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How to Buy Modern Jewelry with Return Potential

How to Buy Modern Jewelry with Return Potential
Photo Credit: Marietta Wülfing

I was surfing through Etsy listings the other day when I came across a masterpiece.  It was an opulent Modernist 18 karat gold and sterling silver pendant set with a massive rough peridot gemstone.  The artist who handcrafted this treasure is Marietta Wülfing, a jeweler who owns a boutique atelier called Sinnlích.   Wülfing’s retail operation is located in Buggingen, Germany, a small municipality just a couple miles from the French border that is sandwiched in between the picturesque Rhine River and the famous Black Forest.

But the truly shocking thing about this candy-colored treasure of a pendant was the price – only $876 on Etsy (note that the price fluctuates slightly based on the current dollar/euro exchange rate).

All this got me thinking.  Although I typically gravitate towards vintage or antique jewelry for investment purposes, I will certainly consider a piece of modern jewelry if it has the right attributes.  Much like a different handmade Etsy piece that I highlighted in a previous article, this scintillating peridot pendant hit all the right notes.

The contrast between this magnificent Modernist pendant and the nasty jewelry you’ll typically find in chain stores like Zales or Kay Jewelers couldn’t be more extreme.

First, this gorgeous pendant has a very high intrinsic value to price ratio, which is one of the primary things I look for when buying an investment grade piece of modern jewelry.  A really good piece of jewelry will have component elements – gold, silver, gemstones, etc. – that constitute a significant portion of its value.  Although it can take some searching, it is possible to find modern jewelry selling for no more than twice its intrinsic value.

In other words, for every dollar you invest in a good quality piece of modern jewelry you can expect to immediately “recover” 50 cents or more in melt/scrap value.  This means that if you were forced to panic liquidate your jewelry, it would be possible to literally rip it apart and sell the component metal and jewels for at least a 50% recovery rate.  Of course, we would never want to do this, as a fine piece of jewelry is always worth more than the sum of its parts.  Nonetheless, it is comforting to know that your downside risk is limited in a worst case scenario.

The second attribute I value when shopping for contemporary jewelry is whether the piece is one-of-kind.  We live in an age of mass production.  As a result, I believe that unique, handcrafted jewelry will tend to appreciate in value much more quickly than similar pieces that are factory made.  The handcrafting process really allows a jeweler’s creative artistry to shine through, producing jewelry that is often closer to a miniature work of art than merely a ring or a necklace.

As an added bonus, handmade jewelry is invariably finished to a much higher standard than chain store jewelry.  The artisans who create these masterpieces usually go to incredible lengths to ensure their work is both flawless and visually appealing.  Unlike more pedestrian jewelry, you won’t find pitted metal, sloppily-cut gems or bulky prongs on fine handmade jewelry.

The final hallmark of investment quality modern jewelry is the presence of one or more large gemstones.  Gems are often the most expensive component in a piece of fine jewelry.  Indeed, it isn’t uncommon for a jewelry setting to serve primarily as a vehicle to display a particularly fine gemstone.  In fact, this is undoubtedly the case with the rough peridot pendant pictured above.

But decades of unrelenting consumer demand has steadily sucked up all the fine colored gems the world can produce and then some.  Every 10 to 20 years we discover new gemstone deposits (most recently Ilakaka, Madagascar in 1998 and Mahenge, Tanzania in 2007) that dribble out relatively small quantities of new stones into the gem starved jewelry market.  But in spite of this additional supply, colored gemstone prices have more than doubled over the past 15 years.

Large jewelry manufacturers have compensated for this gem drought by designing settings that use a multitude of small, melee stones instead of a few larger stones.  But make no mistake – this mass-produced jewelry, although impressive at a distance, is absolutely inferior to jewelry mounted with fewer, larger gems.  Modern jewelry set with small stones without a large, central gem is a cost cutting measure that the serious jewelry aficionado should avoid by any means necessary.

 

Hand-Crafted Marietta Wülfing Earrings for Sale on Etsy

(These are affiliate links for which I may be compensated)

 

So when I invest in modern jewelry I focus on artisan jewelers who set their pieces with larger gemstones.  Because of cost constraints, it is rather rare to find jewelry set with any of the big four gems (diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires) at a reasonable price.  Therefore, many of the handmade pieces I gravitate towards use somewhat less expensive second-tier gemstones such as aquamarine, tourmaline, fancy garnet, peridot, spinel, tanzanite, etc.

