What is the best way to protect assets and money prior to an economic depression?

Question

It seems it may be coming quickly and I would like to be better prepared to survive it.

Answer 1

The safest way to invest money is to keep it in short term cash securities like money market funds.  You  won't get much in interest, but it is a very safe investment.

Answer 2

Simplistically, the general guidelines are . . .

In boom times with high inflation, you want to own material things like gold, real estate, stocks, etc. Also, you want to be a borrower, not a lender (you pay back the loan with "cheaper" dollars).

The reverse is true in a depression. You're better off in cash or "near cash" type investments (e.g., CDs, treasury bills or notes). In a depression, prices of material things fall, the economy contracts, and your cash increases in value (the same dollar buys more). It's also better to be a lender, not a borrower (you get paid back in more valuable dollars -- of course, in a depression, you need to carefully evaluate to whom you are lending since they may not be able to pay you back).

Answer 3

Thing is, even money goes down in value in a depression..

The best thing to do is think what will be needed... petrol for instance, the things that will go up in value are what will be worth more.

Realistically, with the lack of new Gold finds and how much Gold is worth right now.. thats where I would be putting my money in, buy as much gold as you can get your hands on, It should keep it's value long term where property etc won't.

Do a bit of research on it to see how rare it actually is!

i.e. in the history of mankind, if you could add up all the gold in the whole world that has ever been found.. it would measure the size of two tennis courts!

The value of gold is not going to go down any time soon.

Answer 4

Gold has historically always gone up in value, and is a great protection against inflation. Also gold is actually worth something by itself, whereas money is just paper which is WORTHLESS now. It used to be backed by gold, $1 worth of gold for every $1 of paper, now it's worth NOTHING. If most people realized this, the economy would collapse overnight as everyone rushed to take their money out of the banks.

So stock up on gold, preferrably the smallest gold coins you can get...... it's hard to get change for a $10,000 bar!

Also stock up on canned food and other supplies you will need, and also a gun and ammo to protect your property if things get really bad ;).