Survival Archives - Page 4 of 4

Business

Depression Proof Your Money

By Terence Gillespie September 26, 2008

The money printing bailouts have only just begun.

Yes, we’ve had some deflationary bankruptcies to help decrease the money supply, thank God. But, as you can see, even the most staunch conservatives are now begging the government to crank up the printing presses. As history predicts, they just can’t help themselves.

Most of the strongest advocates for the bailouts know what they’re doing. They know that pumping this much fiat money into the economy will lead to hyperinflation. But, whoever gets the money first can use it to purchase valuable assets while it still has some purchasing power left. By the time the money makes its way to you and me its purchasing power will be mostly gone.

But, there’s still time. . . (As of 9/25/2008) . . .

. . .To Depression-proof your hard earned money, savings and retirement plans from the upcoming hyperinflationary depression.

If you know what to do it doesn’t take long to:

Move Your Money From Here . . .

Bank Accounts
Savings Accounts
CD’s
Government Sponsored Bonds
Money Market Accounts
US Domestic Stocks
Financial Stocks of Any Kind, in Any Country
Treasury Bills
Municipal Bonds
Mutual Funds Made Up of Primarily US Domestic Equities
Bonds and/or Bond Funds of Any Kind
Under Your Bed
In Your Backyard

. . .To Here

Swiss Franc Bonds
Foreign Stocks that pay dividends
Agricultural Indexes
Gold
Silver
Real Estate (Low Prices and Hyperinflation can payoff your house!)

It might only take one hour to preserve a lifetime of savings!

Talking Heads

Judging from the reactions and interviews on TV many wealthy people were blind-sided by the financial crisis’ of the past week. After those talking heads get off the air you can bet they’re moving their money and assets around to protect themselves.

I like Ben Stein. He’s a smart, likeable and decent human being. He’s also more wealthy than the average Joe and is frequently seen on TV commenting on economic and investment issues. Unfortunately, Ben didn’t see this financial crisis coming.

When history is used to predict or avoid an outcome the correct past event has to be chosen as the model. The dollar is losing its status as the world’s reserve currency. Central banks around the world are covertly dumping dollars and purchasing gold and other real assets. And the US government is largely powerless to do anything about it. In fact, the stewards of our currency are printing up their own personal bailout packages just prior to their exit from the world stage.

This is not a normal recessionary business cycle we’re witnessing. The talking heads on TV telling you to “Stay the course” are giving you the correct advice for the wrong time. If they didn’t warn you of a financial crisis of this magnitude then why would you trust their advice now?

Return OF (Not ON) Your Investment

In times like this the perfect is the enemy of the good. If you haven’t already reallocated your investments then you don’t have time to be a perfectionist. Think in terms of preserving the purchasing power of your money and consider any increase a bonus. Look at the list of destinations, recommended above, and choose one you’re comfortable with.

Brokerage Accounts

Correctly choosing the particular holdings in your brokerage account is much more important than choosing the brokerage firm, itself. People who were using Bear Sterns or Lehman Brothers to hold their investments did not lose the holdings in their accounts. It was the stock of the brokerage firms, themselves, that plummeted, not the investments they held for you as custodian. I don’t use this firm myself, but, one company that is getting it right is Peter Schiff’s Europac.net. Check them out if you’re looking to make a switch.

Banks

Even with a bank you’ll probably get money less than $100k back if you want it. You may have to stand in line, be limited to partial withdraws and be inconvenienced, but money you have in the bank will most likely still be returned to you. But, the dollars may not have much purchasing power when you get them back. The FDIC does not have enough to insure all the deposits in banks that are about to fail. But, the government will just create more money for the FDIC to keep functioning when they run out.

If you want to be spared any inconvenience for your short term banking then choose one with a high star rating at www.bankrate.com.

Silver May Not Be an Option

In the Bailout Plan sent out two months ago I recommended silver as my personal favorite way to store and preserve value. There is very little physical silver left for purchase. I still recommend calling your local coin shops to check. However, you may end up having to purchase gold instead of silver. If so I recommend gold eagles, austrian philharmonics and any denomination of bullion bars from a well-known mint.

