Thread: Us dollar dependancy

Let me chime in. A poor man's way to invest in precious imetals and hedge against inflation is to buy nickels. They are made of 75% copper and 25% nickel and weigh 5 grams each. The melt value is currently worth 7.3 cents which is 46% above ts face value. You can go to the bank right now and exchange your soon to be worthless paper dollars for nickels and pay 5 cents each. If hyper inflation kicks in, which it most likely will, then the melt value of your nickels will be worth many times that of paper currency. The worse case scenario is that your nickels will be worth 5 cents each which is your cost basis so you cannot lose money. The only caveat is that the Feds have made it illegal to melt legal tender coins. But during a SHTF scenario all bets are off and you do what you need to survive meaning who cares about the laws. You can trade nickels just like silver coins. For those people who think this is a silly idea, talk to the people who paid 25 cents for a silver quarter back in the 1960's and held onto them until now. They are worth $6.27 today which is a 2,400% return on investment.

P.S.> You can be assured that the U.S. government will redesign the nickel very soon and reduce or remove its copper content.

Following the same topic and logic, anyone who did not buy Microsoft shares in Sept 1986 for 10 cents each would be completely nuts ($27 today). Ask anyone with 20/20 hindsight on an investment.

If you bought gold back in 1980 you still don't have your money back. Neither did it give you a dime in cash flow.

Originally Posted by Felicity

For those people who think this is a silly idea, talk to the people who paid 25 cents for a silver quarter back in the 1960's and held onto them until now. They are worth $6.27 today which is a 2,400% return on investment.

The US has a lot of cards to play. They can force China to let their currency float. Buy a house or invest 50k or more - get a green card. Then they can get more money back into the US. Anything to grow the population.

There will be an enourmous population flow from Europe and other countries if the US just make some minor immigration related adjustments. Beach front communities in Florida are selling at 10 cents on the dollar compared to their European counter parts.

As long as the money is invested you should be fine. There is no way property values (at least in FL) can go any lower - they are selling at renovation costs. They will hold their value in any currency.

Originally Posted by fleeted

This would be correct with nominal inflation but with the holocaust that we face they will go they way of everyone else holding their wealth in devalued dollars. Like I mentioned in a previous post the middle class Panamanian business owner will see their savings destroyed holding it in the dollar.

Originally Posted by Felicity

Let me chime in. A poor man's way to invest in precious imetals and hedge against inflation is to buy nickels. They are made of 75% copper and 25% nickel and weigh 5 grams each. The melt value is currently worth 7.3 cents which is 46% above ts face value. You can go to the bank right now and exchange your soon to be worthless paper dollars for nickels and pay 5 cents each. If hyper inflation kicks in, which it most likely will, then the melt value of your nickels will be worth many times that of paper currency. The worse case scenario is that your nickels will be worth 5 cents each which is your cost basis so you cannot lose money. The only caveat is that the Feds have made it illegal to melt legal tender coins. But during a SHTF scenario all bets are off and you do what you need to survive meaning who cares about the laws. You can trade nickels just like silver coins. For those people who think this is a silly idea, talk to the people who paid 25 cents for a silver quarter back in the 1960's and held onto them until now. They are worth $6.27 today which is a 2,400% return on investment.

P.S.> You can be assured that the U.S. government will redesign the nickel very soon and reduce or remove its copper content.

Felicity is 100% correct. I have been accumulating nickels for a couple of months now. Every $1000.00 of nickels is worth just shy of $1500.00. Some banks charge for nickels my banks don't. I can only get $300.00 at a time from Bank Of America but Arvest and Wachovia have been able to get me $500.00 worth at a time. They come in $100 dollar bricks and are quite heavy. I personally believe as Felicity does that this makes allot of sense. I own gold and silver and consider nickels to be a better investment. They are risk free because there are no premiums and they can't go down in face value. People hoarded coins in Argentina for the exact same reasons during their monetary crisis. Here is a link that further illustrates Felicity's excellent points.
Penny and Nickel composition may change to steel!
Greshams Law states that bad money chases good money out of circulation. That will happen soon with the nickel. Remember once the new ones are issued the old ones will be pulled out of circulation or be mixed in rolls and require sorting. My advice change money into nickels now.

There is a billionaire who has bought 20 million dollars worth of nickels. The nickel is now worth 7.4 cents each and rising. Here is a link with Colbert making fun of the guy. We will see who is laughing all the way to the bank.
Long "The Nickel": Michael Lewis on The Colbert Report | Steadfast Finances

Originally Posted by nakedguydb

boy am i glad i have no money , not having to buy gold and silver etc ,which leaves it more to buying and stocking canned food , even though it is not good food , it is something to eat until the garden comes in . i agree that the rich will weather the storm better than the poor , but it will mentally crush them , as most rich , well at least the ones i know , love money , they could have 20 million in the bank and are thinking how to make more , they never have enough , even though they will never run short in their lifetime , , and they rely on their money to do everything , most rich are brain smart ,but not many are lifeskills smart , just hire help , wereas the poorer group has more ideas about doing everyday tasks , growing food , fixing things etc . i just feel sorry for people in hirises and in any country that is not warm enough to grow food year round , we can count our lucky stars to be here in panama . and as poller said many are on their SS income , what happens when the US goverment can not make that cheque good ? so i believe if you are rich , buy gold/silver , if you are not rich , buy food before hyperinflation makes it so expensive that you can not buy it , . for example beans , a $1 a can = with $ 1000 you eat for 3 years , when hyper hits and its $10 a can you eat for 100 days , big difference . just my thoughts .