These stones may not be as famous as the big four, but are nonetheless quite desirable in their own right.  As an added bonus, many of these lesser-known gemstones are all-natural, completely-untreated stones.  Nearly all rubies, sapphires and emeralds found in modern jewelry have been subjected to artificial treatments that can impact their durability and long-term color stability.  Even diamonds, which were largely untreated up until the end of the 20th century, are increasingly lasered or fracture filled to improve their clarity.  Treated stones, regardless of their type, are obviously worth less than comparable untreated gems.

So let’s put everything together that we’ve learned in order to analyze the Marietta Wülfing peridot pendant pictured at the top of this article.

The rough peridot used in the piece is a top gem quality specimen from Pakistan (a classic location for high grade peridot).  In addition, it is a huge stone, measuring 27 mm across by 18 mm high and weighing 28.3 carats.  As a result, I’m willing to assign a value of around $5 per carat to the gem – about $141.  If this peridot was given to a knowledgeable gem cutter, you could expect it to realistically yield two to three faceted stones totaling somewhere from 6 to 10 carats.

Although the item description doesn’t state how much gold was used in this fine piece of modern jewelry, I’m going to take a guess that it has perhaps 8 grams – just over 1/4 of a troy ounce – of 18 karat gold.  I’m guessing fairly high here because 18 karat gold is very high density stuff (about 15.5 gm/cm3), so it doesn’t take a lot of volume in order to have quite a bit of weight.

In any case, according to this estimate there is $284 worth of gold in the pendant (with spot gold trading at $1,470 an ounce).  I would also estimate the piece contains about $5 worth of sterling silver (which isn’t visible in the photo, as it is used to back the gemstone).  If you were really interested in purchasing this pendant, it would make sense to contact Marietta and ask her for the weight of the metals used in order to derive a more accurate intrinsic value calculation.

If we total all of these individual components together we get the following:

Peridot ($141) + 18K Gold ($284) + Sterling Silver ($5) = $430 Total Intrinsic Value

Our result gives us an estimated intrinsic value equal to almost 50% of the $876 cost of the piece.  This is an excellent result, especially considering that the typical piece of modern jewelry will have an intrinsic value of only 5% to 20% of its cost – even for diamond encrusted engagement rings!

Our handmade peridot pendant also eschews small accent stones in favor of a single, huge primary gem.  This is exactly what we want to see.  And while large peridot gemstones are rather common, it is still somewhat unusual to find such a gigantic specimen of such fine color and clarity.

Finally, it is obvious that Marietta Wülfing is a master jeweler who has taken great pains to ensure that this handcrafted pendant is immaculately finished.  Seriously, this thing is utterly superb in terms of its workmanship.  In addition, this piece is a breathtaking example of Modernist design, which has been the dominant style used in fine handmade jewelry (as opposed to mass-produced factory jewelry) since the 1960s.

All in all, this peridot pendant is a great example of investable modern jewelry.  It is the kind of piece that you can feel good about spending hundreds of dollars on because you know it is worth hundreds of dollars.  In another 50 to 100 years, jewelry like this will find a ready market among vintage jewelry aficionados as superlative antiques.

 

Hand-Crafted Marietta Wülfing Rings for Sale on Etsy

(These are affiliate links for which I may be compensated)

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage gems & jewelry articles here.

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Read in-depth Antique Sage vintage jewelry investment guides here.

The U.S. Dollar and the Coming Monetary Reset

The U.S. Dollar and the Coming Monetary Reset

We live in interesting financial times.  That’s a kind way of saying that the global monetary authorities are in the process of trashing the U.S. dollar (along with every other fiat currency out there).  Over the past decade plus our central bankers have imposed just about every form of financial repression/money printing known to man (and a few additional types they just developed especially for the occasion).

What’s the upshot of this rant?  There is an impending global monetary reset coming, and it will change all the existing rules about saving, investing and wealth.

What is a monetary reset?  Simply put, it is the long-overdue realignment of the value of fiat currency in our financial system vis-a-vis gold, silver and other tangible assets.