You could purchase shares of the silver ETF SLV, but, this is a far less attractive alternative to keeping the physical metal in your possession. See my article SLV is Not Silver for more on the pitfalls of investing in SLV.

For a broader perspective on precious metals read my article Silver and Gold Do Nothing or Why is Gold Money?

How Much Inflation and When?

10% and now. One, three, six months from now? Increasingly more. But, isn’t 14% and climbing enough?

Start making decisions now while your dollar still has enough purchasing power to purchase things that have lasting value.

Checking Account Alternatives

If you’re losing 14% a year in your checking account due to inflation then even simple things around the house start to be a better “Investment”. You should probably have at least three months of expenses in your checking account. After that, if you’ve already paid off your credit cards and reallocated your Retirement account then here are some alternatives for the money left in your checking account:

Food That Stores for Long Periods like cereal, canned goods, rice
Water, Water Filters or Storage
Computer Upgrades
Software
Prepaid Utilities like gas, electric, cable, cell phone
Prepaid Property taxes

Or anything else you’re going to have to purchase in the next year or two. Why not purchase them now while the purchasing power of your money is stronger and you still have a job?

Web Resources

This article is an update on the Your Optimal Bailout Plan I sent out at the end of July. See that article for more background.

www.europac.net

www.shadowstats.com

www.lewrockwell.com

www.allamericangold.com

www.silverstockreport.com

Children

Vaccines For My Baby

By Terence Gillespie September 18, 2008

I knew very little about vaccines before our son came along.

If you’d asked me whether I would vaccinate my children I would have said, “Of course”. I mean, nothing happened to me and I didn’t contract any of the diseases I was vaccinated against. Why wouldn’t I want the same for my child?

Well, things have changed since the 60’s when I was born. I received 6 vaccines and 2 of those were in the 1st grade. Today, a child gets 32 doses of 12 vaccines before the age of 2!

“That’s great!” you may say. “Medical science has come a long way!”.

Uh. . . .No, not really.

A Web Search and A Can Of Worms

What started out as a quick web search before Timothy’s vaccination appointment turned into serious concerns and heated discussions between my wife and I. We even tried using google search terms that were deliberately positive in hopes of finding thumbs-up recommendations on any of the vaccines. Out of the 12 on the CDC’s schedule we found some positive things to say about 4 of them. Feel free to give it a try. Most of the positive comments are by a government or pharmaceutical company source.

Two months is not much time to make optimal vaccine choices for your baby. That’s how long parents have to wade through the pros and cons.

Two months. What am I saying? They come at your baby with a syringe full of hepatitis B the day he’s born!

Is all this necessary? Well, I’ll tell you our answer in this article and I hope it saves you some time in coming up with yours.

Executive Summary for Busy Parents

The increased number of vaccines is more a tribute to the sales and marketing of pharmaceutical companies than to better protection for your child.

The drop off in measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever and whooping cough that everyone thinks the vaccines accomplished has more to do with better nutrition, improved sanitation and cleaner water than anything else.

After doing extensive research we did decide to vaccinate our son. But, we’re making specific choices about which vaccines truly protect him and those around him. We’re also using advice from doctors (With no vested interest or liability), our intuition and research to decide on vaccines that builds up his immune system rather than destroy it.

In order to achieve these goals we’re throwing the CDC’s schedule (of insanity) out the window and into the trash where it belongs. There are vaccines on the CDC schedule we’re going to give our son, but, not on their schedule and not all at once. That’s because the CDC’s vaccination schedule is:

Too Much
Too Soon
Too Many
Too Toxic

Here’s an excellent article by Doctor Donald W. Miller with a broad, balanced and thoughtful view and vaccination schedule that will protect your child and the children they interact with. As Dr. Miller’s predicts in his article, most pediatricians would be shocked by his recommended departure from the CDC schedule.

Another balanced view by an excellent doctor is put forth by a source many pediatricians are already familiar with: Dr. Bob Sear’s, The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child.

