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WHAT DO I DO WITH MY MONEY?

Mike Ruppert Offers Advice at the Cusp of Collapse

by
Michael C. Ruppert

© Copyright 2006, From The Wilderness Publications, www.copvcia.com. All Rights Reserved. This story may NOT be posted on any Internet web site without express written permission. Contact admin@copvcia.com. May be circulated, distributed or transmitted for non-profit purposes only.

March 1, 2006 0800 PST (FTW), Ashland - A few days ago a subscriber and friend sent me an email asking how he should structure his portfolio. He had just retired from a long career in government service. After looking at what I wrote to him it dawned on me that all FTW subscribers might want an answer to that same question.

Quickly: Both former Assistant HUD Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts and I are on the same page here. Catherine is also a past Managing Director of the Wall Street investment bank Dillon Read. A minimum of 25% of your portfolio should be in precious metals (i.e. silver and gold). Any gold bullion coins are good (i.e. those coins that are certified as 99.99% pure gold). Putting 50-65% of your portfolio in precious metals is not at all unreasonable if you are well off.

Bullion coins include Maple Leafs, Krugerands, American Eagles, etc. Gold can also be purchased in one, two, five and ten ounce ingots. Smaller 20 Swiss Franc coins are good because they are both bullion and a currently negotiable currency. Mixing the weights and sizes is good. It's hard to make change for one ounce of gold. My mix includes Maple Leafs, Swiss Francs and silver coins plus what is called "junk" silver or randomly mixed ingots/coins of 1 ounce. (Who cares what they look like?) Be certain that you have the gold in your possession. Some companies charge exorbitant fees to vault for you and as far as I'm concerned I want my gold where I can put my hands on it. You can buy a great safe for around $500 and that's a good investment anyway. Stay away from numismatic coins (valued because of date, rarity, etc) because their value is only based on what collectors value. In a collapsing society who cares about how old or how pretty a coin is. The value will be only in how much precious metal there is in a universally accepted measure. Silver in bulk is also very promising. Both silver and gold look to have serious uptrends (with the standard corrections) far into the future. I would not be surprised to see gold touch $625 this year and $1,000 within four. Don't get spooked by occasional corrections in the spot price. These are to be expected. Buy gold and silver and hold onto it. Those who have over the last four years have done very well since gold has doubled in price during that time.

FTW called gold's recent rise right on the money (pardon the pun) and many of our readers have profited from that just as have our readers who cashed out their homes at the top of the now-collapsing housing bubble. Buying precious metals is far easier than most people think. There's a link on FTW's homepage to Goldline in Santa Monica, a big, trustworthy company that does business all over the country. I buy from them. But any local coin store can sell you gold. Just Yahoo for one in your Zip code and see what you come up with. Dealer's are fairly common. My site also has links to dozens of other outlets. Find one that you're comfortable with.

Personally, I avoid gold mining stocks although some investors are doing very well with them. I would consider dabbling in gold stocks if I were really well off and had money to play with. However I would not count gold mining stocks (or any kind of paper gold) as part of the essential 25% of portfolio. There is about five times more paper gold out there than there is actual gold out of the ground. Apples and oranges. I would however buy stock in locally owned corporations that benefit my "neighborhood" or region such as local food co-ops or local microgeneration projects. That's what Catherine Austin Fitts is working on and what we advocate at FTW. That is the future of post-collapse stock investing where things like P/E ratios and a hundred other corruptions of the present system are bypassed. That is a future where quality of life instead of growth will determine value. Other than that, within the limits of what FDIC or FSLIC will insure, both Fitts and I agree that the smartest thing to do now is to pay down debt as far as possible and stay as liquid as possible.

Other good investments are tools and a reasonable stock of survival gear like sleeping bags, portable stoves, generators, solar panels, non-terminator seeds and gardening equipment.

Otherwise, sit on your money and wait to make moves as circumstances require and opportunity dictates.

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