The first indicator that we are careening towards a monetary reset is the rapidly deteriorating U.S. budget deficit.  Now I would like to state upfront that I’m not a fiscal hardliner.  I don’t believe that a country must run budget surpluses in order to enjoy a stable and sustainable fiscal position (although it does help).  No, all a country needs to do in order not to blow itself up, fiscally speaking, is to grow its economy at a faster rate than it grows its outstanding sovereign debt.

Unfortunately, the United States (along with nearly every other developed nation in the world) hasn’t been able to do this.  Instead, U.S. spending has spiraled out of control over the past decade.  At first this overspending was in response to the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-2009.  But a funny thing happened as that financial crisis faded into the rear view mirror – the U.S. government kept on spending!

Indeed, the economy has needed an almost never ending parade of stimulus measures in order to keep its head above water.  Most recently, the 2017 Trump tax cut goosed the economy by slashing income tax rates for corporations and many households.  But it did so at the cost of a ballooning budget deficit, which surpassed -$1 trillion in both 2018 and 2019.

Surprisingly, I am not terribly concerned by our current fiscal profligacy.  Instead, I am much more worried about what comes afterwards in the 2020s.

Social Security is one of our most obvious impending fiscal disasters, but one that will only fully unfold over the next decade.  This bedrock U.S. entitlement program will devolve from a relatively modest -$80 billion negative annual cashflow position in 2019 to a staggering -$400 billion annual deficit by the early 2030s.  Of course, this Social Security-specific deficit will end up being rolled into the general budget, putting even greater pressure on U.S. government finances.

But the real coup de grâce will come when the economy next enters recession.  You see, it has been more than 12 years since the last recession hit and we are overdue for another one.  When it finally arrives, all the negative trends currently in place will be supercharged into a perfect financial storm.

A recession would cause tax revenue to plummet at the same time that government expenditures explode.  In fact, it is probable that government deficits will blow out to -$2 or -$3 trillion dollars per annum in such a scenario.  At that point, deficits of only -$1 trillion a year like we have today will seem like a sweet, distant dream.

That would be bad enough by itself, but there will be other ugly economic dynamics at work as well.  For instance, the market value of stocks and bonds will plunge during a recession, revealing most corporate, state and local government pension funds to be woefully underfunded.  Many of these pensions will subsequently fail, with their obligations absorbed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.  As you might have already guessed, the U.S. taxpayer will ultimately be on the hook for making good on these unrealistic promises.

But perhaps the greatest contributor to a future monetary reset will be the eradication of the profitless prosperity sector in the next recession.  Uber, Netflix, WeWork and Tesla are just a handful of well known profitless prosperity mega-companies.  Most of these corporations don’t make any profits, while the few that do only possess the illusion of profitability.

This is because a decade of Fed-driven easy money policies has fundamentally reordered our economy into a bubble-addled monster.  It only works as long as investors – speculators, really – are willing to throw nearly unlimited amounts of free money into capital-burning ventures.  The moment they stop, however, the wheels will come off the magic school bus we call an economy.

But the governments and central banks of the world will not stand idly by while the financial world burns down around them.  Instead, they will crank up the printing press and spew trillions of new dollars, yen, pounds and euros into the world in an ill-fated attempt to avoid the natural consequences of earlier bad policy decisions.

In other words they will print a lot of money, devaluing the currency in the process.

In fact, they’ve already started.  The Federal Reserve recently announced that it will purchase $60 billion of Treasury bills every month until Q2 2020.  They have also assured the markets that this does not represent quantitative easing (aka money printing), even though the operations look to be more or less identical.  How much do you want to bet that when the time comes to wind down the operation in 2020, they will find an improbable reason to just keep going?  That has been their modus operandi so far and it is unlikely to change now.

In any case, it is pretty obvious that a monetary reset is coming.  This means the economy will be rocked by widespread debt defaults, a universal debt jubilee or oodles of helicopter money thrown to the masses – and possibly even all three!

This is bad because in our financial system one person’s debt is another person’s asset.  If you want to erase a bunch of debt, which our overleveraged economy desperately needs, then it also means writing down a lot of assets to zero.  Printing money and handing it out to people so that they can pay their debts might preserve the nominal value of many assets, but only does so at the cost of widespread inflation that will destroy the real value of those same assets.  To paraphrase former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, this generation has a date with monetary destiny.