We’re about to make final decisions on what vaccines to give our son. One way to summarize what we’ll do would be to say:

Not zero.
Not everything.
Not all at once.

Decision Criteria

Our criteria for anything injected into our son is:

Does more good than harm.
Strengthens rather than destroys the immune system.
Does not shock or confuse his body.
Protects him when traveling and other known risks.
Protects others around him.

Common sense? I thought so. Aren’t these these the stated goals of the CDC?

If I thought the CDC schedule came anywhere near achieving these goals I wouldn’t have put so much effort into all this research and writing this article.

First Do No Harm

That’s the oath all doctors take. Sounds good. I’m taking it too when it comes to my baby. I hereby swear.

So why do so many of the vaccines have a negative effectiveness rate? No kidding, the vaccine gives you more chance of getting the disease its supposed to protect you from than if you weren’t vaccinated, at all?

Ok, stop laughing. This is serious business when you’re trying to sell vaccines. . . . I mean for parents.

If I want to protect my child from disease A and find that I increase his protection from disease A by not taking the vaccination for it then the choice is easy. Throw in the added benefit of withholding from our 8-week old baby a dash of mercury, formaldehyde, latex, monkey kidney and other goodies and the decision is a slam dunk!

Ok, vaccines in this category are the easy ones to decide on. But, avoiding harm while deciding on vaccines that may benefit your child is the approach to take with all of them.

New Parents Are Blind-sided

Timothy was 1-day old when it was “time for his Hepatitis B shot”.

Well, it wasn’t time for Timothy’s’. We declined the shot and said we’ll take care of vaccinations at the pediatricians office. We gave them the doctor’s card and a signature and that was that.

We also declined applying for a social security number while filing for his birth certificate. The clerk came back with the box checked “Yes” for social security number. When we pointed it out he said, “Oh, sorry. Its just that I’ve done 25,000 of these and no one has ever done that”. I believe him.

It makes me think that very few new parents are prepared for vaccination decisions before they have to make them. The CDC schedule is presented to you as if its written in stone. If you protest they make you feel like a bad parent that will never be able to find a daycare, school or pediatrician that will “put up” with people like you.

Wrong on all counts, but, I do admire the expert marketing.

Day Care Visit

We have a day care near the house. I went to visit them and asked about vaccination requirements. The administrator said, “Yes, they have to have them. All parents have a card from their doctors and we verify that they are up to date”.

I was horrified. Did that mean everyone just goes along with the program and any deviation from the state dictated norm was a giant hassle?

No, exemptions are easy. You just download the form, print it out and sign it. And that form stays on file with the daycare. Done. From the daycare’s perspective your child is now “Up to date”.

Same goes with schools or any other facility you may be concerned about.

Spoke With Doctors

Our OBGYN was in favor of giving all the vaccines. And she put her money where her mouth is by administering them to her kids. I don’t agree with her. But, she was consistent and goes down as one solid yes for the CDC schedule.

My mothers’ doctor was all for them, too. He doesn’t have any kids, so, that’s less of an endorsement than our OBGYN’s. He said he’s seen some people with the conditions that could have been prevented by the vaccines and that convinced him. At the time, I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to ask questions about specific vaccines.

And, finally, our current pediatrician is in favor of the CDC schedule. On our first meeting we weren’t even there to discuss vaccines and I wasn’t in a position to be specific about them, yet. She mentioned that after 2001 they don’t have mercury anymore (Thank you O’ previous parents). In many cases, she’s right about that. However, the flu shots still have mercury (Thimeresol) and there are many other ingredients to be concerned with besides mercury. More on our vaccine meeting with our pediatrician, later.

Ok, so the doctors were 3 for 3 in favor. No wonder everyone just gets them all. Who wants to go contrary to those odds?

Well, maybe it was just my sample. Because, research turns up dozens of doctors who not only disagree with these three, but, have done extensive studies and research on why they don’t agree.

Spoke with other parents

Most just went along with the program, of course. One of our friends makes sure that no more than three shots are given in any one visit. That has the effect of letting the immune system get some time to react before intoducing another vaccine immediately. That’s definitely a good thing to do.

