Archive for Investments
Dec
11
Investments for the Prepper
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Pre-1965 Silver coins are real silver coins!
As people that keep a close eye on the future, you won’t catch us off guard, we try to be prepared for whatever comes our way. At least that’s our plan! With this in mind I’ve been pondering the ways a prepper prepares for the future. More specifically the ways a prepper invests that are different than an average investor. We have a different set of priorities than many do and therefore it would make sense for us to put our investment dollars into different places as well. There’s quite a number of things under this category - Land, Gold, Food storage, Tools, Barter items but the investment I’m going to talk about today is Silver.
What I’m referring to today in the silver investment family, is “Junk Silver”. When you hear junk silver referenced it means the old US coinage minted prior to 1965. Specifically, dimes, quarters and half dollars. These coins contained 90% silver. The coins currently in circulation, after 1964 with few exceptions, are nothing more than clad metal tokens. This is a coin that is composed mostly of a low value metal and than clad with a silver looking outer finish.
It wouldn’t be at all inappropriate in my opinion to compare this physical reality of our current coinage to the remarks of Mark Twain. He spoke of the gilded age where everything looked great on the outside. However, scratch just below the surface and we would see that all is not as it seems at its core. Sound like the America we are currently living in?
Take a look at the edge of any of the “silver” coins in your pocket… See that coppery looking layer in the middle? That’s something else, not silver, right? Of course these coins aren’t worthless, just worth-less, than a true silver content coin… For example, currently at today’s posting these “Junk Silver” coins are trading on the Internet at 16-18 x their face value. This means that a junk silver dime is worth about a buck seventy five ($1.75)… Not to bad, if you have some you wanted to sell…
There are a couple of schools of thought on this investment strategy. Some credible folks suggest purchasing silver as a hedge against inflation. I would agree that this is a GREAT idea. The other camp would advocate using these metal investments and their current volitility in a manner similar to trading stocks… Buy low, sell high – I don’t disagree with this idea either but it isn’t the strategy I will be discussing for preppers today.
I advocate us preppers taking a long look at what might be coming down the road… Can you see it? That’s right, some dark clouds on the horizon, doesn’t mean they’ll make it to us for-sure but it would only be prudent to carry an umbrella. This silver investment could possibly be that umbrella. This alone isn’t the answer to the potential of bad days ahead but it can be part of the strategy we employee. Just like a well rounded traditional investment portfolio, preppers need to have multiple ways of protecting themselves.
I think we can all see and agree that inflation is eating away at the spending power of the our dollars. It’s this insidious enemy of our financial success that requires us to take steps with our investment funds that will allow us to activate a time machine of sorts. Junk Silver can be one of these time machine investments, bought today and held until such time in the future as it might be needed.
In 1964 the value of a dime was 10 cents and if we all agree at the time of this posting that a 1964 dime is worth $1.75, what does that tell us… Our money is losing value. If we don’t convert at least a portion of our current assets into something that will stand the test of time, eventually the spending power of our current assets will look similar to that clad token dime in our pockets.
Purchasing these coins really is just a way of turning today’s investment dollar into a tangible asset that is universally recognized as valuable for its underlying content. Not all that different than purchasing a shipping container of quality backup generators and then waiting until there is a wide spread power outage to sell them. Although I maintain that the coins are an even better way to guarantee your investment will be a sure thing… The coins can’t be degraded the way a complex generator might be… Purchase most tangibles and let them sit for 45 years and see if there quality has been maintained? The value may very well have endured but the quality would likely have suffered. Maybe this isn’t the best analogy but I think all you get the idea.
A number of sources are available to the prepper that wants to add this metal to his prepping portfolio… I regularly see vendors at the local gun show that trade in silver. In my area I know of 2-3 collectibles shops that have both gold and silver coins or bullion. Of course there is also the internet… Everybody from ebay to specialty companies carry precious metals. It’s really not at all hard to find, which also adds to the value as I’m describing it today, it should be relatively easy to convert back to dollars or their equivalent in the future.