The real question is what should you do about this impending disaster?

I think that answer is pretty easy: buy bullion, antiques, gemstones and fine art.  In a monetary reset scenario, conventional assets like stocks and bonds won’t perform very well.  If you are really concerned with protecting your wealth, it will be necessary to diversify into hard assets that can’t be printed by incompetent central bankers.

I have a soft spot for U.S. 90% junk silver coins because they are readily available, highly liquid and also sell for low premiums over spot.  But of course, there are many other hard assets that would do wonders for your portfolio as well.  For example, antiques such as vintage mechanical wristwatches, antique sterling silverware and fine estate jewelry would all effectively inoculate you against the coming monetary reset.  Plan accordingly.

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage investing articles here.

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How to Buy Gold below Spot on eBay

How to Buy Gold below Spot on eBay
Photo Credit:  James St. John

I would like to make a public service announcement.  Right now it is possible to purchase gold below spot on eBay with very little effort.  In my experience this is an almost unprecedented situation.  Sure, sometimes bullion dealers have specials where they sell gold coins for a couple percent over spot.  But selling gold below spot?  It’s simply unheard of…until now at least.

Before I give the big reveal, I’d like to talk a bit about the circumstances behind how this somewhat bizarre situation came to be.

When most of us think of gold bullion, we picture 1 troy ounce bullion coins struck by sovereign governments.  Some popular examples are the American Gold Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Australian Kangaroo, the British Britannia and the Chinese Panda.  There are others, of course, but this short list will keep things simple.

Gold bullion might also bring to mind bullion bars or rounds struck by private refiners and mints.  Pamp Suisse, the Scottsdale Mint, Valcambi Suisse, the Perth Mint and Johnson Matthey are some of the better known names in gold bullion.  These gold bars and rounds are equivalent to government issued bullion coins, with very little difference in quality and no difference in gold content.

But all conventional bullion bars, rounds and coins are sold above spot.  This is because the government or private mint that strikes them, along with the distributing wholesale dealer, needs a profit margin and the only way to get that margin is by charging a price that is higher than spot.  It might be a small profit margin – often between 2% and 5% for a 1 troy ounce piece – but it is a positive number nonetheless.

So the real question is why would anyone ever sell gold below spot?

Sure, you might occasionally find gold jewelry scrap sold below spot.  But scrap jewelry isn’t an ideal form of gold to hold because it isn’t widely recognized or accepted.  This is because the gold content can be difficult to verify.  In addition, a refinery charge must be taken into account if you ever want to process the scrap into a usable form.

But I’m not talking about buying scrap gold jewelry here.  I’m talking about buying a legitimate gold coin with a known weight and fineness struck by a well-respected government.  Buying gold coins below spot is far superior compared to stocking up on junk jewelry.

Once again we are faced with the question, why would anyone ever sell gold below spot?

The magical answer to this conundrum is a concept known as sunk costs.  If a coin was minted long enough ago – usually many decades – then no one is trying to make a profit on its manufacture any longer.  These coins have passed through many hands over the years.  All the time, effort and expertise consumed during the long-ago production of an older gold coin is considered a sunk cost.  This means that the premium on common older gold coins can actually go negative in some circumstances, although typically not by very much.

But I have another trick to get these coins even cheaper.  EBay allows its users to supercharge their bullion purchases through the use of its eBay Bucks program.  EBay bucks rebates normally accrue on eligible purchases at the rate of 1%.  But if you wait for a promotional period, it is fairly common to get special bonuses of 10%.  You can then combine this with a cash-back credit card rewards program to enhance your leverage in acquiring gold below spot.

I will use an enhanced 10% eBay Bucks rate in conjunction with 1% credit card rewards as my baseline assumption for all premium calculations below.

 

Pre-1933 U.S. Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

Using these criteria, generic pre-1933 U.S. gold coins are at the top of my shopping list.  These iconic coins were struck from the 19th century right up until the Great Depression in the early 1930s.  Denominations range from the small $2.50, or quarter eagle gold piece, right up to the massive $20 double eagle gold coin.

But the best thing about common-date pre-1933 U.S. gold coins is their price.  These unique mementos of Americana can be found on eBay in circulated XF to AU condition at 3% to 8% below the spot price of gold (once incentives are factored in).