Overall, who has time to sift through all this information? And parents are threatened with the law and lots of hassles if the don’t so what do you expect?

One thing that came up in three of the conversations was that they knew of someone with autism whose parents suspected was caused by vaccines. I’ve only talked with four parents, so far, so that’s a high hit rate (And I didn’t bring it up).

Caring vs. Emulating

I care about people and want to listen to their stories and what they are doing and going through in their lives and their children. That doesn’t mean that I can always find something in their experience to emulate. I think all parents want to learn from each other, but, we should also have the strength of our convictions to follow through with our beliefs on what’s best for our kids.

In my case, my ‘beliefs’ on the subject have been formed by an exhaustive review of as much research as I can digest. I offer this article as one of many sources that may compress time and serve as a gateway to their own research.

Mommy & Daddy in Sync?

No, not completely. But, we owe it to our son to go with our collective best choices. My wife was persuaded by the 3 doctors we asked to go along with the full CDC schedule. Frankly, so was I. Re-read the “. . . Can of worms” section above for why we did’nt do that.

The benefits of going along with the program are considerable:

No explaining to do
No research necessary
No problems with pediatricians
No tension with you spouse or other family members
No exemption to download and sign and possibly explain to whoever
The warm cozy nod from all government agencies and pediatricians that you’ve been responsible parents and ‘done the right and educated thing’.

Fantastic. But, those are benefits for the parents and this decision is about our son.

Gulf War Syndrome

This was an interesting discovery while researching vaccines. It turns out that many consider this GWS everyone is talking about to be due to the compressed vaccination schedule of the troops just before they’re deployed.

Take Vitamins Before Getting the Vaccine

According to Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum.:

“Numerous studies have shown that nutritional depletion, even of one or two nutrients, dramatically increases vaccine complications. This is especially so for Vitamin A (as mixed carotenoids), vitamin E and vitamin D3. I would recommend a daily multivitamin/ mineral supplement without iron. In addition, I would recommend 1000 mg. of ascorbate (as magnesium ascorbate) three times a day between meals, vitamin E either as d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate or mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E) 400 IU a day and DHA oil capsules-100 mg. three times a day. Dosages for children would have to be adjusted for weight and age. Vitamin D3 is particularly important since it is known to regulate immune reactions and calm down those reactions that are overactive. New studies have shown that adults should be taking 1000 to 1500 IU of vitamin D3 instead of the previous 400 IU recommended by the government. A number of experiments have shown that vitamin D3 can significantly reduce the neurological damage caused by multiple sclerosis-like experimental reactions (experimental allergic encephalomyelitis). ”

What About the Other Kids?

I believe we have a moral obligation to consider the implications to society (Other kids) when making vaccination choices for our own baby. As I’m going through each vaccine other children than our own are a big factor in making our final (Optimal) choice.

Travel

We are all only a jet plane ride away from an infectious disease from another continent.

When Columbus discovered the new world he also killed most of the people living there. Infectious diseases from Spain made the sword unnecessary.

The only difference between his ship and our planes is the planes are faster and there’s more of them. For that reason, even if you Don’t Travel with your baby you are, in effect, still traveling because ‘foreigners’ are coming to you.

Travel is a prime consideration for letting Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus and Polio stay in your child’s vaccine schedule. When they should be given is a different matter.

Play The Vaccine Lottery

“My child got all the vaccines and she’s fine”.

I have two responses to this:

Thank God . . . .your child handled the shots, well.
Think of your vaccination card as a lottery ticket. 1 in 68 ticket holders are autistic and 1 in 6 have some kind of learning disability, neurological problem, or autoimmune disorder like Type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma or a bowel disorder. Later in life ticket holders are entitled to an increased chance of getting cancer or problems associated with having a live virus in their spinal column for the rest of their lives.

Low Criteria for Success

Since there are no long term studies on the effects of vaccines what is the criteria of success?