Like everything else I advocate, it’s more important to just get started rather than worry about getting it all done at once. There is no minimum investment required with these coins! You can buy just one thin dime or many thousands of dollars worth. Every investment portfolio is different depending on the intentions of the investor.
Personally, I like the idea of having control of my assets and just like with free and clear land, a stash of real silver coins in hand may make a difference in our uncertain future of tomorrow.
Prepper
Nov
06
Investments for the Prepper
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What do you see - Furtile Fields of thought?
As people that keep a close eye on the future, you won’t catch us off guard, we try to be prepared for whatever comes our way. At least that’s our plan! With this in mind I’ve been pondering the ways a prepper prepares for the future. More specifically the ways a prepper invests that are different than an average investor. We have a different set of priorities than many do and therefore it would make sense for us to put our investment dollars into different places as well. There’s quite a number of things under this category - Gold, Silver, Food storage, Tools, Barter items but the investment I’m going to talk abut today is LAND.
I think that land is an obvious investment. It’s true that many people will invest in this so that shouldn’t count as a Prepper Investment or should it? Well, I for one think that it should. I know what you’re thinking, I’m just trying to justify my purchase of the BOL property. Yes, I do want to feel confident in my land procurement but I had that argument with myself prior to purchasing it. I say that land is the first thing that a serious prepper should put in their long term investment portfolio. Yes, I know all about bug out this and get outa dodge that, these are all good projects to get accomplished ASAP but what I’m thinking of is a real investment. The kind that will pay a dividend!
The land I’m referring to may be completely different than any land that other investors would be interested in. Unless we’re talking about other preppers… Even though we may both be concerned with the old location, location, location issues. Our location will often be in the opposite direction of the average land speculator. I would even like to propose that the land investment I’m thinking of will be of far greater value in the long run.
Whether you’re one to believe in the “Golden Horde” that James, Wesley Rawles is expecting, even better yet expecting to avoid… or perhaps you’re more optomistic in you’re fellow Americans – lack of initiative to even bother looking for their better prepared brethren! Either way, the land that’s the most valuable to us isn’t going to be of as much value to the average McMansion building, contractor. It could easily be just as beautiful as the land the contractor would pay big bucks for but its just not in the right place.
Our location will be as far out of the way we can comfortably get away with. I know I shouldn’t speak for all preppers but I have met and or corresponded with more than a few and so I feel pretty sure of myself when making that assumption. Often preppers will pick an out of the way location for a couple of reasons. First, it will be further for the Golden Horde to walk and second the further the properties are from formal civilization the less expensive they become. Often for the price of the land alone that an average “consumer special” 3 bedroom/2 bath house would sit on in the city, a prepper might secure a multiple acre spread with a home already on it. It wouldn’t even surprise me if it had more than just a house, possibly a barn and fencing already up too!
- Old farm buildings look like paradise to me!
What I describe here will probably cause much heated debate as to my drawing unfair conclusions for all the civilized preppers that have a city based homestead. If thats you, don’t be offended but I think many preppers are taking the rural route over the city to put as much distance between them and the unwashed/unfed masses as possible. With the right set of circumstances a prepper could have opportnities in the urban environment but it will be more difficult to secure an inexpensive property and adequately stockpile supplies!
Anyway, back to the land – sorry for the pun but it just seemed to fit right there. Land as an investment is something that is universally accepted but I propose you select an investment property that can begin paying for itself as well as paying back its purchase price from day one. With the right perspective and the right piece of property a land owner can achieve a higher degree of self sufficiency. This can be through the production of food crops, a woodlot for firewood and small or even large stock for the stew pot. Sometimes it’s easier to install an alternative energy source with a little more elbow room for placement or advantageous conditions. Any one of these things could turn the land from just a place to live into an actual dividend paying investment.
