I never thought to look at that (foreclosed stats) Wizard. It all just doesn't add up. Why would a city keep building new homes, when local foreclosure rates are that high? I guess as long as builders have buyers... no one cares. Around here... I'm told the state picks up a good handful of these foreclosure's, and turns them into Section 8 welfare homes, and places for all the rapists and molesters to live that they turn loose on early release and such. Nice huh? :blink: :notrust:Wizard said:Foreclosure numbers rise in Bexar County
A total of 680 properties in the county are set to go up for auction on June 6. This is a 9 percent increase in the number of foreclosures compared to May, the report indicates.
http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2006/05/15/daily39.html
9% increase in one month = 108% annualized :blink: .
Foreclosure rate increases are the signal of a slowdown.
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Or you can now use TapaTalk again!Gold, Silver, etc...
- Thread starter SkyPilot
- Start date
Wimpy
Member
Fivetears said:
I'm wondering if, in addition to denial and lack of market foresight, there may be contractual obligations binding them to move forward.
In the Denver area, back in the late eigthties-early nineties, builders were also going full out in the face of an oil glut and many of those newly built apartment complexes and homes had their windows boarded up and were overtaken by weeds. Shrewd investors eventually picked them up dirt cheap before the markets started moving again in the mid nineties. One person's trash is another person's treasure.
WWizard
Guest
Speculators put their $1,000 down for a new home that they were going to "flip" for a HUGE PROFIT. As long as the home builders have contracts outstanding they will keep building until they hand the "happy speculator" the keys.
You can not file for bankrupcy anymore so they home builders had no risk to sign people that can not afford their homes to iron clad contracts.
680 properties foreclosed in one city in one month. 680 families struggling to a point where they are going to lose their home.
Very sad.
NOTE: 55% of the new jobs (builders, real esate agents, Home Depot, mortgage lenders, etc) in this booming ecomomy have been from the home building sector. HMMMMMMMMM. You know what comes next, right?WWizard
Guest
Wimpy said:WHEN FLIPPIN' FLOPS
Yet to be title of a new book about the myth of money growing on trees...take it away Wizard.
Everything happens in cycles. Unfortunately the U.S. can not handle the job losses this time. How many people can man the fries at McDonalds? We do not have a manufactoring base anymore to absorb them.
Wimpy
Member
Wizard said:Everything happens in cycles. Unfortunately the U.S. can not handle the job losses this time. How many people can man the fries at McDonalds? We do not have a manufactoring base anymore to absorb them.
Yes, that is a key distinction few have considered.
Sometimes it feels kinda smug being a government employee. Before we snuggle up to our smugness too much though, it would be a good idea to consider what a shrinking tax base will do to ALL of us. Either government services will be cut back or they will be paid for with inflated currency which will drive prices even higher and lower our standard of living across the board. That is the very reason I'm hedging and investing with gold and silver.WWizard
Guest
mlk_man said:
Yes and bought more @ 637.WWizard
Guest
Wizard said:
Gold now $658.
Up $21 an ounce in a couple hours. :embarrest:WWizard
Guest
Wimpy said:
Dont worry, give em time.
Wimpy
Member
Gold Is Not Finished – Here’s Why
Courtesy of www.texashedge.com
Every year, around the beginning of May, we take a trip over to a local coffee shop to see what the average Joe thinks about the markets. The most efficient way to do this is to administer a poll to this crowd of mostly working class professionals in their 20s, 30s and 40s. While not the most scientific of polls, the data below is quite informative.
http://news.goldseek.com/TexasHedge/1148396580.php
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Very good read!divgolfish
New member
I am a Gov worker getting ready to retire and I am really impressed with what you and Wizard have to say about Gold. I saw a web site that allows you to have a IRA in Gold. I am about to retire do you think it is a good idea to transferWimpy said:WHEN FLIPPIN' FLOPS
Yet to be title of a new book about the myth of money growing on trees...take it away Wizard.
some of my TSP to a IRA gold account. the one I saw is under the american
Precious metal exchage the SHow Me mentioneddivgolfish
New member
I guess what I am really asking if you ever had any experience with these gold
type IRA and are they any good?
