@Dan, you can’t use gold or silver for anything, so it really is worthless. you could sell it for scrap value at the end of the day. Moreover, gold/silver has not kept up with inflation (although it’s supposed to be inflationary protection). supply/demand does not justify the current prices just like they didn’t in the early 80s. gold/silver will again drop, and drop quick and fast, to $300-$500 band again and probably will remain there for the next 30 years until we get another artificial spike. gold/silver has no inflationary protection, because number one we are no longer on the gold standard, and two it isn’t tradable for goods and services unless of course we go back to ancient times where gold and silver are used as currency.

A few yeas back I upped my long-term savings to 30% silver/gold (in safe-deposit boxes, NOT an ETF, etc,) and sleep well every night as a result. (I also own nice, fertile land with it’s own water source, 20 miles from town, just in case.)

Tried to go get more gold/silver this week and was told it was “unavailable”, (at EVERY place I went!) Was told I could pay now and have it delieverd in “ten to twelve weeks” but it would be priced at 20% over current market value!

Never seen this before, not ever, in my 30 years of being involved with metals.

the one thing i know for certain, is that whenever we have these hiccups, and i do see it as a hiccup, our economy comes back in force and strong. i will tell you that our economy is much more resilient and better positioned than many other western countries. yes, there will be a period of consolidation, re-evaluation which is good.

this “bastard” short trader now has YOUR $$$. you keep buying and ill stay short. i think everyone should reconsider the “buying at a discount” way of thinking. everything is only getting worse. that seems to be all you hear on tv. this bank closing, these chain of stores shutting down, jobs lost, etc. all these companies have stocks and stocks are what makes the S&P and DOW. why buy something that is being talked about so horribly? buying for the long haul is just a way to get you to NOT SELL, when you should have sold at least 6 months ago. NEVER give back half your profits EVER. i short now but all in all i am a bull and believe me, as soon as car dealerships report better numbers, and banks steady out, and things appear normal again, then yes, buy at a discount. news never has anything to do with what news used to be, its always some bank or store closing down. since when has regular local news channels even mentioned the stock market in the past? well they sure do now.
i agree with Chad, Christmas #’s will make things even worse. the best thing to do if you want no risk, stay in cash. buy all you want, ill take the other end, im staying short.

That’s not to say that you are going to wake up and the DOW is going to be zero. I’m just saying don’t buy into the argument that stocks always go up more than you should. Systemic shock can be the changing factor.

The bottom line is that we are going to have a huge re-allignment and no one knows which direction things will go. But it will definitely hurt. And it could hurt in the long run not just the short run. By all means stay in the market, but don’t do it so naively as in “golly gee, I’m invested for the long haul”. Yeah, you might be, and you might end up with nothing.

Oh, and FDIC insurance is a joke. By all means stay in the policy limits. But don’t think for a second that it’s a secure system that can handle a huge bank’s collapse. It has similar underlying mathematical flaws as the Social Security system. Keep in mind the entire premise of insurance: I agree to pay you money in the event X happens in exchange for premiums because the risk of X happening is low. No insurance system can survive if everyone who has that policy all file a claim. WaMU would swallow the FDIC’s fund (which is of course just US Bonds, so we are talking essentially more inflation, because the government doesn’t have cash, and will have to borrow, when to pay off those bonds when they get cashed in).

Again, by all means follow the present wisdom. There’s no clear indications of what is better right now. But don’t be polly-annish about it. Perot wasn’t a kook when he was talking about the deficit some 16 years ago and it’s only gotten a lot worse since then.

My investment strategy isnt’ changing at all. Stocks are a very long term investment and should be diversified so that one sector dying doesn’t pull you down with it.

Jim

I’m with you. I have started some job skills study on my own to be ahead of the game if my job dries up. If I lost my job that WOULD make me panic! Our debt payoff is currently projected for June 2010, so no sinking thousands of “extra cash” into the market for me. My small emergency fund is too precious to raid for that.

On the investing front I think I will finally open that education savings account I have talked about for months funding it with a small amount each month, I figure money added now will have more bang for my buck.

my feeling is that the market is at the same mark as it was 20 years ago, so i haven’t lost any ground having been naive and young and in debt a while ago, b/c now i have opportunity to make up for it.

there will be lots of asset liquidation and in the end there will be lots of money made. this is inevitable in a down turn that companies fail and companies merge and consume others. this isn’t anything new, so people shouldn’t be surprised by it. people should take it as a good sign, because eventually this too shall pass. it may take longer, so definitely cannot plan your long term horizon by short snapshots. now if all the pros who constantly hark the same line actually stop panicking, then we’ll have some stability. unfortunately there is so much money being made on short selling that these wild swings are going to be norm until real valuations occur on the mortgage back securities.

Apparently they will just have the treasury print more money for the fund to borrow. Huh?!

The reason why commercial banks have been buying investment banks is because they can now use your deposit money to cover their bad debt (the Fed has just jettisoned portions of the federal reserve act that prohibited this!) This means that your deposits at Bank of America can now be used to shore up losses that Merrill Lynch has on its books.

How is this a good thing when we have no clue how much bad debt there really is out there?

aside from that, i keep buying more funds.

Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime is on my side. Yes it is.

I know what I need to do, and I’m just holding firm and doing it.

No changes other than that. I’m sticking to the original plan I made back in January (when the world was only “slightly” coming to an end) – Pay off debt, Rebuild EF, Pray every night that I remain employed.

Also suggest that you confirm that none of your insurance coverage is through AIG. If so, you need a Plan B.