Convert More Cash To Pms To Protect From Government?

I would do it!

Money in the bank:

Interest at roughly 1%

FDIC Basically going to be bankrupt because of massive move of Derivatives in the High Trillions into FDIC Insured Institutions.

MFGlobal fiasco showed that they can raid customers accounts for money and
Silver and Gold for which customers had certificates of ownership
Basically a safety deposit box raid. And nothing is done criminally.

Yea a Bank is the safest place I can think to keep anything
Except Money, Gold, Silver or anything of value.

I'm with Stewart on this and would add, that paper money saved in the bank is a losing proposition. Bernanke said that inflation in 2011 was about 3.5%. John Williams, who is trustworthy, unlike Bernanke, says that it is closer to 10%. Either way you slice it, paper money saved is money lost. The only real question seems to be how fast its buying power disappears. This is why gold and silver are REAL money and not paper figments of someone's imagination.

Also, having an account at a Credit Union is definitely the way to go. They are a local business and do not get into all that derivative crud that the big banks so love. I have a SD Box at a local CU and keep about 1/3 of my silver hoard in it. They have a very secure vault area in which the boxes are located and 24/7 audio / video monitoring. I can't duplicate that protection level at home without spending a lot of money that I would prefer to spend on PMs. There is no way I would do this with JPM, BofA, Citi, GS, or MS.



All of the governments on Earth, if combined into one, could not bail out this crazy derivatives market. It is just too HUGE for that. The last numbers I saw on this showed derivatives growing rapidly and crossing the $800T level. Other sources say that it is higher, so maybe it depends on how it is counted. In any case, it is insane that this so-called business is allowed to exist when its mere existence threatens the economic future and well-being of every person on Earth. There is nothing that banks can do for us that comes at all close to the size of the risk they are shoving off onto us. That this is not illegal is pretty strong evidence that the bribes are flowing to those who could stop it but aren't.

If the world economy crashes, it will be because these giant dominoes are falling and crushing the financial life out of everything they touch. There are so many of these and they are so inter-locked with others that there will be no isolated derivatives collapses. Once they start imploding, they will all implode.

Ed_B,

As well laid out and explained as I have heard to date
Yet many people just do not get what a precarious position
they are in thanks to the current banking system

My only fear is that things will get better, because how crazy would that be!
All our holdings would become worthless. The better school of thought is to put your money into consumable items you'll be using anyways (food and fuel), that way if nothing happens you simply don't go grocery shopping for 3 months.

I am in similar situation the Bekiz, and I can HONESTLY say if Obama an company is so desperate that they need to tap into Silverhawk's bank account, we all might as well take some Jonestown cool aide....

Libertad, true, but what if you have a sum of money after you have your 3 months supply of food, even 6 month supply?

Yes, it is difficult to do as much with a 401k or IRA as one might want. The 401k is specially difficult because there are a lot of company rules as well as IRS regulations that pertain to them.

It is possible to set up a PM IRA. There are a number of companies doing that but they are all small and I keep wondering if any of them is the next MF Global. None of them gives me that warm and fuzzy feeling that a large IRA custodian would give. They have a lot at stake and fooling around with their clients' money is not something that their rep could stand. So, for the moment, at least, it is a quandary.

The good news for me, at least, is that I am over age 59.5 and can withdraw funds from my IRA without incurring the extra 10% penalty. I do have to watch the tax situation, though, to make sure that I am not putting myself in a more expensive tax situation.

A reasonably good approach for me might be to withdraw an extra $25k per year and roll that into a PM Roth IRA. I would be paying the tax on that money in the tax year in which it is rolled over but by keeping the amount relatively small, the bite would not be too bad. Once in a Roth PM account, huge growth in the value of the PMs in the account would have no tax consequences under the current rules. Yes, they could and probably will change them at some point but there is no knowing when that will be.



Thanks, guys. Appreciate the comments.

One thing about all this is that there just isn't any perfect answer that works under all possible future scenarios. Given that, the best we can do is diversify our PM holdings in different metals and in different locations. I understand that a SD box at a local bank or CU will not provide perfect security but it is pretty darned good. So is burying some (just don't forget where!) and having some in a good safe or two. Owning some PMs in a physical metals ETF has some advantages too and a smaller amount invested there could work for most folks.