Simple: A vaccination is successful if your child doesn’t have any seizures, intestinal obstruction or anaphylaxis (severe, whole-body allergic reaction) within 4-6 weeks of the shot(s).

What happens later? I couldn’t tell you because nobody can. There are no follow-up studies. Even if there were, which of the 12 vaccines are you going to blame?

That makes for an excellent defense in court, doesn’t it? It wasn’t our vaccine, your honor, it was those other eleven they’re baby was injected with.

Japan’s Two Year Delay (And the Amish)

My wife was asking for study results showing the benefits of delaying vaccines until two years of age. That’s what Dr. Donald Miller recommends to minimize brain damage. He says the brain is at least 80% developed by then.

Since there are no long term tests on the effects of vaccines I couldn’t offer her any. But, I could offer her the results of the entire nation of Japan and the Amish. When the Japanese government started losing vaccine cases and having to pay up they decided to relent and delay the vaccines until age two. That’s when their SIDS rate plummeted by 90%! Raymond Obomsawin, M.D. says:

“Delay of DPT immunization until 2 years of age in Japan has resulted in a dramatic decline in adverse side effects. In the period of 1970-1974, when DPT vaccination was begun at 3 to 5 months of age, the Japanese national compensation system paid out claims for 57 permanent severe damage vaccine cases, and 37 deaths. During the ensuing six year period 1975-1980, when DPT injections were delayed to 24 months of age, severe reactions from the vaccine were reduced to a total of eight with three deaths. This represents an 85 to 90 percent reduction in severe cases of damage and death.”

The Amish have no Autism and they’re not dropping dead from the diseases the CDC is warning us about, either. They’re like Hawaiians who have no word “snow” in their vocabulary because it doesn’t exist in their world. But, the Amish have two words they don’t need in their vocabulary: Vaccine and Autism.

Making Your Optimal Choice

Much of the information on the web is from the three groups of people who have the most to gain from speaking up:

Pharmaceutical Companies who are selling their product
Parents Who Have an Injured Child Trying To Help Others
Government sources promoting public policy

Sometimes its hard to distinguish between the drug companies and government sources. Both are 100% positive on every vaccine and 100% negative on whether any cause more harm than good. The parents become better sources as their objectivity is restored after the incident with their child.

So, it can be hard to get an objective view of all sides of the issues with the twelve vaccines. The best sources I’ve found were doctors who used their education to take an objective view of vaccines. They don’t work for drug companies and just decided to delve into the subject. Then you start to really got all sides of the issue.

All Experience is Anecdotal

If you shut your car door and lock yourself out because the keys are in the car you’ve had yourself a personal experience. Will you learn from that experience? Will you change your behavior and avoid locking yourself out again?

If you say, “Yes” or “Probably” or “Maybe” to that question then your conducting bad science according to the AMA. All you’ve done is have yourself an anecdotal experience. Unless you’ve conducted a clinical trial of N number of other people locking themselves out of their car you can’t conclude anything about your personal experience. In fact, any conclusions you’ve come to based on any experience you’ve ever had in your life is mere anecdotal evidence. Learn from it at your own risk, pal.

That’s a great way to shut the mouths of all those parents with anecdotal horror stories of what happened after their baby was vaccinated. Bad science. Not valid. Doesn’t mean anything.

Ok, so don’t put the horror stories in your medical study. But, parents with “anecdotal” stories have managed to sue the crap out of pharmaceutical companies for bad reactions to vaccines. So much, in fact, that all 50 states give parents a way to opt-out of all vaccines. They didn’t put the exemption in place to protect or defend your rights. They make it available because state’s attorneys told them parents would sue the state broke if they made vaccines mandatory.

Websites & Sources

Opt Out Forms for Every State

Gary Nulls Vaccine Nation Documentary Video

Shirley-wellness-cafe re: 2 years and sids

Vaccine Friendly Doctors

Try Dr. David Bannister in Roseville or Dr. John Oberholtzer in Davis. I’ve heard they are both respectful of parents’ rights to make informed medical decisions for their children.

