How did you wake up?

[convert]

Have been working in the North Dakota, Montana oilfields for the last five years, and seen a huge increase in population in the last two. People have always come and gone but when they started staying is when I got curious. I couldn’t understand, who in their right mind would live in a camper or a man camp in the winter. I couldn’t understand why someone would pay 500 to a thousand dollars a month to park a camper for a 15 to 25 dollar an hour job plus all the other over inflated prices around here. I’ve met and heard of guys who haven’t seen their families in months and others who are raising small kids in campers. I always thought what I’ve seen with my own eyes is different than what I was taught in school and on seen t.v. So I quit watching the news several years ago. I have been fortunate to make a rather decent living here but have a bitter taste in my mouth working over a thousand hours a year for the government, in taxes. So in January I went on the internet trying to figure out where all my tax money was going and why on earth everyone wanted to stay in North Dakota. I think I have found the answer. I was raised poor, and started my first business at the age of 21 failed by the age of 23. I was a logger and think I knew the housing bubble popped before Peter Schiff did, as I would learn later. I know I don’t want to live in a camper and raise a family nor do I trust any broker to watch over the money I have given blood sweat and tears to acquire. All the assets I have depreciate over time and I finally want my savings to work for me. Sorry for the bad grammar the public schools failed on me as bad as I failed on them.

[General Silver]

Creature from Jekyll Island for me as well. G Edward Griffin is quite the brilliant mind.

[Arcturus87]

I was like most brainwashed Americans and didn't know much about money or economics. Following the 2008 elections and the Wall Street meltdown, I really started to teach myself economics. I was very disappointed at the "two" candidates there were to choose from. I began reading about third parties and came across how the Libertarian Party was opposed to the Federal Reserve. That was where I found Ron Paul. I have spent the last few years researching everything there is to know about money and economics. I started purchasing lots of gold in early to mid 2009, I almost think I may have purchased too much gold relative to silver, which is something I've recently realized within the last year how undervalued it is. I just spent 6 years in the Navy and routinely told those around me how you need to own gold. I even kept several thousand dollars in my bunk just in case the dollar collapsed while I was overseas. Despite the fact that I used to work for the government and thought I was defending freedom, I will attempt to oppose the Federal Government's desire to nationalize me. I have now found liberty, individualism and "free" money.

[Short Stack]

I must agree with Mojofabulous! Do we ever really wake up and realize that what we thought was "this" is really "that"?

A few things come to mind when I look back & wonder when did I wipe the crust out of my eyes??? I guess it rwally started almost a decade ago. When someone came into my life & never left. She becomes more knowledgeable about PMs and society downfalls with every turning year & continually encourages me to see this world for what it truly is. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

Last year, a book was recommended to me by a few friends, who are avid stackers. The book was Run by Blake Crouch. Granite it had nothing to do with PMs but more about survival. I have to admit it scared the crap out of me, in a much needed way.

I'm just a "short stack" because I only have a few coins in my collection. I'm hoping that by joining this forum I can become better educated in not just PMs but in general.

Thanks for listening.

[dave606]

I belong to USACarry.com. One of the members who was giving advice to the founder, owns "The Elevation Group". He was doing a presentation on maintaining and growing your wealth and introduced the members to Mike Maloney. Mike opened my eyes.

[DeaconTom]

Good old Ted Butler many years ago. He pointed it out and I did the math. If you use up more then you can mine and melting down scrap can't make up the difference...something HAS to give! If the price doesn't go up to meet the market demand then something or someone is holding it back for some reason. As the years have gone by, the methods and reasons have become clearer...and it's not pretty. Stack it high.

[silverexplosion]

I work with lots of "brainless masses", and I can truly say they are clueless. They buy Mountain Dew, Monsters, and Fritos. They eat stink burgers, and GMO fries. They drink aspartame colored population reduction beverage. They watch sports. They owe more than what the own. They watch American Idol. They have never heard of Infowars.com. They think health food is "eating at Subway". They drink tap water. They think Obama is a good family man. They think chemtrails are naturally occuring clouds. They still think our stinky paper currency bills are backed in gold. They are the sheeple, the sneeches, the brainwashed masses.