C'mon Naked who are you foolin? You don't get a panama investors visa with peanuts. You are right however that having Tangibles, and food is a good idea. Blue collar skill sets will be in demand and let's call a spade a spade people with blue collar skill sets are the ones with skills to produce. Wet Packed foods like canned goods are good but storing dry goods rice, sugar, dry beans, wheat, flour, pasta etc.. place these items in Mylar bags with O2 absorbers. They will store for a long time and are cheap insurance in bad times. Lay back a few thousand dollars in nickels and you will be good to go. Just tell the bank you visit allot of gumball machines lol.

Originally Posted by EdBowers

The US has a lot of cards to play. They can force China to let their currency float. Buy a house or invest 50k or more - get a green card. Then they can get more money back into the US. Anything to grow the population.

There will be an enourmous population flow from Europe and other countries if the US just make some minor immigration related adjustments. Beach front communities in Florida are selling at 10 cents on the dollar compared to their European counter parts.

As long as the money is invested you should be fine. There is no way property values (at least in FL) can go any lower - they are selling at renovation costs. They will hold their value in any currency.

Florida real estate is in the toilet and will be there for a long time. High unemployment, tons more homes coming onto the market
and people wiped out financially. Bernanke has asked the banks to stress test for 11%+ unemployment nationwide, this will lead to more downward pressure on housing. In hyperinflation real estate values will rise in devalued currency but not sound currency. In Weimar Germany the foreigners flooded in and bought grand pianos, persian rugs, real estate and companies for next to nothing in the own currency. Whomever has the most patience to wait this thing out will do well. Look at the idiots who jumped into real estate in 2008-2010 because the foreclosure were such good deals only to watch the value of the foreclosure fall into negative equity. I am not knocking real estate I made a fortune in it when times were good, but there is a time and place for everything and I don't believe the time for real estate is now. As far as gold, yes there will be a day to sell and most people( myself included) may miss it. Right now it provides good protection from the idiots in charge of the monetary system. The basic rule of not having all your eggs in one basket also applies to gold and silver, but it is wise to have some tangible metal in your basket

Speaking of precious metals. The carnival is almost with us and a lot of folks are going to make a killing collecting aluminum cans. Maybe they should store it up and double their money later! They will be picking up these cans as fast as they can gather. An aluminum free for all!

The most recent unit I got the default was about 360,000 dollars. The bank got 44,000 dollars after commission, taxes, HOA fees. However, who cares really. It's not the Floridans paying the bill - it's all 50 states with the bail-out money.

Equivalent units in Europe cannot stay at 400,000 dollars when you get the same value in the US for 75,000 dollars. Unless of course it's two separate worlds with no communications.

You can build whatever model you want of monetary system, but in the end they will always be wrong since they cannot predict actions by the government, nor by the market. The US currency has already dropped about 50 % in value vs the Euro in the past 10 years. If you trend the Naqdaq and EUR/USD together you will see that they correlate extremely well, at least in the short term. To me it looks like it's a waste of time to park money in non-cash flow assets.

Originally Posted by fleeted

Florida real estate is in the toilet and will be there for a long time. High unemployment, tons more homes coming onto the market and people wiped out financially.

Originally Posted by EdBowers

Following the same topic and logic, anyone who did not buy Microsoft shares in Sept 1986 for 10 cents each would be completely nuts ($27 today). Ask anyone with 20/20 hindsight on an investment.

If you bought gold back in 1980 you still don't have your money back. Neither did it give you a dime in cash flow.

Ed, you are missing the point. Microsoft shares were not guaranteed to be valued at your cost or greater. The company may have flopped and gone bankrupt in which case you would have lost your entire investment. A nickel will never go below your cost basis and can only go higher. I am not talking about buying silver, gold, copper, etc. because those investments can also generate a loss for you. Buying nickels cannot generate a capital loss and they have a very good chance of yielding a gain sometime in the future. It is a safe investment.

If I was living in the states and had a LOT of storage room that'd be just fine. Why not...
just for fun.
chances are you'll break even against inflation and currency though. You can't compare to silver quarters either. What are the odds you'll wait 45yrs and copper/nickel blend will be declared a precious metal and jump in price. nah. it's kind of a fun way to hedge a couple grand in a giant box.

Looks like the new nickels are coming. Greshams Law will take care of things.
Using new metals in U.S. coins could impact counterfeiting, public safety and a lot more | Government Security News