Dr. Marcus Porrino
Dr. Rebecca H. Porrino
Sonoma Naturopathic Medicine
710 West Napa St, Suite 1
Sonoma, CA 95476
(707) 996-9355
www.SonomaNatMed.com

Julia Getzelman, M.D.
GetzWell Pediatrics
1701 Church Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-1701

www.GetzWell.com

Selective and delayed vaccination forum
2001 overview by Harold E Buttram, MD
Head of the CDC Admits Autism Link
MMR and Mitochondrial slide show
How To Vaccine Safely
Robert Kennedy on the Vaccine Autism Coverup, thimerosal
Hidden CDC Data Confirms Vaccine-Autism Link
autism-vaccine blog
Gulf War Syndrome: Too Many Vaccines Within One Week
The Law Considers Official CDC schedule to be a Recommendation ONLY
exemption website
Look up History & Ingredients of EVERY Vaccine!
Interactive Lookup Table for Vaccines & Ingredients
National Vaccine Information Center
Jenny Mcarthy Interview Part I
CBN News Story

Business

Your Optimal Bailout Plan

By Terence Gillespie July 31, 2008

Last April, I sent an urgent e-mail to my friends and family urging them to consider taking protective measures against the collapsing US dollar. Now that I have YourOptimal.com up and running I’d like to put forth a more formalized plan and make it available to a wider audience.

(For an update of this bailout plan, see Depression Proof Your Money)

You don’t have to agree with my future predictions to be inspired to protect yourself from our current 10% inflation rate. Do nothing and your $100 today will be worth $86 next year if its in the bank. I will be adding more articles, links and resources that will explore optimizing various aspects of life in light of the dismal state of our US and world economies. The purpose of the plan, below, is to provide an Optimal plan of action in case you are already convinced that action is required to protect yourself from the coming Hyperinflationary Depression. Here’s the plan:

Pay off all debts, within reason.
Move out of all investments dependent on US dollars.
Move all but 3-months of expenses out of banks into tangible & liquid assets.
Decrease your monthly overhead as much as possible.
Get rid of all physical objects you don’t need.

That’s it. Although the economic problems we are experiencing may appear to be very complex Your Optimal Bailout Plan for protection need not be.

Ninety percent of the protections you can achieve from the collapsing US Dollar will come from your complete and thorough implementation of the above 5-Steps. In fact, if you live in the US it may not be possible to save the remaining 10% of your assets since you need to keep some US Dollars in the ‘pipeline’ just to conduct your everyday affairs.

There are many non-financial aspects of the crisis that we are entering. I look forward to addressing those in future articles. For now, there is no point in complicating the plan until you have a handle on the above 5-Steps. Let’s go into detail about each of these steps.

Pay Off All Debts, Within Reason

Since we are entering the most inflationary period in all of US History we have to look at debt a little differently. During hyperinflation some debts become assets for the debtor. You may stand to gain more by making the payments than paying them off. That’s because your debts are denominated in a currency that is losing its value on a daily basis. The contract you have with the bank to pay off your house requires you to pay US Dollars. The actual value (Purchasing power) of future dollars is much less than the value of the dollars now in your wallet. If you can find a way to preserve the value of your dollars, today, then you can exchange that value for many more dollars, tomorrow, and make your future monthly payments much easier.

To give an idea of just how much you can benefit from this technique let’s look at the history of the US Dollar from 1950-1990. The US Dollar lost 82% of its purchasing power from 1950-1990. And it has lost 47% of its 1990 value as of 2007. So there is nothing extraordinary about predicting it will lose its
remaining value. Seventeen other countries lost 99% of their currency value during the same period and Fifty-two fiat currencies lost even more value than the US Dollar! This is business as usual for any paper fiat currency. The worst performing currency on the list was the Argentinean peso. Here’s an interesting comparison between Argentina and the US.

Hyperinflation Can Pay Off Your House Loan

If the US Dollar is worth 50% of what it is today (7/15/2008) in 5 years then a mortgage of $100,000 today will be worth $50,000 in July of 2013. If you make your payments for the next 5 years you will have paid down your mortgage by whatever principle your payments could manage and the inflationary decline of the US Dollar will make an additional $50,000 payment for you!

