Thread: The "Safest" Place For Your "Assets"

I'm curious to the investor sentiment here at the forum with respect to the perceived "safest" place for your assets ... aside from my answer being "My Business", what else?

In which vehicle do you perceive the best place to have your assets tied?

If the market declines another 40%, where do you think would be safest? Least impacted?

Please vote and feel free to comment.

I was watching a piece on Warren Buffett last night who said that he thinks treasuries and gov't bonds are in a bubble.

Going with an interesting opinion:

If everyone tries to 'devalue' the USD still remains on top. Why? The majority of debt is denominated in dollars - and therefore dollars are needed to repay the debt. Yes, just like Japan, this has very negative repercussions for our exports. At the end of the day, everyone will need U - actual zero-coupon Treasuries - and there aren't enough to go around relative to the debt created. Traditionally governments have four choices to wrest themselves out of the grip of a deflationary environment:

1) Nationalize sick banks & recapitalize (Sweden)
2) Amputate sick banks & recapitalize (1907 US)
3) Zombify sick banks & dither away 20 years (Japan)
4) Devalue their currency (1934 US)

Deflationary monetary phenomenon has never been experienced on a GLOBAL basis before. There isn't a corner of the world that is left out today. In GD1 there were plenty of places on the globe that did not participate in the economic depression. There were plenty of places that had yet to be exploited by lending and speculation. Not so now. It's not contained. It's the opposite. It's universal.

When people are defaulting on their debt (credit), that means essentially that that credit (money) is leaving circulation. That IS monetary deflation.

I'm going with SFR's in my town, because even if we get this monster inflation they are predicting -- the value of our homes will rise, rents will increase, and what we owe on the mortgage will become inconsequential.

- Hakrjak

Treasuries are literally backed by the full faith and credit of the US government (assuming we are referring to US treasuries, of course), so these would be the safest bet for stability of principal. You might not get much (or any) of a return, but at least it is the safest place to put your money.

I hadn't read Buffet's quote on treasuries being in a bubble, but I find it hard to believe he is saying that treasuries are not safe. He is probably suggesting that the premiums for USTs are a little high because they are in higher demand. My guess is he is saying that these premiums will decline, decreasing the present value of the bond, resulting in a capital depreciation of the asset, ultimately ERODING the investor return, but not hurting the principal itself. But that is just my guess.

what about oil futures or other commodities?

Man, I'm not a huge Jim Cramer follower, but I have him on right now -- and he is on a rant. I know that the guy is generally regarded as a leftist, and he just called President Obama a Lenin-ist, and said if he doesn't put his agenda on hold -- The markets will never recover. He is begging Obama to put the brakes on "change"... haha Good stuff!

Cheers,

- Hakrjak

You forgot to add "Mattress".

Seriously though, I would go with cd from a bank in Cayman/Panama/Insert Tax Haven here.

Reason being that these places may see an inflow of cash from the USA since The Saviour decided to hike taxes on the rich, so they'd be pretty stable.

Real estate takes my vote in the US. Foreign currencies or foreign real estate sound even better.

I voted for Government Securities (Treasuries, GNMA's) although am thinking of TIPS and not treasuries.

Originally Posted by ramy98

With the way things are going now; I think a safe bet would be ammunition.

Its only going up in price and is hard to find.

If things continue to get worse man, you're going to need to be USING the ammunition, forget about selling it. haha

I'm surprised we haven't seen the rifle make an appearance on the nightly news yet.

- Hakrjak

Funny that you post this, I was just reading Tim Ferris' blog and he wrote about this:

How to Be Jason Bourne: Multiple Passports, Swiss Banking, and Crossing Borders

Have you tried to buy an AR15 lately?

Diversification - you should put half of your money in your mattress and bury the other half in the backyard - Colbert Report

Originally Posted by biophase

Have you tried to buy an AR15 lately?

Diversification - you should put half of your money in your mattress and bury the other half in the backyard - Colbert Report

Were you serious about the safe with guns? How much are AK's going for now, if u can even buy em here?

What's glock going for?