Excuse me?!! WTF is this noise? How can you even pretend to judge the motives I had in the initial investment? What are you even doing on this forum? Also, its really really sad to see how useless the comments in this thread have been. I mean seriously people. Get your heads out of your collective asses and stop telling me to "get a job" don't you think I'm TRYING to get a job? The metals aren't there to be any sort of income. I'm not an imbecile. I'm trying to make the most of the PRESENT situation. It does absolutely NO GOOD whatsoever to bitch that I should have made different choices in the past. If you are all as pragmatic minded as you seem to want people to think you are, maybe you could offer up some actual useful advice for the current circumstances instead of trying to pretend that you have some sort of profoundly superior sense of wisdom just because your circumstances aren't as bad as mine.
Silver isn't an investment, it's a property shift, that's all. What am I doing on silver stackers? I work, earn fiat, swap the fiat to silver instead. Not as investment but as storage of value I trust more than fiat. Is this rocket science and superior wisdom? No, it's just exchanging stuff, also known as 'trading'. If I see problems I don't blame circumstances, I hunt for their causes as to solve them there. You don't seem to. Excuse me WTF noise pretend judge!
Let me say you have my sympathy going thru a divorce of any kind, its hard work i know The first thing that came to my mind when i read your post was "good thing for him he was a stacker and got half his stack" But thats the only sympathy your getting from me, you have 60k my god, use it, a few dollars less than last week wont kill you, isnt stacking for emergency use? ITS AN EMERGENCY Sell your stack if you need to and when your in a position to do so, start again.
I was in a very similar position to you as stated further up. When applying for lower level jobs you need to amend your cv and discount all the high end stuff (have 2cvs). For shop work you generally don't need references. If you do then just get a ref from your last HR dept. Don't need to put all your job details down, just that you work there and are punctual etc etc. Never say never and don't discount what people are saying. It's all positive! I was a recruitment consultant for a period of time so if you need any help then drop me a pm
See an employer like anyone that wants a job done. He wonders: is this guy smart or handy (or preferrably both) enough, and if so, will he see me and my company as something to perform for, and after he learnt it not run at the first wave from another corner? Put yourself in an employers place. Don't expect him to do what you wouldn't yourself. The story, is drawn by the ones writing it, and playing alike a third party is tossing you around with nothing to do about, will surely deliver a NO. Of course, they are companies out there that are different in this, State for example.
Why not work for yourself? Small ad in the trades section of your weekly paper. Lot's to choose from - can you do basic computer fixes for people- internet slow, not working etc. Offer these services to the everyday householder. They are happy to have their problem fixed for $75-$80/hr. Very low start up and you would be very knowledgeable to the average person. Get some cards and always seek referrals - give each customer 3 cards - one for them and 2 for friends. If you are after a complete change, there is plenty of work for cleaning and lawn mowing etc. It can be very rewarding having your own small business. Takes time to grow but why not give it a go? I was in a similar position to you 14 years ago. I went from a high paying job (150k/year) in the corporate world to nothing.I couldn't find another job that would pay me 150k/yr to start -I thought that was what I was worth!! Was very lost for a while. Started a window cleaning business in 2001 just to make ends meet and grew it to a point where staff do most of the work and I now play golf 3 days a week. Hard yakka the first 5 years - but really rewarding being your own boss. You just need to help solve people's problems. Good luck with what you choose.
Great advice .Run an ad ...people will call. Not sure of the $75 an hour rate i would start of undercutting others to get business. You have some capital put it to use . Pirocco has a point you stacked for an emergency ...this is a perfect time to use part of your stack .Its not about luck here its about having a go
I think when you say things like this " I certainly don't want to take on a job delivering pizzas or flipping burgers" Your not going to get much sympathy here. I have kids and I would shovel shit to make ends meet for them. Stop thinking of your high end job 'IT' and start thinking of your kids! My partner is in family law and she deals with this every day. Seeing how much $$$ is waisted on the fight between Adults who think of themselves but don't realise it. Who is the looser here....the child. I wish you all the luck because I don't want to see your child getting hurt. Sell what you have and do what ever job you can get. One day it will turn around and work in your favour. My last words are: Hold onto your child as he/she is the precious one. Your metals are not!!!!!!
