Investing "OUTSIDE" the box for SAFE profits.

[shanrose]

The majority of my money is not in banks, it is invested elsewhere. But I do keep a couple 100k in banks, for quick access. That is currently spread across five different banks, I think it is. I am not worried about ALL of them collapsing at the same time. If they do, then it's complete SHTF time for the world. Money will not be your savior at that point. Things will be very rough. You will be looking at support from your preps. And the level of preps you have stockpiled will depend on how long you have decided you want to live after the collapse of society (which is what a complete failure of all banks will trigger IMHO).

I worry that I don't have enough. I have family that's unprepared and that makes it much harder. I keep thinking that I should get more so was looking at getting some buckwheat to store. Hubby just planted a few berry bushes. I bought mulberry bushes from Amazon that are doing great!

Do you surmise how this is all going to unfold? I wonder if it's going to be the grid going down then

Aw c'mon man, don't toss this thread into the TEOTWAWKI -pile with all the others!
We already have an abundance of those.

Aw c'mon man, don't toss this thread into the TEOTWAWKI -pile with all the others!
We already have an abundance of those.

Don't blame Haertig - it was me! I'm trying to get a sense of what others see as happening. Some of us have been insulated from stuff but it's a'coming...

 

[shanrose]

Good point.

I will amend my above answer to simply, "No, I am not afraid of banks collapsing" and leave it at that.

Noooo!!! I needed to know your answer!!! I'm trying to navigate what's probably coming our way and it's got me a little on the edge of my seat! I like distilling the wisdom of a group.

I don't know about you all but darn I feel a sense of something coming our way - kind of like when an old injury starts to ache before it rains.

 

[shanrose]

The doom and gloomers have been preaching bank collapses since the first bank was started. And the banks are still doing well. I feel that my money is safe in a bank. Of course most of my money is invested in stocks, bonds, CD's, real-estate, PM's, gems, antiques, tools/equipment etc.

Do you follow any particular people who are wise about stocks? I'm trying to increase my knowledge of investing.

 

[shanrose]

Banks do collapse. It's best to check and see how solvent your particular bank is. Fairly easy with the Internet today.

However, bank collapses are covered by the printing of money by the Fed to cover the collapse. So the money you get from the Fed for the collapse is now worth less than before the collapse. It's a neat card trick of the Federal government.

Yes - they won't be content unless we're all broke.

 

[Supervisor42]

Do you follow any particular people who are wise about stocks? I'm trying to increase my knowledge of investing.

There are several of us here on the forum, but we are hobbled by the fact that giving investment 'advice' in public is illegal (if you are not licensed) and can land you in jail.

 

[shanrose]

There are several of us here on the forum, but we are hobbled by the fact that giving investment 'advice' in public is illegal (if you are not licensed) and can land you in jail.

Wow I never heard of that. My husband used to listen to a guy on the radio on his way to work. He followed his advice and did pretty well. Now I'm trying to learn more about finance and I wondered if there was anyone who is savvy about it. I'm a novice and bumbling my way trying to understand the maze of information.

 

[Haertig]

I have family that's unprepared and that makes it much harder. I keep thinking that I should get more so was looking at getting some buckwheat to store.

Would your unprepared family have the slightest idea what to do with a pile of buckwheat?

Do you surmise how this is all going to unfold?

That requires you to believe that "this is going to unfold" in the first place. Whatever "this" is. There have been so many "this" predictions over my lifetime that I've lost count. And not a single one of them has ever come true. My advice would be to keep yourself from jumping off the deep end of anything in panic. This includes the deep end of investing. And the deep end of prepping. You have time to learn, so calm the panic. Some will tell you "this" is here already, and you don't have any more time to think for yourself. Well, if they're right, then it doesn't really matter one way or the other does it?

You need to be aware and try to learn everything you can. But realize that at this moment in time we are at the peak of a doomsayer prediction cycle. Anticipate in advance that if you don't buy into these predictions that you will be chided as having "normalcy bias". There is indeed such a thing as this, but carefully considering things you read/hear and drawing your own conclusions about their probability is not normalcy bias, despite how you will be scolded. Running off to buy a bushel of buckwheat may be fine for some people, but that would be a really stupid thing for me to do. You - I don't know your situation well enough - but my hunch is there are much better things for you to pursue than buckwheat. Would you know what to do with it? I wouldn't. I could study up on it and learn, I'm capable of that, but becoming knowledgeable on "How to process and use buckwheat at home" is not a high priority for me. If society collapses and we have to fend for all our food, I'd be much better served having a stockpile of canned goods than a pile of buckwheat that I'm fighting the rats to get first dibs on.

Listen to the preppers. Listen to the investors. Then decide on your own what makes the most sense and will be most worthwhile for you. You can be of both worlds. I am a mix of investing and prepping. I lean more towards investing. Others are both as well, but lean more towards prepping. Then you have the fringe people who are all prepping or all investing. I believe the doomsayers are on the fringes. That's where they've always been in the past. At least you can spot them a mile away - that's the easy part. Always keep in mind what will happen to you if you go all-in on something to the exclusion of everything else. You could end up prepped up the wazoo, but with no money left for when the S doesn't HTF. Or, you could end up one rich bastard that will die off as soon as any adversity comes your way. Neither is a good end. I would recommend NOT going all-in on one fringe or the other.