"If we don't hang together, we will all hang separately" Ben Franklin
Show-me
Well-known member
Gold IRA
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Each persons situation is different. Why own an "Gold IRA"? Unless your TSP is your soul retirement account and/or you want to peel some off for a gold hedge. If you have a separate/private account already just do a little research and pick a from a plethora of gold/silver etfs, mining companies, or mutual funds. Just remember that gold is generally used as a hedge against a declining US dollar. I think "Gold IRA" is a marketing gimmick. You can invest in gold with your private, Traditional IRA, or Roth IRA accounts as you wish with our setting up an "Gold IRA". GLD, IAU, SIL, or
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/134_cl_all.html
http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/135_cl_all.html
http://screen.yahoo.com/a?cc=SP&nm=&...&vw=1&db=funds
If I was retiring I would transfer my entire TSP account to a private account anyway.
Wimpy
Member
The 'idea' behind any IRA is to defer taxes on 'gains'. There are two ways to obtain ‘gains’. Buy and hold for the long-term and sell close to the top OR sell into strength a portion of your holdings and buy those holdings back (plus some) on weakness to compound your position. Both of these types of activities fall under the category of ‘investing’ in precious metals.
Before ‘investing’ in precious metals, a person should have what is referred to as a ‘core’ position in precious metals. This should be in physical gold and silver kept very close at hand. This is also referred to as ‘insurance’ versus ‘investment’. In other words, you almost never sell your ‘core insurance’ position in the hard physical precious metals. You hang onto them through thick and thin and only use them in the most dire of circumstances when all other assets have been totally exhausted in the acquisition of food, shelter, and safe passage. When you purchase this ‘core’ position…take personal delivery. Don’t have it shipped to your home address. If you need to ship it, have it shipped in your name to the Post Office under General Delivery. It will be registered and insured and the Post Office will most likely let you ‘go around back’ to pick it up at the dock…if sent to a smaller substation. Ask for a little privacy and discretion upon pickup at the Post Office. The people at the Post Office will KNOW exactly what you are picking up. Arrange for pickup at a small town post office, where you are unknown, to protect your privacy or pick up from a coin or bullion dealer directly. Keep in mind that silver is more bulky than gold. For example, $15,000 divided by $650 (gold) = 23 ounces or appx. 1.5 pounds and $15,000 divided by $12.50 (silver) = 1200 ounces or 75 pounds. Silver is much less discreet to move and store, at least in large quantities, so keep this in mind when determining how much of each you want to take delivery of. The recommended amount to have in this physical ‘core’ position is no less than 5-10% of your net worth. If you are a high net worth individual this could be a substantial sum of precious metals to be personally holding, storing, or transporting and therefore you may want to consider keeping a portion of this ‘core’ position in a European bank (Swiss Bank preferred). There are three ways to hold physical precious metals in a European bank; Safety Deposit Box, Allocated, and Unallocated (book form). In ‘allocated form’ the asset is in YOUR name versus the bank’s name and therefore in case the bank underwent a liquidity crisis, the assets in your name could not be used to satisfy the bank’s creditors in any settlement action. NOW, the most obvious question that arises is, “Why not keep a portion of my ‘core’ position in a safety deposit box here in the U.S.?” Banks in the U.S. have a known history of going on ‘Holiday’ (shutting their doors) at the most inopportune times, usually during a financial crisis. Additionally, they have a documented history of cooperating with the ‘authorities’ in any disputes over the ownership of the contents of a safety deposit box. The Swiss and other European banks have a higher standard of privacy and due process than the banking system here. Additionally, purchasing and storing gold and silver bullion and/or coins in a European Bank is a common practice among Europeans and their buy/sell spreads, commissions, and storage fees are much less than using commercial vendors and private vaults here in the U.S. This is not a solution for everyone, but geographic AND jurisdictional diversification of assets is certainly something to consider for those in the high net worth category. U.S. citizens are required to report foreign financial accounts.
