San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

nothing is safe.

but i'd say roll 85% over to another CD, 15% gold (1/2 CEF, 1/2 GDX).

Sure. Put it in the Stanford CD... I hear their returns are out of this world. Just make sure you pull out your principal before the U.S. Marshall shows up with the battering ram....

I would go Cash,Gold and Silver Coins and buy, I know this sounds crazy, a lot of canned foods like tomato based products. We are going to see big time inflation on these items because of the drought.

I hit up Costco once a week and stock up on food and water. People think I am crazy...that's OK...they thought the same thing when I bought long puts on WAMU and Wells Fargo. I can live with the stigma.

I just went to Wells today and pulled out a large sum of cash. The girl looked at me like I just stepped out of the Starship. I told her they don't pay me any interest for lending 10 times my deposits at an average of 6.0%. She just looked at me again like....wow...I never thought of that....

Good luck....

The US$ will go more up before down. Spread it around so as to avoid risk of not getting it back. Gold will probably pull back in the next couple of months. I'll be reloading. Physical, not paper.

Short term T bills are the choice of filthy rich people. Due to extremely large sums that need safe return strategies.

Cut your expenses to the bone. The storms going to get worse before it gets better. Just my opinion.

If you're up for a little risk, producing gold and silver miners are now about the most profitable businesses on the planet. This should continue as the credit markets unwind/implode.

My wife and I are in the same boat, 220k in cd's maturing this summer. I was thinking of cd's again but now am thinking at least some in gold.

A very confusing and risky time.

Hey - thanks for the responses. "Stay in CDs and maybe get into some gold" was what I got out of them.

The project where we live was developed partly with public transit monies of some kind. The idea was to create an urban village atmosphere. Anyhoos, coming back from "my" starbucks this morning I noticed an advert in the newly opened Edward Jones office on the commercial portion of the "village". The sign was touting bonds of various kinds with favorable yeilds. Any thoughts on bonds, please? What's the danger of loosing principal with bonds?

Pert

depends on the bond. short, medium, long term, and the type of business. you could lose a LOT of money. bond prices move with interest rates too. there's a substantial amount of risk for long term, high yield, riskier bonds, but you can make money too. I held some vangaurd bond funds from 98-02 and remember making money. cannot remember why....

A bond is a debt and we're going through a major debt implosion scenario right now. I would avoid them completley. Your cash is very valuable right now and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future. Protect it from loss. The CPI is going negative and the US$ is going up in value. Where ever you decide to put it, just make sure you can get it back later on. That's #1 priority in this environment. IMO.

Why not just place it in one, or multiple high interest FDIC checking/savings accounts? You should be able to get 3-4%.

Cash is king right now.

sdnerd - where can you get 3 - 4% short term interest???? i can't find anything...

Yes, where? I'd like to know that too.
I haven't seen 1 year CD with that interest, have you?

My discount broker, foliofn, insures up to six million via their FDIC sweep program.

https://www.folioinvesting.com/brokerage...

I also like the Central Fund of Canada:

http://www.centralfund.com/

I am puzzled why gold or silver isn't mentioned here. I tried to forward my thoughts on silver and gold a number of times over the last 6 months or so. Silver is almost 50% since September and I truly believe it has quite a bit of room for growth. I also like gold stocks, GG, AU, ABX and PAAS for silver. Commodity stocks were all battered when the market crashed a few months back. These stocks look mighty appealing right now as gold is very close to $1k/ounce and silver just under $15/ounce. Silver and gold have broken the fundamental movement with the dollar and are now moving up as the dollar increases against other currencies, which leads me to believe fear is in the air.

Dollar Savings Direct is paying 3.05% on a liquid savings account. $1000 to open, $1000 minimum balance. They are a division of Emigrant Direct. FDIC insured.

www.dollarsavingsdirect.com

I use Dollar Savings Direct; although there are quite a few other choices out there.

Do a search on the forums, there is a near-identical thread on this topic.

Up until recently I've had everything parked at 4%+, unfortunately last few weeks there's been pretty steep drops. :(

Thanks peterb! We will still clear of bonds then.

You're welcome. Keep your cash close and safe. The US$ will eventually be debased as that's the only way the govt can get out of the absolute mess it's in. But it will gain purchasing power before that happens. IMO. As I mentioned earlier, 3rd post from the top. Gold and silver are now being treated like real money by the world. Consider the physical and the producing miners. I think they will be the new power.

I think it's because the OP says:
With the one criteria that the funds be kept safe, what are your suggestions?

That implies principal protection is a key goal. While you may be right about the growth potential for your investment choices... you might be wrong also.

Hence the suggestions for FDIC insured funds.