 

[Quark]

Wow I never heard of that. My husband used to listen to a guy on the radio on his way to work. He followed his advice and did pretty well. Now I'm trying to learn more about finance and I wondered if there was anyone who is savvy about it. I'm a novice and bumbling my way trying to understand the maze of information.

Look up the Mises Institute and Google Investopedia.

 

[Neb]

Wow I never heard of that. My husband used to listen to a guy on the radio on his way to work. He followed his advice and did pretty well. Now I'm trying to learn more about finance and I wondered if there was anyone who is savvy about it. I'm a novice and bumbling my way trying to understand the maze of information.

Find a

Fiduciary

advisor.

They are required to act in your best interest.

 

[shanrose]

Would your unprepared family have the slightest idea what to do with a pile of buckwheat?


That requires you to believe that "this is going to unfold" in the first place. Whatever "this" is. There have been so many "this" predictions over my lifetime that I've lost count. And not a single one of them has ever come true. My advice would be to keep yourself from jumping off the deep end of anything in panic. This includes the deep end of investing. And the deep end of prepping. You have time to learn, so calm the panic. Some will tell you "this" is here already, and you don't have any more time to think for yourself. Well, if they're right, then it doesn't really matter one way or the other does it?

You need to be aware and try to learn everything you can. But realize that at this moment in time we are at the peak of a doomsayer prediction cycle. Anticipate in advance that if you don't buy into these predictions that you will be chided as having "normalcy bias". There is indeed such a thing as this, but carefully considering things you read/hear and drawing your own conclusions about their probability is not normalcy bias, despite how you will be scolded. Running off to buy a bushel of buckwheat may be fine for some people, but that would be a really stupid thing for me to do. You - I don't know your situation well enough - but my hunch is there are much better things for you to pursue than buckwheat. Would you know what to do with it? I wouldn't. I could study up on it and learn, I'm capable of that, but becoming knowledgeable on "How to process and use buckwheat at home" is not a high priority for me. If society collapses and we have to fend for all our food, I'd be much better served having a stockpile of canned goods than a pile of buckwheat that I'm fighting the rats to get first dibs on.

Listen to the preppers. Listen to the investors. Then decide on your own what makes the most sense and will be most worthwhile for you. You can be of both worlds. I am a mix of investing and prepping. I lean more towards investing. Others are both as well, but lean more towards prepping. Then you have the fringe people who are all prepping or all investing. I believe the doomsayers are on the fringes. That's where they've always been in the past. At least you can spot them a mile away - that's the easy part. Always keep in mind what will happen to you if you go all-in on something to the exclusion of everything else. You could end up prepped up the wazoo, but with no money left for when the S doesn't HTF. Or, you could end up one rich bastard that will die off as soon as any adversity comes your way. Neither is a good end. I would recommend NOT going all-in on one fringe or the other.

Very wise advise. Yes my family would know how to prepare buckwheat! They're not stupid - just too busy and overwhelmed with raising a family while working full time. They're also leftists - I think from going to college. My friend got angry and said that she bought all this stuff expecting something and she hasn't used one thing - so you're right about all the chicken littles. However - I don't know what's coming but I think something is - which is why I'm trying to learn from others' knowledge and opinions. As far as the buckwheat goes - yes I would use it as I am vegan. One good thing about it - besides the health benefits - is that I don't have to concern myself about raising livestock. It's also cheap!

We had a problem with mice though - so I know what you mean about fighting them. We placed glue traps everywhere but I didn't feel right about it as it's not a good death for them. I also bought bait but I didn't feel right about that either as poisoning is not a quick death. So I'm going to buy multiple mouse traps to kill them quickly which is more humane.

I'm a novice about finance. I do have CD's but have that nagging feeling because of the "bail-in" legislation. My friend pulled all her money out of banks so I'm wondering if she's right. She has real estate. However, our neighbor at our old house who is our age, just sold all his real estate as he's having a lot of health problems. So there's a lot to consider and what I'm seeing is that we also have to factor in our age. Rentals at our age may be a problem.

I don't know anything about stocks and am trying to learn. I followed one guy who advised buying real estate. So I'm trying to learn what I can and see what others are doing. I should not have ignored finance all these years but I did so now I'm a novice although older. Live and learn.

 

[shanrose]

Look up the Mises Institute and Google Investopedia.

I will. Thank you.

 

[shanrose]

Find a

Fiduciary

advisor.

They are required to act in your best interest.

Thank you - I will look that up.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Do you follow any particular people who are wise about stocks? I'm trying to increase my knowledge of investing.

Nope. I learned by doing. I first opened a couple brokerage accounts; eTrade, Fidelity and a couple others. I tried listening to a couple "experts" and followed a couple stock advice papers. All were worthless, in my opinion.
I just started out buying inexpensive stocks, all dividend paying.

