Has anyone else lost faith in the "Paper Promise"?

[rbeau30]

I have recently come to thinking. What if my retirement fund (Roth IRA) is still "worth" the same in 20 years as it is now despite contributing to it for the last 10 years. What if: the bank who I am sending my monthly contributions to my Roth IRA goes under between now (34 YO) and when I need it (65 YO).

30 years????

Do I have faith that the USD will endure that long?

My dilemma. Cash in now and convert it to physical precious metals that I have in my hand and have control over. A quote comes to mind though I cannot place the person who said it along the lines of, "The same amount of dollars will not buy you a loaf of bread 20 years from now as today, but the same amount of silver will buy you a loaf of bread today as will 20 years from now." Or something like that.

What I am realizing is that it is not that the price of precious metals is not going up... it is the value of the USD is in fact going down. (the USD buys less and less daily!)

I have this constant draw to liquidate my Roth IRA to which I have been contributing to for the last 10 years (and bearly seeing the value go above what I have contributed) or waiting it out for the stock market to "go back to what I did not want to get down to"

Any Financial Advisors in the house?

[Wulf202]

I don't do ira. I do real estate. tangible insurable and you get the income of the rent. if you do it right it can pay itself off after the down payment. the rent is scalable to the current cost of living.

then again I've been managing properties for other peoples investments for a long time.

[Wulf202]

oh forgot to mention you should be able to make %10 annually with the right choices without too much difficulty. startup costs are a bit high though.

[BushMasterBoy]

I started buying in the $5 range. Wish I had more gold! Mostly eBay purchases, some coin shops and thrift stores. Easy to sell & trade silver, and it usually will keep up with inflation no matter what. If I was younger and had to do it over, I would dredge for gold on the upper Arkansas River. If you really want some good advice go to kitco.com and join the forum. I made money buying precious metals and keeping them. It made my net worth go up, when my brand new house value went down. I'm not much on managing rentals as they require too much work! People trash the houses here in Pueblo. I have considered trading my PM's for property, but it would have to be perfect bugout property, preferably close to gold/silver producing areas. As for now it is my savings and has returned a few hundred percent increase in value. Price of precious metals will rise soon if the Federal Reserve puts more paper money in circulation. Only way silver will crash is if a huge mineral deposit is discovered. Just buy a few ounces a month and keep it in your safe...all other investments require way too much work and considerable risk. Don't put your nestegg in an Enron...

Just my .02 cents

[Irving]

Exactly what Wulf said. If you aren't worried about the risk of your IRA funds being lost in a ponzie scheme or another dotcom bubble, then you can keep your money there, but loan it out to people like Wulf. In fact, I'm going to send you a pm.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Cash out your money and start buying 1. Property tax lien 2. Loan hard money against properties. 3. 25% of your liquidity onto silver/gold.

In 10 years you can expect 3x 4x the original value.

[Omicron]

I have recently come to thinking. What if my retirement fund (Roth IRA) is still "worth" the same in 20 years as it is now despite contributing to it for the last 10 years. What if: the bank who I am sending my monthly contributions to my Roth IRA goes under between now (34 YO) and when I need it (65 YO).

30 years????

Do I have faith that the USD will endure that long?

My dilemma. Cash in now and convert it to physical precious metals that I have in my hand and have control over. A quote comes to mind though I cannot place the person who said it along the lines of, "The same amount of dollars will not buy you a loaf of bread 20 years from now as today, but the same amount of silver will buy you a loaf of bread today as will 20 years from now." Or something like that.

What I am realizing is that it is not that the price of precious metals is not going up... it is the value of the USD is in fact going down. (the USD buys less and less daily!)

I have this constant draw to liquidate my Roth IRA to which I have been contributing to for the last 10 years (and bearly seeing the value go above what I have contributed) or waiting it out for the stock market to "go back to what I did not want to get down to"

Any Financial Advisors in the house?

While I'm not a financial advisor, I do know it's possible to convert your IRA to physical gold because I've looked into it. A quick Google search will find you info, like this (salesly) article, but there are risks, as highlighted here. (Basically don't let yourself get steered away from buying bullion and into coins). And my other concern is that doing this means someone else holds the physical gold I (theoretically) put my money into - and I just don't trust people and companies enough to hand them my retirement and hope they'll (a) be around when I need it, (b) not abscond with some or all of my gold, and (c) the government will even allow me to have my gold when I need it. The government seizing all physical gold isn't exactly unprecedented historically.

Anyhow, if you go down this path, consider all this, and don't go all in at once. Diversify diversify diversify as they say. Hope this helps some.

[FastMan]

I share your concerns, rbeau30. I've converted a a portion of my equity holdings into precious metals holdings. When the dollar tanks because of runaway debt, few investments will hold their value, but gold and silver have a better chance. Real Estate is scary too, because what if they jack taxes up so high you can't afford to pay them? Yep, the government will confiscate it. It's a tough call, as to just what to do. A couple years ago I jokingly told a friend to invest in Spam. Might not be so far from wrong.

[Irving]

Real Estate is scary too, because what if they jack taxes up so high you can't afford to pay them?

Then raise the rent. I don't think tax rates are a legitimate concern.

[FastMan]

Then raise the rent. I don't think tax rates are a legitimate concern.

Raise rent, on people who are in just as dire financial straits, and can't afford it as it is? And what if you invested in raw land? No rent to draw on. I don't underestimate the government's desire to survive when it's going broke, and what measures it will stoop to to do so.