It's difficult to give advise to someone on the dole, but you got some very good advise by excalibur and mightymatt. I would assume that starting a small business in IT would be fairly easy, since you don't need to buy big machinery (the stuff you sort out belongs to your customers). You can start a small company (in your name, the start-up fees should be close to $100), and make some money with it, and also use it when you apply for jobs ("I have been working independently for the last 2 years, but I feel that this is not challenging enough, so I want to join your company"). It's always easier to find a job if you already have one, so this is your way to have a job.
I wonder, if existing companies find enough people for the amount IT work that has to be done, would this change for a 1 man company? And the bigger a company, the more efficient it can work, and the better its competition strength. To compete as a small/one man company, without something different (read: market gap / specialty), doesn't appear as much chance on success to me. In other words: it needs a plan, and there isn't any. If something doesn't pop out after 2 years, then it's rather hard to expect it now. And without success, well, it will just be another loss. Instead, it's better to show up for any job, it gives an income and doesn't stop one from making plans or look out for something else. By ruling that option out, one sits in a pretty owncreated situation and not sure what to do-talk is just more blabla instead of boomboom. I know some1 that at some day lost his job. The next day he went to the other side of the street and knocked the door of another company. Just like that, no job offerings / whatever, and he found his next job there. No blabla, boomboom.
OK to clarify a few things... The situation changed 2 days ago and I'm taking the CURRENT situation and attempting to determine the best course of action going forward. Yes, I've been on govt payments (which do not even cover rent) and living off my stack for the last two years, MOSTLY because I was embroiled in a vicious court battle. Think about these facts first before you judge. When I was living in America, I had a successful career in the IT industry, and a wife and a toddler. I was planning on moving to Australia, and we sold our property for about $220,000 and put the entire thing into physical gold and silver and carried it into Australia ourselves. There were no tariffs or taxes, and getting all that arranged was a drama which originally brought me into this community back in 2010. The decision was definitely a good one and avoided a lot of losses which would have happened if we used other means to transfer wealth into Australia. About a year after arriving in Australia, my wife suddenly vanished, taking the whole stack and my daughter and our only car. It took a month just to get the police to track her down. She had pretty much gone psycho-crazy and the family court needed to be used just so I could have contact with my child. Not content to share our daughter with me, my ex decided to cook up child abuse allegations against me. She refused to comply with court orders and I was investigated by the department of child protection. And exonerated. Going to court again it was decided I would have supervised time while a psychologist investigated the family situation. Eventually in late 2012 I had unsupervised time again including overnights. By mid 2013 I moved to the suburb where my daughter went to school. She was about 5 1/2 years old. My ex did not know my new address and the first things she did was accuse me of sexual abuse again! So I was investigated once more by DCP and this time also the police child abuse squad was doing their own investigation. My life was turned absolutely inside out. About this time, my ex also filed to have a restraining order put on me, and the police told me that it was complete bullshit but they had to enforce it until I could go to that court and have the judge stand it down. Eventually the investigations by DCP and the police were completed and I went back to court to have time with my daughter again. After the VERY FIRST visit which was only 5 hours long, my ex once again repeated the same procedure, saying that I had abused her and once again both DCP and the police opened up brand NEW investigations of me, this time more lengthy and thorough. Its been hands-down the most stressful stability-destroying time of my life. Ultimately, I was once again exonerated and all investigations were closed in my favor. DCP got real sick of this and said that they would not entertain further allegations by the mother of this nature. They also said that there was evidence of coaching in the child, meaning the mother had told the child to disclose abuse which was not real. Naturally I was pissed. We went back to court in late October but they said that for everybody's sanity, further contact would be supervised. And since November that's been the situation until just two days ago, because we have been preparing for THE most bloody and brutal court trial which was set to take place on 16 June and allocated for 5 days, which is 56 hours before a very unhappy judge. My affidavit is stellar. I wrote the whole thing