Investing in PMs

[Varmint]

I retired at 49 with no mortgage, no car payments, no debt of any kind. If you have a better system, go for it.

Debt is a tool, it can be used well and misused. You can do really well borrowing money to buy say, a rental home and generate cash flow, as well as own an appreciating asset. With a dollar that's losing 4-5% value every year, it makes no sense to pay off a 3% mortgage with today's dollars instead of future ones. If it makes you feel better, do it, but I wouldn't tell other people to do it.

 

[Varmint]

Buying after the price float of 1971 was like getting in on an IPO - a once if a lifetime opportunity. Later decades have not all shown a > DJIA return including dividends. I remember when Prime then EMC were the #1 gainers on the NYSE but that historical data had nothing to do with very long term price trends. Both liquidated well below their peaks and may people lost $$ on a biblical scale for these "sure things". In other words, the past history is irrelevant when predicting return over the next 10 or 20 years.

Remember too that there is no capital gains tax rate on long term gold holdings - they are taxed as collectibles at ordinary income rates, even if held for many years. Try finding a gold sales company that even mentions that.

The real value of PMs is as an asset outside of government supervision and control.

Hmm, so it's ok to use a Dow Jones number that's completely overinflated by $26 trillion in Fed and US government money printing, but it's not ok to use a gold value that has risen because of the same $26 trillion?

I'm avoiding the PM taxes by buying ETFs and mining stocks with my 401k money. The physical the government won't get their cut of cause i won't sell it.

The once in a lifetime opportunity is probably here again, because just like in 1971, gold has been artificially depressed in price. It'll eventually revert to its natural relationship to global debt.

this chart shows what I mean. Where's gold gonna go as the US moves to $2-3 trillion deficits and the rest of the world does the same?:

 

[Wickedcoolname]

Debt is a tool, it can be used well and misused. You can do really well borrowing money to buy say, a rental home and generate cash flow, as well as own an appreciating asset. With a dollar that's losing 4-5% value every year, it makes no sense to pay off a 3% mortgage with today's dollars instead of future ones. If it makes you feel better, do it, but I wouldn't tell other people to do it.

You don't think I should offer investment advice to others when I was able to retire in my 40s with zero debt? Okay, I won't. Good luck at work tomorrow grinding out that mortgage payment.

 

[Varmint]

You don't think I should offer investment advice to others when I was able to retire in my 40s with zero debt? Okay, I won't. Good luck at work tomorrow grinding out that mortgage payment.

I said that specific advice of paying off a mortgage, not all your advice. Feel free to say how you retired early. If it was by paying down a 3% mortgage instead of investing in the stock market, I’d say you could have retired even sooner.