[tony]

The main thing that woke me up was the 2010 CFTC hearings which saw testimony from Bill Murphy, where he exposed the CFTC was doing nothing even when presented with evidence from Andrew MacGuire. That was followed by the exchange between Adrian Douglas and Jeffrey Christiansen - where Jeffrey basically admitted to 100:1 ratios of paper to physical. Combine that with the media blackout during the GATA testimony, and the next day hit-and-run attempt on Andrew MacGuire's life (and his family's lives) followed by a high speed helicopter chase in London. Before then, I figured these people were conspiracy - tin - foil hat people. After that testimony, and attempted hit and run, I took a serious look at what they had to say, and came to the same conclusions.

[nosirrahx]

For me it was simple math.

Our population increases at an increasing rate.

The silver that is stacked and consumed increases at an increasing rate.

There is only so much silver on our planet.

Scarcity is mathematically inevitable. Paper trading and shorting can only obscure things until industry and bullion dealers start running into substantial supply issues.

On the flip side there is SHTF. Adding a silver stack to your existing plans just makes sense. If humanity makes it through SHTF a barter based economy will be part of the stabilization and as it has always happened throughout history PM based currency will rise up as a way to represent wealth.

[silversaver]

Mike maloney's Book on investing in gold and silver.

[silverexplosion]

9/11 woke alot of people up. When you actually study 9/11, then you wake up real quick. You then realize most everything is corrupt. When you learn the Goldman Sachs is ruler of the land, then you REALLY wake up.

[Honey]

(03-01-2012 01:52 AM)HomelyClone Wrote:  November 2010. First time i ever had over 1k in the bank. I had always known about inflation but it doesn't hit you so hard when you live paycheck to paycheck. Sobering thought that in 7-11 years anything i make today will be worth half as much.

Hi HC,

You are a lot richer than you will ever be able to attribute to your bank account! Welcome to the thread!

[Honey]

(03-02-2012 08:24 AM)Short Stack Wrote:  I must agree with Mojofabulous! Do we ever really wake up and realize that what we thought was "this" is really "that"?

A few things come to mind when I look back & wonder when did I wipe the crust out of my eyes??? I guess it rwally started almost a decade ago. When someone came into my life & never left. She becomes more knowledgeable about PMs and society downfalls with every turning year & continually encourages me to see this world for what it truly is. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

Last year, a book was recommended to me by a few friends, who are avid stackers. The book was Run by Blake Crouch. Granite it had nothing to do with PMs but more about survival. I have to admit it scared the crap out of me, in a much needed way.

I'm just a "short stack" because I only have a few coins in my collection. I'm hoping that by joining this forum I can become better educated in not just PMs but in general.

Thanks for listening.

Oh Short Stack... Your post brought tears to my eyes! You apparently have a great mind and a rewarding journey ahead.

[abreik]

In 2008 I found lewrockwell.com which led me to zerohedge.com which led me here.

[Kapten hörntand]

I was fortunate enuff to have a friend convince me on this. I followed him in town on one of his silver raids where he bought ag at 15-30% of spot, amazing! and im talking of silverware. I was just stunned at it, ppl up here in north EU just did not have a clue. Then ag prices started to have quite a move in the middle of 2010 i started to move into this, BUT it was actually very hard to set youre mind and change youreself into PM but i did it!

Now cheap silverware is long gone, i got some cheap but i focused on bullions pretty much. 2011 was a year of learning and accumulating.

[Silverstacker1]

My sister gave me the book on investing in silver by Mike Malloney. I have never been the same. Thank you Mike!

[SYGY]

After opening a brokerage account and lost 50k due to pump and dump's and naked shorting,,and finding out that over 8 billion $$$ get's stolen everyday on the new york stock exchange by way of fail to deliver's ,,the whole system is rigged it's all a scam,,,,there day's are numbered now,,the jig is up,,fiat,,will die

keep on stacking!!

and watch the ~~~~~~~~~~Wall Street Conspiracy~~~~~~~~~~<<<just out

http://thewallstreetconspiracy.com/

[pmwealth]

(03-02-2012 12:41 AM)Arcturus87 Wrote:  I was like most brainwashed Americans and didn't know much about money or economics. Following the 2008 elections and the Wall Street meltdown, I really started to teach myself economics. I was very disappointed at the "two" candidates there were to choose from. I began reading about third parties and came across how the Libertarian Party was opposed to the Federal Reserve. That was where I found Ron Paul. I have spent the last few years researching everything there is to know about money and economics. I started purchasing lots of gold in early to mid 2009, I almost think I may have purchased too much gold relative to silver, which is something I've recently realized within the last year how undervalued it is. I just spent 6 years in the Navy and routinely told those around me how you need to own gold. I even kept several thousand dollars in my bunk just in case the dollar collapsed while I was overseas. Despite the fact that I used to work for the government and thought I was defending freedom, I will attempt to oppose the Federal Government's desire to nationalize me. I have now found liberty, individualism and "free" money.