These suggestions don’t even take into consideration the upside potential that almost always comes to the landowner. The fact that land prices tend to only go up. We’re in an interesting place in history currently where that assumption of appreciation isn’t as clear cut. However, if a prepper where to use these interesting times to their advantage, a better deal might possibly be struck this year over any other time! Something else to always consider - what will the future hold? Higher prices, almost assuredly we will experience inflation from this foolish spending policy that our government has been playing with as of late. Inflation means higher prices, not in a way any of us would be glad to see but higher none the less! I don’t advocate making a purchase and then expecting to cash out during an inflation spike. This strategy could work but its not the course of action I think is best.
- I see a preppers storehouse in disguise
I say make a smart investment in a sure thing! Land will be worth more in the future than it is today. Find a bargain on a piece of property that you can afford. Use the property for any and all the assets you can. The property alone is an investment but what if you plant those fruit trees on it. They basically will take care of them selves, at least on a day to day basis. What will a property with mature fruit trees be worth tomorrow? More or less than what you paid for it? How about the fact that you can eat the fruit seasonally from your own bearing age trees for as long as you own the land? What do fruit trees attract? Wildlife, now you have a 2 for 1 situation… You get to eat the fruit and the wildlife, if you’re into wild game. Do you see where I’m going with this, land is a better investment than any 401K I’ve seen in a while.
Now, I’m not saying cash out the 401K and buy land with the money! I think that would be foolish as the penalties alone would make that a bad play. What I am interested in is what you may choose to invest in with investment dollars from this point forward or even a portion of those investment dollars. These are interesting times and they call for new strategies, take control of some of the money you put away for the future. Land is just one way that a prepper could take a hands on approach to making his money work for him, also possibly allowing personal goals to be reached in the area of becoming more independent.
As always these are just one mans opinions and offered to the group as food for thought. I’ve been watching the news lately and I just don’t think we are playing by the same rules anymore. Putting money away in a traditional way for our future is just not going to cut it for many of us. In the coming weeks I want to discuss the ways I think our money could be better invested in tangibles as a hedge against the insanity that seems to come out of our power centers on an endless basis. My ideas are just that, my ideas, most of the things I’ll bring up I’m currently doing with my families investment money but I only want to encourage you to think it over and maybe some of these ideas will work for you and yours as well!
I apologise for not getting a post up yesterday but some technical difficulties prevented me from completing my daily ramblings. Have a great weekend and take advantage of the last few days before the weather turns cruddy for the winter.
Prepper
Oct
04
Who owns this place anyway?
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“A Penny Saved…”
Posted by: Prepper | Comments (5)Welcome Back! I have another thought exercise to present you with… You’ve all probably figured me out already, right? I spend altogether to much time – THINKING! It’s really not that I’m always trying to come up with some scam to buck the system… Actually, on second thought, that is a fair assessment of what I’m doing. I don’t like the system we find ourselves in currently! If we can each find creative ways to save our money from being sucked up by the irresponsible bureaucracy, then let’s do it!
How hard do we each work to make our money in the first place? At first thought we could all say, “We just go off to work everyday and get paid our negotiated wage on payday”… I think that it goes a bit deeper than that, when we factor in all that gets wrapped up in that statement.
Many of us start the earning process before the sun comes up each morning and don’t get back home until after it goes back down in the evening. Day after Day, usually at least 5 days a week, we pursue the needed funds to keep life as we know it moving in the right direction…
Alright, so we can all agree, first we must go earn the money in some fashion. What happens then? I’ll tell you what happens then – we pay taxes! For this illustration, let’s accept an average income tax rate of only 20%, I know that many of you are paying closer to 30%, maybe even more but for today lets just say 20%. Not bad enough? Add in the 7.5% we all get to pay toward social security and its various other satellite taxes… We’ll keep it simple and not include the other 7.5% that the government requires our employers to pay into that system on our behalf.