The reason you rarely hear this advice is that its very tricky to manage. You will have to make sure you can manage all of the following variables:

Store your current dollars in something that maintains its current value.
Keep enough dollars on hand to make the debt payments.
Keep enough dollars on hand to pay for all of your other expenses.
Monitor the value of dollars and the value of your tangible asset.
Be willing and able to translate your tangible asset back to dollars.
Manage your bank account(s) so that you have just enough to meet expenses.
Have the mental and emotional fortitude to stay the course.

Using silver as an example, 1000 ounces of silver could have purchased a median value home in 1980. Some say it will again as as we enter this second round of the most hyper inflationary period in US History. You can purchase 1000 ounces of silver today for $14,000. As the dollar value falls you cash in the silver to make your house payments. If the economy goes like it did in 1980 that’s all the silver you need to purchase the note. But, make sure you buy the actual silver and keep it in your possession. The same technique can be applied with gold, of course.

Most financial people don’t want to get into these complexities. They want to keep things simple. They also know from experience that most people are overwhelmed with the details of everyday life and have limited time left over to tend to the financial aspects of their lives other than their job. You may also not be able to make your debt payments if you lose your job.

If you think you can manage all of the above variables then my advice would be to not payoff or accelerate the payoff of your fixed rate mortgage. If you have an ARM then this advice does not apply. In the case of an ARM you might want to consider a short sale while the climate is socially acceptable and you get the special tax break of not having to pay taxes on the amount that the bank let’s you off the hook.

If you have other long-term debts with an interest rate less than 7% (Student loans?) then you should probably not pay them off either. This is assuming you take the same approach as outlined above by purchasing other tangible assets that can be used to make future payments.

If you have long-term debts greater than 11% then you should pay them off despite the upcoming hyperinflation. Just getting free of the burden of these debts is enough incentive to pay them off. You’ll also be left with that much more resources to put towards the other 4-Steps of this plan.

Between 7 and 11% is the gray area and you’ll have to decide how well you can manage the complexities, above, in holding onto debt during periods of hyperinflation.

Move Out of All Investments Dependent on US Dollars

In 1944 we made an agreement with Saudi Arabia to provide military protection for them as long as they agreed to accept only US Dollars in exchange for oil. Since every country needs oil for energy, and many other things, every country had to start stockpiling large amounts of US Dollars to pay for their oil. This little known backdoor negotiation, along with the Bretton Woods Agreement in the same year, is how the US Dollar came to be the world’s predominant reserve currency.

Its important to understand the ramifications of the US Dollar being the world’s reserve currency in order to evaluate whether any given investment is dependant on the US Dollar. It gets even more complicated when other entire countries peg the value of their currency to the US Dollar. The effects of the good, bad and the ugly management of the US Dollar ends up getting exported to entire world in one way or another.

Because the US Dollar has a world effect unlike any other currency in the history of the world the US had the potential to effect the world in a very positive way. Unfortunately, the US defaulted on its international promise to exchange dollars for Gold in 1971.
This made every currency in the world into a fiat currency overnight. No longer tied to any objective value they have been freed to float at the whims of politicians, Central Banks, the World Bank and the IMF, ever since.

The history of fiat currencies, however, has proven that once a paper currency is not backed by any objective value the issuing government cannot resist the temptation to print more and more of them. Unfortunately, the US has been no exception to this historical rule. We did, however, manage to take the creation of US Dollars to a whole new level by skipping the difficulties of the printing press and going right to computer! And since other countries have to use Dollars to buy oil, and some even use US dollars as a backup or primary currency themselves, we’ve been able to get away with printing far and above the amount of paper dollars any country ever has before causing the currency to collapse.

