cAREER & RETIREMENT PLANS.
Thanx for polite discourse gugs. As for soon or later, well... is it now later?
If not, how soon is later? Every week, if not every day, there is some bit of news off the net, that goes unreported on TV. I know that the TV lies; I have personally witnessed an event and then saw how the TV characterized it. I know that these other sources have their own priorities, but sometimes see data from sources that are not connected that nonetheless consistent.
Like Wall Street honcho Cramer talking about how the stock and commodity prices have been, and are being manipulated, along with the jpg scans of newspaper articles about how the M3 will no longer be made public, and the comments by the Chinese that they will ramp down, if not cut off, further investment in the dollar. Which makes perfect sense if they read the same sources and think its time to cash in their chips.
Market & media manipulators have always done well in the short term, but its always caught up with them. The housing bubble is blamed on market manipulation, which left the middle class feeling like real estate was the only thing left they could invest in. Not even the precious metals have been secure. Maybe you all recall the over nite drop in the price of silver last sumer from 15 to 9$/oz brought on by the collusion of the 4 big precious metals houses to dump contracts.
But now the leveraged real estate market is dicey. Jobs that have served that market, financing, construction, home furnishings, media centers, etc will all be lost in massive numbers if the foreclosure rates rise. "jobs" are already being created in abandoned housing that has its copper wiring and plumbing ripped out. I can see where the guys who do snow plowing in winter would be making money in spring by plowing whole long blocks of houses, turning lawns into gardens so that homeowners could reduce the cost of their food budgets. Which will rise dramatically if the price of oil and petrochemicals rises with the fall in the dollar.
Dealing with reality after a real estate crash is going to be much more effective if you see it coming and figure out what the trends are, and where the opportunities will be. Already, deals are being struck to move delinquint owners out *without* an official foreclosure notice so that nothing appears in the local newspapers to start a more general collapse in housing prices. There will be opportunities with banks to go by to mow the lawns of homes they have 'for sale' , deal with broken windows, or whatever so that the signs of vacancy dont result in the rapid abandonment of the whole neighborhood.
There will also be opportunities in installing bootleg satellite dish receivers so folks can keep on watching without having the monthly bill. The satellite outfits wont make a big stink because it is still "market share" at a time when ad revenues are going to be in decline.
I've grown sorghum, and have saved a *lot* of seed. If the proverbial SHTF, I can grow a ton of it. Crush the stalks, extract the juice, ferment it, distill it, and make rum. Which has none of the dangerous isopropyl alcohol from the sour mash corn process. Come hell or high water, *NOBODY* burns down a distillery or hassles the brewmeisters.
Wherever you invest for the future, there will be resources you can organize for some profit now, that will still be useful after economic crisis. Or- you can ignore the whole question and hope Social Security will be there for you when you retire. If you are wrong about that, you still have the option of clasping your hands behind the back of your head, and bend down to put your nose between your knees so you can kiss your ass goodbye.