For example, I spotted a random-date $20 Liberty Head in AU condition (which contains 0.9675 troy ounces of pure gold) for 4.3% over spot.  After accounting for eBay Bucks and credit card rewards, you could buy this coin for -3.6% under spot.

If you don’t have the $1,500 to splurge on a gigantic double eagle gold coin, you could always get yourself an XF $5 Liberty Head half eagle (containing 0.2419 troy ounces of gold) for around $400.  This coin sells for 7.0% over spot without eBay Bucks and -4.8% with them (at the time of writing).

But the best deal I found in pre-1933 U.S. gold coins is a $10 Liberty Head coin (with 0.4838 troy ounces of fine gold) in AU condition for 4.2% over spot before eBay Bucks and -7.3% under spot with them.

Now here is where things get really interesting in our search for gold below spot.

If you are willing to be open-minded, you can find foreign gold coins that trade for even lower negative premiums!  I’m referring specifically to British gold sovereigns, 22 karat fine coins containing 0.2354 troy ounces of pure gold.  These classic gold coins circulated throughout the British Empire during the 19th and early 20th century and were considered the soundest money in the world for well over a century.  Gold sovereigns were even struck during the mid-20th century, primarily for use in certain Middle Eastern/South Asian countries that traditionally favored these coins above all others.

 

British Gold Sovereigns for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

Right now you can get yourself a random date BU sovereign from the reign of Queen Elizabeth II for only 3.5% above spot before incentives and -7.9% below spot after eBay Bucks and credit card rewards.  This nearly 8% discount to spot means that you are buying each ounce of gold for about $118 less than the going spot price of gold when it is trading at $1,500.  Now that is a bargain!

But before you dive in, please read the fine print on the eBay Bucks program.  It does have some stipulations and exclusions, as will any credit card rewards program that you use.

Also keep in mind that these gold coin deals are so good that they regularly sell out.  That’s why I don’t link to the specific coins I’ve found, because I know that by the time I post this article they will all be gone.  But there will be other deals of the same type that will be just as good, provided you exercise a little patience.  And anything that allows you to buy gold below spot is worth the wait in my book.

 

Read more thought-provoking Antique Sage investing articles here.

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Escaping our Rotten Banking System

Escaping our Rotten Banking System
Photo Credit: Tim Green

The global banking system is sick.  In fact, it is so sick that it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that many of our financial institutions are terminally ill.  This phenomenon has largely been driven by absurdly low interest rates – perhaps the lowest across 5,000 years of recorded human history according to some financial commentators.

And it doesn’t look like the decline in yields is done quite yet.

Global bond yields plunged again in August 2019.  The yields on German, French and Japanese 10-year notes plowed into negative territory during this time, while Swiss yields went even more negative than they had already been.  The United States, that last bastion of positive return in a yield-starved world, saw its 10-year bond yields decline a stunning 100 basis points over the course of just a few months – from over 2.5% to an anemic 1.5%.

In Denmark right now one bank is offering negative-yielding mortgages, meaning that the bank will pay you to take out a loan!

This is crazy stuff.

So crazy, in fact, that the global banking system can’t survive in this environment long-term.  And it isn’t just banks that are suffering, but also insurance companies and pension funds.  All of these firms rely on significantly positive-yielding assets in order to survive.  If negative yields persist for too many years, the financial industry will simply bleed capital until a crisis comes and knocks the entire rotten edifice over.

This alarming situation has created a desperate search for yield across the world.

But this reach for yield has prompted some banks to originate questionable commercial real estate loans (among others).  The world only needs so many dollar-stores, fast food eateries and quaint cafes – a point we passed long ago.  The only problem is that the yield-starved banking system didn’t quite get the message.  Just like a shark has got to swim to stay alive, a bank has got to lend to keep its doors open – even it if means piling bad loans onto an already problematic balance sheet.

The situation in Europe isn’t any better.  The newest global regulatory framework for banks (Basel III) gives financial firms wide latitude to determine the risk weighting applied to sovereign debt.  The practical consequence of this loose regulatory regime is that most southern European banks have loaded up on their home country’s government bonds.  This is an issue because the Portuguese, Spanish and Italian governments, while not currently in explicit default, are more or less insolvent.  But banks located in those countries are stuffed to the gills with their national debt all the same.

