Hey, Well, I've got some family members that have some US $ on them. I've been telling them that they should either buy gold (it's about $10,000 US worth) or transfer it to $AU (better than the US$ I guess), strongly pushing them towards gold. They believe that gold is a risky investment/storing of wealth... And yes, I don't understand why they think that even though I've explained the crap that has happened to the US $ and the crap that inevitably WILL happen to the US $, and why gold is a good tool to avoid (for lack of better analogies) climbing up sh*t creek. Resulting from this, I just decided to let them have their way and watch as their FIAT (which is just being held in their wallets) will hyper-inflate... Can't convince them anyway. What would you guys have done? I didn't want it to look like I was brainwashed and trying to drag them into a cult, LOL. /end rant
Totally agree with jpanggy - either they are open to the suggestion or not... Still want to give it a crack? try this... Ask them to imagine putting $5K in cash a box and burying it 10 years ago, or 5 years or 2 years and asking if they could buy more or less today with the same amount? Then get them to check any asset of intrinsic value (eg PM's) and compare the difference... Worst case case they kept with inflation - best case made a killing... Let them cherry pick any year in any period of time, it doesn't matter... If there not open to listening or learning beyond that there little hope
I've long given up any notion of playing Cassandra of Troy or just 'Cass'. * *Cliff Notes of Story: 1) Apollo, the traditional Greek deity figure, falls for beautiful mortal princess Cass 2) Apollo grants Cass the gift of prophecy, the ability to know the future 3) Cass gives Apollo the "Its not you its me..." treatment 4) Apollo is P-Offed and vengeful ..."Alright Biiiatch, Be That Way!" zap... curses her so that she'd never be believed by anyone 5) Cass sees right through the Trojan horse 6) Trojans ignore her warnings due to curse 7) Achilles and chumps open the city gates...*kekeke-zerg-rush*...Troy falls 8) Cass is raped by some mofo called Ajax the Lesser 9) Cass eventually ends up imprisoned as an unpaid call-girl (AKA concubine) for lame-as King Agamemnon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra
If your looking at exchanging USD > AUD i would probably wait till later this year as the USD still has another rally before it takes another big dive. This is somewhat backed up by HSBC who say the AUD is 37% overvalued. and Mercer who expect the AUD to hit parity by end of year and then drop another 15% over the following year. I also noticed today Westpac is expecting rates to drop now as well, they said they were expecting upto four rate cuts into end of year 2012 which would cut the AUD value anyway. I know there's allot of people saying USD is toilet paper ect, which may be true in the future but i gotta say we are not there just yet The other thing you that i cant get around is the potential default, i'm personally not sure what effect this would have on the dollar other than it causing a huge sell-off at first and then what... who knows? i mean what alternative is there really? i could only assume euro's.
It's the same here, my family had HKD (pegged to USD) and they didn't really want to buy Gold. Luckily I managed to convince them to buy 2oz (yes, 2 MEASLY oz) of PAMP Gold when it was lower. Now they're regretting not buying more. They have seen the light after I gave them books, videos, explanations etc etc etc. I found that the thing which actually did the job was showing them some beautiful coins/bars like PAMP, pandas. None of my economic and financial mumbo jumbo did anything really Hope you manage to convince your family members too, all the best
lol @fishball I think they only get the bling bling factor: ooh look im rich, I have gold, gold teeth, even a gold potty etc
Let them eat cake. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink. You have shown them some info, but they must be willing to take it on board. Hope they come on board. 3 years ago I know zilch about PM's but am now a follower. People need to find the path. What other assetts do they hold? Hear endth the lesson.
its really hopeless, my dad has lost substantial amounts of money on shares and managed funds. Even on treasury bonds (yield goes up, price goes down). But hell, as long as he has his income aint no stopping him. The thrills of gambling is just irresistible (asian share market).
1+ Pretty much said the same thing on another thread. I'm almost certain the demise of the US dollar will take a little longer than many seem to think. The value of the dollar might well rise and the price of PMs conceivably fall in the medium term. Of course, I could be wrong, but think the whole hyperinflation argument is too simplistic.
Bankaiblade, you've done your bit. You've tried; and congratulations for having the guts to do so. You should have a clear conscience whatever the outcome. I understand exactly how you feel but that's how I console myself. To be quite honest, if they choose to be sheeple it's their own fault. What's worst is that it'll be those exact people who will be asking for assistance first.....
You need to understand why they have the USD in the first place. Once you understand that, you have a better chance of talking into switching out of the USD. I agree with your choices, but definitely would put gold at the top of the list. For the uninformed, silver is too volatile.
Many a Silver Stacker has taken that path bankaiblade, and many have failed. A stacker once asked: If the other party was convinced and bought gold as you suggested, and then the POG dropped, would you feel like you did them any good?
Really depends... I'm talking long term here and $10,000 cash doing nothing but burning holes in wallets, haha. I guess it makes sense.
Gold is long-term so I kinda expected that. I'm mainly thinking about the short-term movements that will bring out a lot of emotions. e.g. POG drops, then people feel bad they took your advice. POG rises, they then feel it wasn't so bad after all. While we're prepared for the wild ride around these parts (and even some stackers seem to get uneasy at times O_O), it's pretty unlikely our friends/family are. One of my work mates actually bought USD (over 10K) years ago when the AUD was between 70c - 75c. When I asked them why, they said that they thought the AUD was going to go lower at the time and never expected it to hit parity. They felt that the USD was the safest currency to hold. Due to that move and not exiting on time, they've gotta sit and wait for the AUD to fall again, cos they don't wanna sell now and lose. Interestingly enough, I told them to buy gold a short time before parity was reached. Had they bought gold at that time, they may have cut their losses. These days they regret not buying gold when I mentioned it. However, it coulda been different, and I'd now be saying how lucky they were for ignoring the suggestion @_@
Ya'll think its hard convincing Australians - try convincing old people in America who grew up in the days when the US dollar was as good as gold/silver! My grandparents have saved in cash and CDs their whole lives. They are out in the rural country and don't see inflation day to day, because they provide their own heat with firewood, own food through farming, hunting, fishing, bee-keeping, they built their own house in the 1950s, and most of their durable goods were bought decades ago. I don't even bother trying to change their ways at this point, since not only are they my elders but I know they will have a roof over their head and healthy food no matter what happens.
Surely they still notice inflation when filling up their vehicle with gas? I was under the impression that complaining about the price of gas is an American national past-time.
A national past-time in the middle-class suburbs near cities to be sure, but my grandparents live way out in the country and have been retired on teachers pensions for 20 years. Their only fuel expense that I am aware of is grandma driving a few miles into town to get her hair done So their average weekly fuel expenses have most likely gone from $1 to $3 :- I'm sure the sticker shock is horrible
I know what I would be doing if I lived in the USA and had dollars in the bank - buying gold, silver and anything that stored wealth like food, fuel now - anything but leaving money in a bank! No way would I trust any of those US banks. I feel that Americans are a very patriotic nation but one day they will wake up and realise their money is worth less and less every day, and then panic could set in! They may by then find they have left it too late and cannot buy gold or silver due to some introduced legislation to stop panic buying. The rich already have their large deposits of gold!