So there you are, happy as a clam with 72.5% of that paycheck you earned still intact, when it reaches you on payday! Wait – there’s more! Better stop off at the store to pick up a few things on your way home with your after tax income… Whatcha gonna spend it on? I only ask because that will determine what tax you can pay out next… Maybe you head for the grocery store, possibly you can even dodge the tax bullet for a few items in the cart that qualify as food. Thankfully the government gifts us with tax free “Food”. I don’t know about anyone else but I still pay a lot of tax at the “Grocery” store. That’s right, groceries aren’t tax free, only “Food” – whatever that is these days?
It’s probably a good idea to head for home after you leave the grocery store. If we don’t get those monthly bills paid they might shut off the power or something… Not really, we’re not that close to the edge but sometimes it feels like those bills just keep coming, so let’s just pay them quick and get it over with for another month! Phone, electric, garbage, internet and all the other in-sundry dollar snatchers. Have you ever looked at the that stack of paperwork that comes in the monthly bills? There’s a small novel in most of mine… That pile of paper tells us a sad story, the story of where our money went.
Open all those pages up and read all the line items that get tacked on when you’re not looking. Everything from surcharges to per “line” fees and access duties? I see lots of .04 cents here and $1.59 there – these add up folks! I had a cellular phone bill that I finally stopped to figure out what all of the nickels and dimes actually added up to… Drum roll please… 11.5% in added taxes, fees and charges… WOW!
Hold on though, we need to stop and fill our gas tank up before we get home too. Give me a second to calculate the numbers for that little government cash cow… I read recently that the average state gas tax at the pump is .63 cents per gallon. This of course doesn’t include whatever we’re paying in federal gas taxes, I didn’t uncover that particular number in my brief search. Let’s all agree that it would be at least whatever the state was getting if not more… Just the state level gas taxes are in the range of 22%! Not a bad racket, almost as good as say a government run lottery…
With just the few stops we’ve made on this payroll robbing shopping trip, our income has been lightened by another 9-22%, depending on where you spent the particular dollar. This on top of the 27.5% haircut we all take on payday.
I know what your thinking and yes, I am keeping this a little on the simple side. Remember, I just want to get your mind thinking about these little taxes that seem to find their way into every corner of our financial life. Is there anything we can do to stop this insidious theft?
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t yet have all the answers. I will say that I’ve come to this conclusion. If I want to make a transition away from the city and out to the countryside, some cost cutting measures will probably be required, at least in the beginning. When I work the budget frontwards and backwards each month, I see that one of the single biggest expenses we all pay has to be TAXES! Other than with sales tax, we seldom have the opportunity to see our money being taken. In large part the taxing authorities have come up with a real painless way to steal our money, they just take it before we get our hands on it or just wrap it into the cost of a gallon of gas. If we don’t specifically see the tax amount then maybe we won’t specifically understand that we’re paying it!
It would take a much longer article to really cover all of the ways that we, the good tax paying Americans, are being soaked! What I was hoping I could bring to your attention was how large a part of our income is basically evaporating before our eyes and certainly before we get to utilize its spending power.
This topic sheds light on the old idiom our Grandmothers used to use – “A penny saved, is a penny earned”. In this case, each of our pennies is so excessively taxed, we might actually have something whenever one is saved. In addition to doing our part to starve the beast of our hard earned money, we can make a pretty nice return on every penny of ours that doesn’t get lost to the tax system, easily in the neighborhood of 10-30%.
As these “Saved” pennies add up, we’ll have them to spend when a real opportunity presents itself… Maybe we’ll end up paying the tax on them at some point in the future when they’re spent and maybe we won’t. We’ve discussed in the past the possibility of dealing in the barter and second hand markets. If I need a product that you happen to have, we might strike a deal where I exchange some of my saved pennies for your product and neither of us lose any of our spending power to the tax man.
Let your mind run with this topic and see what creative things you might come up with! Many business people would be very happy with a profit return of far less than that of the potential money saved by lowering our own tax burdens. Let me encourage all of you to bring your ideas to the group and we can all get further working together than we can individually!
Prepper