 

[Quark]

Nope. I learned by doing. I first opened a couple brokerage accounts; eTrade, Fidelity and a couple others. I tried listening to a couple "experts" and followed a couple stock advice papers. All were worthless, in my opinion.
I just started out buying inexpensive stocks, all dividend paying.

That's not a bad way to go. Go for value/contrarian plays that pay dividends.

 

[Supervisor42]

Nope. I learned by doing. I first opened a couple brokerage accounts; eTrade, Fidelity and a couple others. I tried listening to a couple "experts" and followed a couple stock advice papers. All were worthless, in my opinion.
I just started out buying inexpensive stocks, all dividend paying.

Sage 'non-advice'!

 

[Tommyice]

I started by doing the same as @Mountain trapper. I also work for a company that has an Employee Stock Purchase Plan. I get to purchase the stock at a 10% discount off of the lowest price during the 6 month offering period. Five percent of my paycheck goes to that and it pays a dividend. I also purchase a S&P 500 etf, and sector specific ETF and a very small variety of other sectors.

 

[zoomzoom]

With all the illegal wetbacks in our country Western Union should be a good buy. They all send their welfare checks back to their own country.

With them all leaving, WU isn't looking so good. It's down about 20% in the last 6 months. I'm thinking of dumping it.
I heard something like $64 billion goes south of the border annually from migrants in the USA. I'm guessing WU does a lot of those transactions. If all the illegals leave, WU lost a lot of business.

 

[Supervisor42]

With them all leaving, WU isn't looking so good. It's down about 20% in the last 6 months. I'm thinking of dumping it.
I heard something like $64 billion goes south of the border annually from migrants in the USA. I'm guessing WU does a lot of those transactions. If all the illegals leave, WU lost a lot of business.

The only thing I am concerned with, is if they lower their dividend.
Right now, they are sending me $202 every 3 months.
I guess I should watch that closer.

 

[Mountain trapper]

The only thing I am concerned with, is if they lower their dividend.
Right now, they are sending me $202 every 3 months.
I guess I should watch that closer.

It's definitely a good idea to keep a close eye on it. When I was actively buy and trading stocks, I welcomed drops in the market. To me an overall drop in the markets just meant that stocks were on sale. I primarily invested in dividend paying stocks too, but I never took the divided, always had them reinvested.

 

[Supervisor42]

It's definitely a good idea to keep a close eye on it. When I was actively buy and trading stocks, I welcomed drops in the market. To me an overall drop in the markets just meant that stocks were on sale. I primarily invested in dividend paying stocks too, but I never took the divided, always had them reinvested.

Only dividends I have reinvested are from the massive holdings I have in the Evil power company.
It is an 'after-tax' account, so I will have to pay taxes on $6,000 in 2024.
...Which I am happy to do.

 

[zoomzoom]

I just looked at my Western Union investment
I bought 500 shares last May at $12.71. It's now $10.25.
That's a loss of $2.46/share or $1230.
I did receive $360 in dividends but even with that, I'm down $870.
I'm going to sell it all the next day the market (and WU) looks good. I just don't see it going back up to even what I paid for it for a very long time.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I just looked at my Western Union investment
I bought 500 shares last May at $12.71. It's now $10.25.
That's a loss of $2.46/share or $1230.
I did receive $360 in dividends but even with that, I'm down $870.
I'm going to sell it all the next day the market (and WU) looks good. I just don't see it going back up to even what I paid for it for a very long time.

Have you heard the term "dollar cost average"? When I was investing I didn't care if my shares went up or down, I bought regardless. Personally I don't know enough about WU to even venture a guess about whether it's worth holding on to.
My investment strategy was to have all dividends reinvested. Over the last 30 years or so that provided thousands of additional shares. Also, If the dividend didn't drop, I didn't care what the price per share was. I always invested for the long term gains.

 

[Supervisor42]

My investment strategy was to have all dividends reinvested. Over the last 30 years or so that provided thousands of additional shares. Also, If the dividend didn't drop, I didn't care what the price per share was. I always invested for the long term gains.

Me either.
WU has always been a 'buy & hold' dividend stock.
At the current price, it has a 9.14% yield.
...That ain't too shabby in my book!!!

 

[zoomzoom]

Have you heard the term "dollar cost average"? When I was investing I didn't care if my shares went up or down, I bought regardless. Personally I don't know enough about WU to even venture a guess about whether it's worth holding on to.
My investment strategy was to have all dividends reinvested. Over the last 30 years or so that provided thousands of additional shares. Also, If the dividend didn't drop, I didn't care what the price per share was. I always invested for the long term gains.

Yes on "dollar cost average".
Since I'm no longer investing, I'm making withdraws from my brokerage account to live on.
Even with WU's dividends, it's still my most underperforming asset.
Most of my other investments are turning 20% or better annually. I make withdraws from these (always long term gains). I pull out what I need and the investment value still goes up.