It is an accident waiting to happen on an almost unimaginably grand scale.

In order to understand how the banking system came to such dire straits, a quick history lesson is in order.  I will concentrate my historical financial analysis on the United States, which is also a reasonable proxy for the rest of the developed world in most cases.  Although little known, the U.S. has actually experienced four distinct monetary regimes since the beginning of the 20th century.

 

Old European Gold Coins for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

The Classical Gold Standard Era (before 1934): Under this financial regime the U.S. dollar was explicitly linked to gold, with $20.67 exchangeable for 1 troy ounce of the precious metal.  The currency’s required gold-backing kept the dollar strong and stable.  Foreign exchange rates were largely fixed because most nations had their currencies pegged in terms of gold.  Interest rates were relatively low in absolute terms, but because inflation was so low, real (inflation-adjusted) yields were solidly positive.  Governments typically ran small surpluses during this period (except during times of war).

The Bretton Woods Era (1934 to 1971): During the Bretton Woods period the U.S. dollar was still linked to gold, albeit at a reduced rate ($35 equaled 1 troy ounce).  This precious metal link restrained money issuance and, by extension, inflation.  U.S. citizens could not own gold or exchange their dollars for gold, however.  Instead, only foreign governments and central banks could redeem dollars for gold.  Global exchange rates were typically fixed against the U.S. dollar, providing stability in international trade and investment.  Most governments ran balanced budgets outside of wartime and savers were consistently rewarded with positive real interest rates.

The Bretton Woods II Era (1971 – 2008): From the early 1970s until the 2000s, the world operated under a floating currency regime that was sometimes known as Bretton Woods II.  The U.S. dollar was no longer pegged to gold or exchangeable for it.  But both nominal and real interest rates were often quite high in order to instill confidence in this untested, pure fiat system.  Governments were able to run increasingly large budget deficits, which was acceptable if the interest rate on the national debt was lower than the nominal growth rate of the economy.  Central banks adamantly refused to monetize (print money to buy) government debt.

The Central Bank Era (2008 – present): Our newest currency regime is a pure fiat monetary system characterized by floating foreign exchange rates and non-convertibility, just like the Bretton Woods II era.  However, real interest rates are almost always negative today, with nominal interest rates sometimes being negative as well (most notably in Europe and Japan).  This is incredibly punishing for not only savers, but ultimately the banking system too.  Governments run persistently massive budget deficits, leading to ballooning national debt loads.  Central banks happily monetize government debt in size, raising the specter of future currency devaluations or hyperinflations.  Outrageous securities market bubbles are embraced as a desirable growth transmission mechanism by increasingly desperate central banks.

 

Pre-1965 U.S. 90% Silver Coin Rolls for Sale on eBay

(This is an affiliate link for which I may be compensated)

 

As you can plainly see, our current monetary regime (the Central Bank Era) is incredibly unstable.  It is not a question of if it will fail, but simply a question of when and how it fails.

This is why I believe it is imperative for everyone to move some money out of the banking system.  A financial disaster of some description is on its way and when it finally arrives it will be ugly beyond belief.  It could take the form of a stock market crash, a bank bail-in or capital controls – no one really knows.  But we do know that conventional financial products like stocks, bonds, CDs and savings accounts will not offer the protection that they might have in the past.

Instead we need to look to unconventional tangible assets like bullion, antiques, gemstones and fine art to help protect our net worth.  And honestly, prices for hard assets are so low right now that you can buy practically anything in that list and expect to do well from a future return perspective.  This means you can indulge your passion for antique samurai sword fittings or medieval European woodcut prints, safe in the knowledge you’re accumulating valuable financial assets that are completely independent from our teetering banking system.

Of course, if you’d like to pursue a more conservative course by purchasing gold and silver bullion, I can wholeheartedly recommend that as well.  I’ve recently written an article on how to stack vintage JM & Engelhard silver bars in your retirement account.

I don’t really think it matters which specific strategy you choose, just as long as it involves getting some of your precious dollars (or euros, or pounds) out of our necrotic banking system and into something tangible.  It is far better to be prudent today, rather than sorry tomorrow.

 

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