World War I, it has been virtually the sole international standard of exchange. If all goods and services were to be paid for in gold, large payments would be difficult to execute and this would tend to limit the extent of a society's divisions of labor and specialization. Thus a logical extension of the creation of a medium of exchange is the development of a banking system and credit instruments (bank notes and deposits) which act as a substitute for, but are convertible into, gold.

A free banking system based on gold is able to extend credit and thus to create bank notes (currency) and deposits, according to the production requirements of the economy. Individual owners of gold are induced, by payments of interest, to deposit their gold in a bank (against which they can draw checks). But since it is rarely the case that all depositors want to withdraw all their gold at the same time, the banker need keep only a fraction of his total deposits in gold as reserves. This enables the banker to loan out more than the amount of his gold deposits (which means that he holds claims to gold rather than gold as security of his deposits). But the amount of loans which he can afford to make is not arbitrary: he has to gauge it in relation to his reserves and to the status of his investments.

When banks loan money to finance productive and profitable endeavors, the loans are paid off rapidly and bank credit continues to be generally available. But when the business ventures financed by bank credit are less profitable and slow to pay off, bankers soon find that their loans outstanding are excessive relative to their gold reserves, and they begin to curtail new lending, usually by charging higher interest rates. This tends to restrict the financing of new ventures and requires the existing borrowers to improve their profitability before they can obtain credit for further expansion. Thus, under the gold standard, a free banking system stands as the protector of an economy's stability and balanced growth.

When gold is accepted as the medium of exchange by most or all nations, an unhampered free international gold standard serves to foster a world-wide division of labor and the broadest international trade. Even though the units of exchange (the dollar, the pound, the franc, etc.) differ from country to country, when all are defined in terms of gold the economies of the different countries act as one -- so long as there are no restraints on trade or on the movement of capital. Credit, interest rates, and prices tend to follow similar patterns in all countries. For example, if banks in one country extend credit too liberally, interest rates in that country will tend to fall, inducing depositors to shift their gold to higher-interest paying banks in other countries. This will immediately cause a shortage of bank reserves in the "easy money" country, inducing tighter credit standards and a return to competitively higher interest rates again.
A fully free banking system and fully consistent gold standard have not as yet been achieved. But prior to World War I, the banking system in the United States (and in most of the world) was based on gold and even though governments intervened occasionally, banking was more free than controlled. Periodically, as a result of overly rapid credit expansion, banks became loaned up to the limit of their gold reserves, interest rates rose sharply, new credit was cut off, and the economy went into a sharp, but short-lived recession. (Compared with the depressions of 1920 and 1932, the pre-World War I business declines were mild indeed.) It was limited gold reserves that stopped the unbalanced expansions of business activity, before they could develop into the post-World War I type of disaster. The readjustment periods were short and the economies quickly reestablished a sound basis to resume expansion.

But the process of cure was misdiagnosed as the disease: if shortage of bank reserves was causing a business decline-argued economic interventionists -- why not find a way of supplying increased reserves to the banks so they never need be short! If banks can continue to loan money indefinitely -- it was claimed -- there need never be any slumps in business. And so the Federal Reserve System was organized in 1913. It consisted of twelve regional Federal Reserve banks nominally owned by private bankers, but in fact government sponsored, controlled, and supported. Credit extended by these banks is in practice (though not legally) backed by the taxing power of the federal government. Technically, we remained on the gold standard; individuals were still free to own gold, and gold continued to be used as bank reserves. But now, in addition to gold, credit extended by the Federal Reserve banks ("paper reserves") could serve as legal tender to pay depositors.

When business in the United States underwent a mild contraction in 1927, the Federal Reserve created more paper reserves in the hope of forestalling any possible bank reserve shortage. More disastrous, however, was the Federal Reserve's attempt to assist Great Britain who had been losing gold to us because the Bank of England refused to allow interest rates to rise when market forces dictated (it was politically unpalatable). The reasoning of the authorities involved was as follows: if the Federal Reserve pumped excessive paper reserves into American banks, interest rates in the United States would fall to a level comparable with those in Great Britain; this would act to stop Britain's gold loss and avoid the political embarrassment of having to raise interest rates.

The "Fed" succeeded; it stopped the gold loss, but it nearly destroyed the economies of the world in the process. The excess credit which the Fed pumped into the economy spilled over into the stock market -- triggering a fantastic speculative boom. Belatedly, Federal Reserve officials attempted to sop up the excess reserves and finally succeeded in braking the boom. But it was too late: by 1929 the speculative imbalances had become so overwhelming that the attempt precipitated a sharp retrenching and a consequent demoralizing of business confidence. As a result, the American economy collapsed. Great Britain fared even worse, and rather than absorb the full consequences of her previous folly, she abandoned the gold standard completely in 1931, tearing asunder what remained of the fabric of confidence and inducing a world-wide series of bank failures. The world economies plunged into the Great Depression of the 1930's.
With a logic reminiscent of a generation earlier, statists argued that the gold standard was largely to blame for the credit debacle which led to the Great Depression. If the gold standard had not existed, they argued, Britain's abandonment of gold payments in 1931 would not have caused the failure of banks all over the world. (The irony was that since 1913, we had been, not on a gold standard, but on what may be termed "a mixed gold standard"; yet it is gold that took the blame.) But the opposition to the gold standard in any form -- from a growing number of welfare-state advocates -- was prompted by a much subtler insight: the realization that the gold standard is incompatible with chronic deficit spending (the hallmark of the welfare state). Stripped of its academic jargon, the welfare state is nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society to support a wide variety of welfare schemes. A substantial part of the confiscation is effected by taxation. But the welfare statists were quick to recognize that if they wished to retain political power, the amount of taxation had to be limited and they had to resort to programs of massive deficit spending, i.e., they had to borrow money, by issuing government bonds, to finance welfare expenditures on a large scale.