You may consider swapping out some larger denominations of gold for silver. Possibly keep smaller denominations like tenths and quarter ounces. I swapped out some one oz gold for silver when it was 67 to 1 ratio. Now that it's 50 to 1, I have increased my net holdings by 17 oz of silver per oz of gold I used to own.
I believe the ratio will continue to collapse possibly to a 1 to 1 ratio as unbelievable as it sounds. Look at it this way, if historically the ratio has been 15 to 1 based on the supply and ratio that silver and gold come out of the ground. By the way it now it comes out of the ground at a ratio of 9 to 1...that is 9 oz of silver per 1 oz of gold. If it's true that 95% of all the silver that has ever been mined over the past 5000 years has been consumed in industrial applications that means there's 5 % left. Multiply the remaining 5% of 15 and you get .75 to 1. That means the ratio goes the other way meaning silver will be more valuable than gold. So all the silver stackers are really stacking gold for the price of silver. What a bargain.

[Ivan]

in 2011, i was wondering why so many people got screwed and i did not wanted to be one of them. So I bought 20+ books and start reading, and thats when i start discovering Austrian economics, came across Schiff, Celente, and many more. that lead me to discover gold. After that I start looking online and came across silver. and the rest is history.

[ramblerboy368]

Watched a Peter Schiff is right video. That woke me up.

[SilverTinMan]

This should be a wake-up.

Compare the cost increases on several items since the year 1968. The following shows the average yearly inflation rate for each. Inflation is far greater than people realize or are told. The government is destroying our purchasing power and they intend to make sure they do.

Wage increases can not keep up with rising prices. In spite of all the "Big Oil" company bashing that takes place in the media, gasoline is relatively no more expensive than anything else. Investors will not get ahead by investing in the stock market. After the tax man gets his cut, everyone slips further behind each year. If anyones savings have increased over the years, it is not due to portfolio performance, but it is due to the simple fact that you saved.

Gold is the only investment that has proved itself and silver has obviously been ignored and/or manipulated as an investment.

Automobile
Year 1968 2011
Price $2,822 $35,000 1240.26% overall increase; 6.00% per year

Gasoline
Year 1968 2011
Price $0.34 $3.50 1029.41% overall increase; 5.50% per year

Average House Price
Year 1968 2011
Price $14,950 $200,000 1337.79% overall increase; 6.20% per year

Dow Jones Industiral Average
Year 1968 2011
Value 943 13000 1378.58% overall increase; 6.30% per year

Gold
Year 1968 2011
Price $35 $1,650 4714.29% overall increase; 9.20% per year

Silver
Year 1968 2011
Price $2 $35 1750.00% overall increase; 6.80% per year

Federal Debt
Year 1968 2011
Amont $369B $15,000B 4065.04% overall increase; 9.00% per year

Household Income
Year 1968 2011
Amount $7,850 $41,673 530.87% overall increase; 3.90% per year

Just a couple of additional points concerning this.

If silver would have trade fairly (well let's say at least released to move as gold did), the 2011 silver price would have been $90/oz. And this assumes the 1968 price of $2 was reasonably fair. Also, this does not take into account all of the resource destruction that has occured since 1968. $90 is just a baseline value.

We must ask our politicans why the growth rate in costs seems to be a consistant 6% accross the board since 1968. If the price of everything grows at 6%, could it just as well have been 0%. What is the driving force behind this increase. It is my contention that the driving force is the increase in federal debt. The 9% rate of increase is causing the 6% increases.

Lastly, consider the productivity increases and increase in competition that the creative citizens of the world bring to product manufacturing. Let's take the automobile, for example. Since 1968, there are more automobile manufactures fighting stiffer competition. The automobiles have thinner sheet metal, plastics in place of glass and metal, electronics in place heavier electrical components, assembly lines that are more highly mechanized that have robotic welding, robotic painting, involve less labor, computer aided design, and on and on. With all of this hard work in greater ingenuity, productivity technological advancements, why does an automobile cost more now than it did in 1968. What are we really working so hard for? What are we working towards?