myself and it illustrates the complete history of the situation extremely eloquently. I also have FIVE witnesses who each have their own affidavits. The trial has been the focus of my life for a very long time, and having only recently received my ex's affidavit she really has no evidence at all and her affidavit consists mostly of slander and ad-hominem attacks. Baseless accusations of my conduct during our marriage which are not falsifiable so its my word against hers really. So we entered into official negotiations a couple weeks ago and last week came to what seemed like a good final agreement. We signed it this week Wednesday morning and now its official that we will not be going through with the trial (which would probably cost each of us $40,000). In the property settlement last year I ended up with only 30% of the metals stack, and I have lived EXTREMELY frugal in an effort to make it last as long as possible. Through all this time, I have tried my best to find work, and I even had a brief contract in December and January for a web design company. I've had a lot of people interested in hiring me but ultimately something makes it just not happen. Its not like I have been avoiding work, but looking back I can see how during many of these really crazy times, if I actually WAS working, I probably would have lost my job due to having to take so much random time off to deal with things. So again, before you go judging me or my decisions and situation, you really should have the big picture. Right now, I'm in a situation where by 5 September, I will have week-about time with my daughter. And I do not have a partner at all. I live alone and so I will have to take care of her solely by myself every other week. I'm going to need a career situation that fits with my family situation. I currently have about $6-7k of expenses I need to pay relatively soon, and then get on with life. My current stack consists of 12oz of gold and 800oz of silver. I'm skilled in IT but willing to take almost any job temporarily. I apply for a lot of jobs but am repeatedly turned down. I am considering working on some Microsoft Certifications to increase my marketability. I'm basically VERY open to new ideas right now on how to handle things. And the reason I'm here asking about this is just as I stated in my OP. I'm unemployed, and trickle-selling metals to survive. The custody situation will be changing drastically. I am wondering mostly WHAT TO DO WITH THE STACK at this time, given the current market which is suffering quite a bit. I do still believe that eventually gold and silver will go up quite a lot and I have the patience to wait for it if I can squirrel away part of my stack for that day. Especially the silver. But I need to think about how much I should sell off NOW to manage the current situation. That's why I'm here.
I feel for you man. I've been there before: unemployment from IT situation, not the divorce. Re: divorce, somebody posted this before, I believe this is very deep and true: http://www.singularity2050.com/the-misandry-bubble/ PMs: Post it here in the sale thread and you'll get more money than from the dealers. I know you don't want to sell your silver, but selling some premium silver while SPOT is low like now could be a good idea. I definitely would buy some of it from you, but won't buy your gold. You could sell your gold later or even now and swap it for low premium silver. What I'm saying is you could swap your high premium silver to low premium and get some money out of it.
Oooh that extremely long article about the attack on masculinity. Yep, I've been meaning to read that. Good stuff. I do like the idea from this thread regarding starting a private business just helping people with their computers. Its not a bad idea, I could probably do that right away. For the silver, well its hard to define what "premium" means. I was sort of hoping that those silver dragons would go semi-numismatic but they didn't. I could sell them I guess but for less than I bought them for unfortunately. I wonder if someone would buy my 50oz Golden Lion Mint silver bar for a decent amount. Its rather unique. I dunno I'll think about it. Mostly I'm just tired of people telling me to "get off the dole and get a job" - dur, of course... I'm TRYING to. Been trying to and if life would give me a break for a moment maybe I could. I've been working harder the last 2 years than ever before and it feels like its been a full time job just keeping up with the BS that life has been throwing me. Hoping now with the court battle over that some of this can really turn around!
sell 200 oz (at whatever price) , go to Bali for 3 weeks of RRR, come back fresh go hard or just do nothing and stay on the dole
Hey Recon, you've obviously been through hell, but now you are coming out the other side. well done for sticking with it for your daughter. You have had some good advice here regarding PM's. I also had shared custody of my 3 daughters and being self employed made it work really well. If you can make yourself an income in your own business with flexible hours, it is great.Send me a PM if I can be of any help/ideas for kicking off an IT business for yourself, if you decide to go down that road. Good Luck to you!!
