getting out of the dollar...lots of room for suggestions and comments here!

How difficult would it be to, say, withdraw $75,000 from a bank and then go buy gold/silver and keep this info private? Do you have to report to the government any of your purchases over a certain amount?

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.
Agatha Christie

A lot of people here have posted a lot of different opinions about where to put this money, and none of them are "wrong" per se. Local recession, global depsression, total societal meltdown - these are all possiblities (although nobody has discussed currency revaluation, which I see as likely since we've done it a few times in the past when we've been here). Nobody, however, can predict the future. So, I have my money stored in what I call my "hedge portfolio": 20% in physical metals (gold/silver - weighted silver), 20% in land, 20% in Euros (raw currency), 20% in European equities/utilities and the rest in industrial mining stock (none are domestic). A portion of my portfolio draws dividends, a portion preserves wealth, a portion gains value and a portion is a fallback. Is this a growth portfolio? Not really. Is it a preservation portfolio? Not really again. But, what this portfolio ensures is that regardless of what happens, I'll have something left to live on - or at least enough money to travel to greener pastures.

- Mixer

PS - Putnam's International Equity Fund is my vehicle for European equities. I can recommend them - YMMV.

Don't waste your wealth buying Euros or other foreign currencies. Lots of things are going up at double digit rates - buy some of them.

The best investment is in FOOD PROVISIONS!!! Please let me explain. Well, we all pretty much agree that we are moving rather quickly into a government completely opposite of what the inspired founders created. The way things are happening, and they are happening fast, we will soon depend on Uncle Sam for even the food stuff we eat. History has proven that such a socialistic system ultimately kills many of those that become dependent on it, especially if you don't agree with the system. I've been watching the supply of food and how it is created/distributed/stored for a few years now and there have been some very interesting things going on. As you know, many important things that people should be informed about are suppressed from the media; this is one of those very important things you are not hearing about.

The whole world seams as if it has been cursed with a famine and we are one crop failure away from an enormous disaster. Is it caused by the latest solar cycle or the great creator, I don't know. All I know its happening and it appears its going to get worse before it gets better (that sounds a lot like the economic forecast for the US). There are many facts, numbers, and statistics that I would like to share but I'll let you go dig that up for yourselves. The one fact that should scare the socks off ya is that the US Grain reserves are nightmarishly low!!!

What a powerful illusion that is created when we walk in our supermarkets. So many choices and so much abundance. There is one thing that is quickly becoming impossible to buy and that is grains in bulk. It is only a matter of time before the same storm reaches your local super market. Higher prices will be the immediate cause; however, if prices increase sufficiently that the poorest of our own nation can no longer buy sufficient food then riots and social collapses will be inevitable. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam will step in to save the day with food rationing for all! Hurray!! We are seeing the same thing happening on the world scale right now with Haiti and Egypt.

The interesting thing about this problem is that it cannot be fixed by printing money out of thin air like other problems we have encountered this last year. It takes a few harvests to heal and the forecasts for the next few harvests are not good. The return on a Gold/silver investments is only as good as the education your buyer has on the true value of precious metals. Unfortunately, there are not too many educated people out there as you all probably already know; however, everybody has to eat and nobody will ignore those stomach pains. How many gold coins will you pay for a cup of pottage when I'm the only seller?

If food is prepared and stored properly, it can last up to 30+ years.

Let's prepare temporally to stand as a free people and resurrect the constitution when the time comes!

If you could stand the pressure go to forex.com. Buy euros, yens, Aus, etc. They will give you $50,000 dummy account to play with. You don't need a lot of money to buy foreign currency. They will leverage your trades. Therefore with your $7,000 you could easily buy $100,000 in euros and whenever the euro goes up a couple pennys you make thousands, but also if it goes down you'll lose $4,000 like I did in one night, but two weeks later the money all came back without me changing anything. Just play with a practice account for 30 days free trial and see if it is for you.