[KYnyts]

Ron Paul.

[duckblindK]

Well, I woke up in July/August of last year. My senior year of high school I took a bs consumer math class (which was actually helpful because we learned things like how to balance a checkbook, investing, buying a car, interest rates, etc.) I remember we broke into groups and picked stocks to play in an imaginary account. This was January of 2000. Needless to say by April we were all done for. That was my first taste of the market.
My Dad had been a banker my whole life and talked me into making regular contributions to a brokerage account that was managed by a family member financial adviser. I put roughly 25% of my pay into this account every month only to have it LOSE money between 2001 and 2007. Go figure I found out later money was in Goldman Sachs funds.... I went on market hiatus from 2007 to 2010 due to an ex wife emptying our savings account and maxing out credit cards, then leaving me with the debt.
In 2010 I returned from a second deployment overseas and another family member talked me into opening an options account and taught me the basics. Another bad move. I lost about $2100 with that gig. By this time my Dad had left the banking industry and became a financial adviser with a brokerage firm. He had talked me into managing my money during my deployment and I trusted him because he was family. This was a good move. He is the only former banker/financial services guy that doesn't cheat people out of money and tries to help them out. It's kind of weird, because he switched careers all of a sudden before the housing meltdown and I suspect it's because he could see what was coming (or the dirty things the bank was doing). Anyway, he made me a nice ROI.

Between losing so much money over the last decade and having nothing to show for it, my feelings for the market were bitter hatred. Something just wasn't right, but I couldn't tell what it was. My new wife is ultra-conservative with money and would make the comment that she doesn't like the market because you never get to touch or hold what you buy. After rolling this through my head I had a "duh" moment and asked what she thought about investing in silver/gold.

After buying our first ounce of silver last year she's been sold ever since - and I have, too. My first ounce was a 2011 Britannia for $48 last year. The rest is history. We have bought from that down to $27/oz with most of the buys between $27 and $33. We look over this site, Miles Frankin, Chris Duane and a host of others for our news and updates. I'll NEVER go back. Sure, it's hard not to share the "great news" with my Dad, but he's working for the Cartel and unfortunately brainwashed that paper is the answer. I feel more secure now than I ever have. When silver dropped recently, I didn't lose an ounce of sleep...or silver. Every available dollar is exchanged for metal and my wife is more supportive than ever. 401(k)? Please. We have "self-directed plans" in 100% metals and sleep better than we ever have.

I woke up last summer. I'll NEVER go back and lose wealth to paper again, and I hope you won't either.

[agsilverbear]

(03-07-2012 10:13 AM)duckblindK Wrote:  Well, I woke up in July/August of last year. My senior year of high school I took a bs consumer math class (which was actually helpful because we learned things like how to balance a checkbook, investing, buying a car, interest rates, etc.) I remember we broke into groups and picked stocks to play in an imaginary account. This was January of 2000. Needless to say by April we were all done for. That was my first taste of the market.
My Dad had been a banker my whole life and talked me into making regular contributions to a brokerage account that was managed by a family member financial adviser. I put roughly 25% of my pay into this account every month only to have it LOSE money between 2001 and 2007. Go figure I found out later money was in Goldman Sachs funds.... I went on market hiatus from 2007 to 2010 due to an ex wife emptying our savings account and maxing out credit cards, then leaving me with the debt.
In 2010 I returned from a second deployment overseas and another family member talked me into opening an options account and taught me the basics. Another bad move. I lost about $2100 with that gig. By this time my Dad had left the banking industry and became a financial adviser with a brokerage firm. He had talked me into managing my money during my deployment and I trusted him because he was family. This was a good move. He is the only former banker/financial services guy that doesn't cheat people out of money and tries to help them out. It's kind of weird, because he switched careers all of a sudden before the housing meltdown and I suspect it's because he could see what was coming (or the dirty things the bank was doing). Anyway, he made me a nice ROI.

Between losing so much money over the last decade and having nothing to show for it, my feelings for the market were bitter hatred. Something just wasn't right, but I couldn't tell what it was. My new wife is ultra-conservative with money and would make the comment that she doesn't like the market because you never get to touch or hold what you buy. After rolling this through my head I had a "duh" moment and asked what she thought about investing in silver/gold.