I’ve used American Church Trust Company, as a precious metals IRA custodian, and have had good success with them. I had purchased the metals through a coin dealer and they shipped the metals directly to the custodian. I received regular statements from the custodian, but over a period of time began wondering if the metals were REALLY there. I closed out the account, paid the penalties, and took delivery. I feel much, much better having done so. Attempting to use this type of account for active trading is very cumbersome and has a high transaction cost because the custodians have to liquidate positions through coin dealers and their bid/ask spreads can eat into your potential profits.
When discussing precious metals the question always comes up about ‘confiscation’. It has happened before and could conceivably happen again. Each person has to give thought as to how they will handle this potential situation. Formal IRA custodial arrangements, in this country, would be the first targets of a confiscation scheme and the custodians would roll over in a heart beat if push came to shove.
Also, during the 1980 price run up in metals, there were a number of commercial vendors offering ‘storage’ of metals as well as shipping directly to the buyer. Some of these vendors were playing the role of fractional reserve banker with the deposits of their clients. In other words, they were using the deposits of their clients to purchase highly leveraged futures contracts instead of actually safekeeping the metal. Many ‘fly by night’ operations were set up during the run up and disappeared after the collapse of metal’s prices and ‘investors’ lost great sums of money. Be very, very careful in choosing who stores your metals. I would recommend using a private vault (as in BRINKS) versus using the vault of a commercial metals vendor who might be tempted to play around with your money.
Now, for investing in precious metals. ‘Investing’ is that position in precious metals above and beyond your core position. Again, ‘investing’ implies a long-term buy and hold position or active trading. It can be physical metals or stocks of mining companies. Metals can be purchased through commercial coin dealers locally or nationally and stocks can be purchase through a broker or on your own through an online trading account. Exchange traded funds in gold or silver have low transaction costs and can be a great way to actively trade metals. Online trading accounts also have IRA accounts, so you could purchase and actively trade gold and silver ETFs.
A lot of information here…maybe more than you wanted or needed, but I tried to anticipate the logical questions that sometimes surface in these discussions.
In summary:
- Get a core position first. Keep it close and be discreet in purchase and shipping. If your net worth warrants, consider geographic and/or jurisdictional diversification by opening a foreign account in Switzerland or Austria for a portion of that core insurance position and also for your long-term buy and hold investment positions in the physical metals and/or stocks of mining companies. And don’t forget the annual Treasury Department reporting for foreign accounts.
- Open an IRA online trading account and buy and sell the gold and silver ETFs as an ‘investment’ to keep transaction costs as low as possible and to defer taxes.
- Another low transaction cost vehicle for ‘investing’ and active trading in gold and silver is via goldmoney.com --- I don’t think they have IRA type accounts.
P.S. You may also want to consider taking out a TSP loan to make a gold and/or silver purchase for your core position. I think the upper limit for TSP general loans is $50,000 provided you have at least $100,000 total account balance.
Wimpy
Member
Show-me said:Freak'n EXCELLENT answer Wimpy! Will you be my friend? lol I'm curious how many use the formula that you have so very well explained?
Physical metal is king! Shiiiiiiney.........preeeeetty.......meeeetal. :nuts:
Glad you enjoyed it. Nothing original here...just standing on the shoulders of giants to get a better view of how the world actually works.
The formula above is simply an answer to a series of 'What If' questions taken in their order of priority. How many are using this formula? Not many...as very few are asking the 'What If' questions. Most won't start asking these questions until gold hits $1600.
Show-me
Well-known member
That's exactly it..........what if? Doesn't mean it's going to happen and I hope nothing ever happens. But, what if? Are you prepared? Do you have a hedge against a weakening USD? Do you have some provisions set aside? Doesn't take much to do now, but what if?
We joke at work about the 5 G's.
1. God
2. Guns
3. Groceries
4. Gold
5. Gas
Ya can change the last four around but I prefer to have the 1st on at the top of the list.Similar threads