As of 7/19/2008 the charts showing the value of the US Dollar against gold is remarkably similar to the charts of other countries just before they entered the final stages of hyperinflation. Here’s how it played out in Germany between 1919-1923:

What this means for moving out of any investment dependant on US Dollars is that almost nothing is safe. Conducting business during hyperinflation is very difficult and most US companies do not have the experience to manage the difficulties. To make matters worse, the individual equities of even the best run companies are psychologically tied to the broad market of all equities. When the broad market takes a hit so do all the rest, whether they deserve it or not. Therefore, even the stock of well run US companies is not a safe haven for your money.

Even moving US Dollars into another currency is dangerous because all the currencies of the world are fiat currencies. Although its the US and Zimbabwe in the news, lately, our mismanagement is already causing inflation around the globe as other countries continue to purchase our debt instead of investing the money into their own economies.

Bankruptcies and hyperinflation seem to be the plan for dealing with this crisis. Bankruptcies are the quickest way to deflate the amount of currency in circulation, either real or on the computer screen. And hyperinflation makes all of our debts much cheaper to pay off. What better way for the US to avoid defaulting on their unpayable debts then by paying them off with dollars made worthless through hyperinflation?

But, we don’t even get much of the benefit of the deflationary bankruptcies to balance out the inflation because the Fed conjures up however many billions of dollars necessary to ‘provide liquidity’ for failed large banks and mortgage lenders.

For all theses reasons I believe the only safe thing to do is to park your money in tangible commodities that preserve value. My personal favorite is silver, but, there is also oil, cotton, tobacco, sugar, wheat, copper, steel, gold, brass and anything else China and India need to keep their countries on the rise. If silver is your choice here’s how you can invest in silver.

The worst place to have money is in US Dollars, Checking or Savings accounts, CD’s, US Equities or indexes, T-bills or bonds.

Move All but 3-Months of Expenses Out of Banks Into Tangible & Liquid Assets

When you get a dollar in your hands that you don’t need for the next three months of expenses spend it on something of real value as fast as possible. Pay a bill, pay off a high interest debt, see if you can pay monthly bills in advance for the whole year, upgrade your slow computer and maybe even purchase food items with a long shelf life. When you’ve done all that and you still have money left over then its time to purchase more well known tangible assets.

I can only recommend Silver and Gold to fill this role because I have direct experience with them. The process is difficult enough without complicating it further by trading in and out of commodity stocks and keeping track of the tax ramifications. With silver or gold you can trade in and trade out as much as you need, almost anywhere, with no tax problems to worry about. The VAT makes it difficult to do this in the UK although I’ve read that you get it back upon selling.

If you have a 401K you can’t withdrawal without penalties then consider investing in a commodities ETF, Agricultural index, Natural resources and anything else that mankind requires and cannot do without like cotton, sugar, wheat, steel, iron, brass, silver, gold, corn, etc. If your 401K is limited in its options to invest then you have limited options to protect it.

Decrease Your Monthly Overhead As Much As Possible

Any extra money you have right now should go into purchasing tangible commodities that can preserve current value for when the US Dollar collapses. Therefore, any unnecessary monthly expenses should be cut back or stopped completely. Here’s a beginning list of things to get rid of:

Cable channel subscriptions you don’t watch
Internet subscriptions you don’t benefit from
Expensive Coffee
Excess minute plans for your cellular phone
Consider dropping phone land lines, altogether
Magazine subscriptions you don’t read
Eating out too often
Drinking out too often
Going to the movies when you can rent a DVD
Over insuring your house, car, health, life
Driving too far from home or work for errands or services
Overusing the A/C or Heater when fans, windows or firewood would do
Work at home a few days a week to cut down commuting time & money

Any money you save could go towards paying down debt. If you’re out of debt then consider taking the money saved and purchase silver coins at your local coin shop.

Get Rid of All Physical Objects You Don’t Need

Anything you own that you don’t need or use is a drain on your limited resources of time, effort, money, space, insurance, storage fees., etc. Your life will improve whenever you get rid of things you don’t need, now more than ever

Clean out the garage
Sell, donate or throw out the items in the garage you don’t need
Sell any cars you don’t use or need.
Hire a student or family member to put items on ebay and manage the sale
Donate items to others that are too bulky to sell