After buying our first ounce of silver last year she's been sold ever since - and I have, too. My first ounce was a 2011 Britannia for $48 last year. The rest is history. We have bought from that down to $27/oz with most of the buys between $27 and $33. We look over this site, Miles Frankin, Chris Duane and a host of others for our news and updates. I'll NEVER go back. Sure, it's hard not to share the "great news" with my Dad, but he's working for the Cartel and unfortunately brainwashed that paper is the answer. I feel more secure now than I ever have. When silver dropped recently, I didn't lose an ounce of sleep...or silver. Every available dollar is exchanged for metal and my wife is more supportive than ever. 401(k)? Please. We have "self-directed plans" in 100% metals and sleep better than we ever have.

I woke up last summer. I'll NEVER go back and lose wealth to paper again, and I hope you won't either.

That's a great story. My husband has been buying silver for a decade and I supported it. But it's weird, my ultimate 'duh' moment was when he 'dug up' some cash we had stored away for a year, and it was moldy. It had rotted in one year and stunk up our house, I made him put it in the garage until Monday morning when he took it to the bank. To the delight of the bank teller, I'm sure. That swept away the last vestige of our current paper system brainwashing from my mind.

[duckblindK]

(03-10-2012 02:06 AM)agsilverbear Wrote:  

(03-07-2012 10:13 AM)duckblindK Wrote:  Well, I woke up in July/August of last year. My senior year of high school I took a bs consumer math class (which was actually helpful because we learned things like how to balance a checkbook, investing, buying a car, interest rates, etc.) I remember we broke into groups and picked stocks to play in an imaginary account. This was January of 2000. Needless to say by April we were all done for. That was my first taste of the market.
My Dad had been a banker my whole life and talked me into making regular contributions to a brokerage account that was managed by a family member financial adviser. I put roughly 25% of my pay into this account every month only to have it LOSE money between 2001 and 2007. Go figure I found out later money was in Goldman Sachs funds.... I went on market hiatus from 2007 to 2010 due to an ex wife emptying our savings account and maxing out credit cards, then leaving me with the debt.
In 2010 I returned from a second deployment overseas and another family member talked me into opening an options account and taught me the basics. Another bad move. I lost about $2100 with that gig. By this time my Dad had left the banking industry and became a financial adviser with a brokerage firm. He had talked me into managing my money during my deployment and I trusted him because he was family. This was a good move. He is the only former banker/financial services guy that doesn't cheat people out of money and tries to help them out. It's kind of weird, because he switched careers all of a sudden before the housing meltdown and I suspect it's because he could see what was coming (or the dirty things the bank was doing). Anyway, he made me a nice ROI.

Between losing so much money over the last decade and having nothing to show for it, my feelings for the market were bitter hatred. Something just wasn't right, but I couldn't tell what it was. My new wife is ultra-conservative with money and would make the comment that she doesn't like the market because you never get to touch or hold what you buy. After rolling this through my head I had a "duh" moment and asked what she thought about investing in silver/gold.

After buying our first ounce of silver last year she's been sold ever since - and I have, too. My first ounce was a 2011 Britannia for $48 last year. The rest is history. We have bought from that down to $27/oz with most of the buys between $27 and $33. We look over this site, Miles Frankin, Chris Duane and a host of others for our news and updates. I'll NEVER go back. Sure, it's hard not to share the "great news" with my Dad, but he's working for the Cartel and unfortunately brainwashed that paper is the answer. I feel more secure now than I ever have. When silver dropped recently, I didn't lose an ounce of sleep...or silver. Every available dollar is exchanged for metal and my wife is more supportive than ever. 401(k)? Please. We have "self-directed plans" in 100% metals and sleep better than we ever have.

I woke up last summer. I'll NEVER go back and lose wealth to paper again, and I hope you won't either.

That's a great story. My husband has been buying silver for a decade and I supported it. But it's weird, my ultimate 'duh' moment was when he 'dug up' some cash we had stored away for a year, and it was moldy. It had rotted in one year and stunk up our house, I made him put it in the garage until Monday morning when he took it to the bank. To the delight of the bank teller, I'm sure. That swept away the last vestige of our current paper system brainwashing from my mind.

Ah, the stench of paper currency! My wife cashed a check Friday and brought brand new FRN's in the house. She might as well have brought a Ouija board into a church. They just stink and feel so worthless. Flimsy paper!
Speaking of taking it to the bank, we now pay our bills the minute it hits the bank on payday simply to rid ourselves of it. Oh yeah, and order more silver!