Under a gold standard, the amount of credit that an economy can support is determined by the economy's tangible assets, since every credit instrument is ultimately a claim on some tangible asset. But government bonds are not backed by tangible wealth, only by the government's promise to pay out of future tax revenues, and cannot easily be absorbed by the financial markets. A large volume of new government bonds can be sold to the public only at progressively higher interest rates. Thus, government deficit spending under a gold standard is severely limited. The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit. They have created paper reserves in the form of government bonds which -- through a complex series of steps -- the banks accept in place of tangible assets and treat as if they were an actual deposit, i.e., as the equivalent of what was formerly a deposit of gold. The holder of a government bond or of a bank deposit created by paper reserves believes that he has a valid claim on a real asset. But the fact is that there are now more claims outstanding than real assets. The law of supply and demand is not to be conned. As the supply of money (of claims) increases relative to the supply of tangible assets in the economy, prices must eventually rise. Thus the earnings saved by the productive members of the society lose value in terms of goods. When the economy's books are finally balanced, one finds that this loss in value represents the goods purchased by the government for welfare or other purposes with the money proceeds of the government bonds financed by bank credit expansion.

In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves.

This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.

--Alan Greenspan
1967

Source: http://www.usagold.com/gildedopinion/greenspan.html

What do you think? Please leave me a comment!

September 09 Net Worth: Back on the Train

2009-10-02T08:57:00.003-04:00

September was a another good month for me, even though I had a few major events. This included weekend trips to New York and Atlanta, property taxes, and three fantasy football leagues. Seems like every month I have some major expense I haven't accounted for come up and it is really hurting my savings I believe. I am guessing with the holidays and everything else the next few are not going to be so kind to me either. But over all I am back in the black after an accounting mistake last month. Overall up 6.37%, pretty nice since I thought the stock market was going to get hit severely. I still believe that the next few months are going to be hard time for the market and thus my networth? We will see

Lets break it down:

Cash & Savings: Had a few expensive weekends, plane tickets, hotel room that put a damper on this months budget, including fantasy football. Overall though I still saved a little and had a huge month in spending, so overall I cannot complain, I will be looking to have a big month in October. This bracket holds the funds for my down payment on house(which is currently on hold again), engagement ring, insurance, auto maintenance, Roth IRA(before I max it out), and vacation. This is why it can be a little deceiving, it also holds my monthly budget in it. It has about 16-17k sitting around as savings the rest are funds that are going to be used at some point over the year. The rest is used on a daily bases for covering expenses, rent, food, auto, etc...

Stocks/Brokerage: This shrunk a little bit as I sold off some stocks. My employee stock option plan is seeing some small growth but seems to be up and down all the time. Right now besides that company stock I am still shorting the financial's and as of right now it is a wealth destroyer but I don't have enough to make a huge difference.

Retirement 401k: This braket is just me adding money to my 401k every month. Not seeing much growth here this last month. I have rolled my old 401k over to a IRA so will be moving it to the Retirement IRA's bracket below. I not really checking on this bracket as it really long term and I just keep pumping money into it every paycheck.

Retirement IRA's: Had a big month which saw a gain of around $400.00 - wow if I could have some months like that I would be able to see my wealth grow tremendously! Anyways still have a big chunk of cash sitting on the sidelines which I have been thinking of dollar cost averaging into, as I am still trying to max out my Roth this year.

Debts and Liabilities - Vehicle and Credit still high

Credit Cards: Most of this is still the engagement credit card with a 12 month 0% APR, I am not going to put much of a dent into this debt until the 12 month, when I will pay it off in full. I have that money going straight into my saving account creating a little interest off of it till I pay it in full. There was a little jump in debt but it is sorta in between stage, we purchased flights up to NYC and the furniture is on the credit card but all will be paid in full before interest is assessed.

Car Loan: See last month

So overall September was a good month. Looking to have a big month in October as things slow down a little bit and not so many expensive weekends. I really need to kick up the saving as I have wedding and honeymoon expenses coming down the line.

Debt Cancellation/Debt Jubilee: Would You Be For It?

You Cannot Multiply Wealth by Dividing it

Main Resources for Creating Wealth

Ron Paul on the Daily Show

2009-10-01T23:29:00.001-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Ron Paul

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Ron Paul Interview

2009-09-29T20:43:00.004-04:00

Where will capital flow during a time of a systemic crisis? Since 1971, capital has moved up this chart. Now it is reversing. Capital will flow into government bonds , treasury bills, physical cash, and ultimately its final home , gold. - via ZeroHedge

Alexander the Great, tutored by Aristotle, perhaps the richest and most powerful man in the world before the age of 33, was interred in a gold sarcophagus and solid gold casket filled with honey and transported by a solid gold chariot to a solid gold mausoleum in Memphis. It did not take long for various Ptolemy successors to steal the gold and move the body to Alexandria to put it on display under glass, with gold thefts every time it was moved or displayed.

Practically every war included the surreptitious movement of gold from the vanquished to the conquerors, providing stories of Chinese, Indian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Israel, Knights Templar, Arabic, Spanish, French, Revolutionary, Civil War, Philippines, Nazi, Korean, Vietnamese and Iraqi gold hoards accompanying inflation.

Since gold is ultimate money and power, is it any surprise Mercantilist Bankers and Treasurers tried for many thousands of years to get or control it?

This is a great conversation going over at ZeroHedge - I suggest you read this post along with all the comments.