Wow... I feel your pain on this. I couldn't imagine what i'd be like if my partner was to do the same with our daughter. I'd most certainly play her at her own game but that's too far gone for you now. At least things are working out for you seeing the kids. Unemployment is a real nut cracker, especially if it came out the blue and clearly left you high and dry. I understand your predicament with child care etc if you was to work full time. Maybe it would be worth talking to other single fathers to see how they work things? With regards to the job... have a night of relaxing, eat chocolate, drink beer... what ever floats your boat... then get up... open the curtains and have the mindset that your going to get a job, grab with both hands... visit as many recruitment agencies as you possibly can... go into warehouses/manual labour companies and personally ask them for work. You'll get it... doors will open. Be persistent! As I said... this is my own personal experience... it works... just get into the positive!!! You must keep us updated!
@ Recon, sorry that you have been through all that. Life can be hell and I am not trying the minimize the hell you've been through but plenty of people have suffered hell in their life too and the sad fact is that life isn't fair. I know people who have been hit by cars, one friend who's husband apparently was sexually assaulting their 3 year old, and one friend who had an accident and has been quadriplegic for more than 15 years now....just to name a few of so many hard times that have been visited on people I know. As for your immediate thousands of dollars in expenses....sometimes in life we just have to bite the bullet and sell at a loss. I've done that with comics and stamp collections I was building years ago when I was down on my luck and needed cash fast. Sell silver or gold? I can't say for sure because there can be good arguments made for both but my gut tells me that you should hold onto the gold and sell silver if you can not raise the cash fast enough otherwise. Some will obviously tell you that if you have to sell either, sell the gold because the GSR will later vindicate you holding onto silver when it shrinks. I am not smart enough to know which to sell but I am smart enough to know that if you must sell, try not to get depressed that you had to sell for a loss some of your metal....you don't need that additional stress in your life right now. I hope I don't come off sounding callous...not intending to be. I feel for you because of what you've been through. If we are hit hard and fall, we must pick ourselves up...the sooner the better. Fortunately you have the means...you have a very sizable stack (compared to many people I know). Maybe think of it as the glass half full, not half empty. Best of luck. .
@Recon: There is plenty of work available to you, if you know your way around computers, and can do minor hardware repairs, home & office networking, and software installations. In the USA, we have CraigsList.org, which is extremely effective for finding fast-cash jobs, especially if you are located in a large city. I don't know if Australia has CraigsList, but I am sure that there is some kind of equivalent site, where you can offer your services and find work almost instantly. This would allow you to set your own hours, your own rates, and would give you all the flexibility you need to attend to the other issues in your life. AND you would be paid cash - on the spot. Each new contact you make, will lead to other contacts and references, and eventually, your reputation will reach a point where you will not even have to advertise at all, other than the meager cost of some nice business cards. As for your stack: You are very fortunate to own the metal, and it should provide at least some comfort in knowing that, in an extreme emergency, you can count on the security it provides. The fact that you had the foresight to acquire it in the first place (at considerable sacrifice), is a testament to your innate brilliance. However, unless it IS a true emergency, this may not be the best time to be liquidating, as you have already taken a haircut in having 70% of your holdings lost in the settlement. Since you had your silver in 2010, when you moved to Australia, you would probably just be breaking even in a sale - as the spot price today is about the same as it was then (with a little more to compensate for inflation). Hopefully, the worst of your personal drama is behind you, and you should move forward as if you didn't own any metals. The nice thing about offering a computer repair service, is that it is always in demand - people will always want their computers fixed, regardless of economic conditions. And when you can provide fast, quality service, at a fair price, you will soon have more calls than you are able to handle. Then, as you have naturally acquired more knowledge and experience, you can raise your prices. Everything is going to work out for the best. Just hang in there, and keep us posted. Good Luck !!!
Good news, Recon: Perth, Australia does indeed have CraigsList - Now get to work ! http://perth.craigslist.com.au/search/cps?query=+
