#6 – The Three (3) P’s of Holistic Survival – Profits

The Three P’s of Holistic Survival (Part 3)

The fundamental basics of Holistic Survival are found in the three P’s, which make up the three pillars of Holistic Survival. These three pillars are intended to protect your people, places, and profits from harm. The reason why we call this “Holistic” Survival is because we recognize the importance that family, property, and financial well-being play in our current world. Survival in and of itself may be of little comfort if all of the things we care for are swept away. Because of this, we are focusing Holistic Survival on helping people to be more prepared for catastrophes in these uncertain times.

PROTECTING PROFITS:

Why do my profits need protecting?

The third key concept is that of protecting your profits. At first this may sound kind of snarky or silly, but it is very important to consider when building your investment portfolio. The importance of protecting your profits comes from the likely scenario where the government will continually inflate the currency as a means of financing its excessive and irresponsible spending. The result of this inflation will be to destroy the value of dollar-denominated assets like savings, home equity, stocks and debt. The best way to defend against this phenomenon is to structure your finances such that your assets are physical things, and your liabilities are paper obligations to financial institutions.

The reason why this protects your profits is because the inflation will inflate the value of the physical assets and destroy the value of the paper debt. The next step in this type of profit protection is to ensure that your assets are denominated in items of universal need such as housing and consumable commodities. (It should be noted that housing makes a much better investment vehicle, as it can be rented out to tenants, and financed with leverage.) By protecting your profits in this manner, you will be placed in a very advantageous situation relative to the rest of the populace. This will help to keep you out of an inevitable “mad scramble” for survival when the vast multitudes simultaneously realize that they will be unable to sustain their lifestyle with their current income and resources. For more information and insights, visit www.JasonHartman.com and listen to his “Creating Wealth” show.

Why we’re not “Gold Bugs”

It is certainly true that times of chaos and confusion tend to make commodities like gold and silver increase in price. In a strange way, this is part of why we do not recommend them as an investment vehicle. Since gold and silver are extremely valuable, it is very likely that they will be confiscated by the government in exchange for worthless paper currency.

The precedent for this was set by FDR in 1933 when he made it illegal to own gold bullion, and had the government confiscate all of the privately owned gold stock. Furthermore, the value of gold and silver is being actively manipulated by the Federal Reserve through selling gold out of the national reserve to depress the price of gold already in the marketplace. This is being done in an attempt to limit the extent of monetary inflation that results from printing money to finance government spending.

If the currency exchange system breaks down, it is likely that most commerce will happen in terms of barter and trade, instead of exchanging dollars for groceries at the store. In this type of system, the most likely mediums of exchange will be consumable items such as food, and maybe alcohol, cigarettes, ammunition, or other similar products. Gold and silver may have a place in such an exchange system, but their value may be limited since neither gold or silver is directly consumed by most people.

This pushes them lower on the hierarchy of necessities, and may diminish their exchange value. Furthermore, since both gold and silver have a high value per ounce, they are difficult to trade in small quantities. This could create a situation where people holding gold must trade for much less than the full value of the gold. (Similar to a person who wants to buy a bus ticket, but only has a $20 bill, and cannot get change.) These reasons compel us to recommend investing in other assets of universal need, such as rental real estate. For more information and insights, visit www.JasonHartman.com and listen to his “Creating Wealth” show.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, it is incumbent upon each of us to prepare for survival in uncertain and chaotic times. By following the three P’s of Holistic Survival, we will be able to protect the people, places, and profits in our lives. All of us are holding out hopes that the worst will not happen, and the free market ultimately prevails to deliver continued peace and prosperity. However, we are also strong believers in the notion that luck favors the prepared, and that hoping for the best should be accompanied by preparing for the worst. Thus, the importance of preparing early cannot be overstated, since it will be too late to start when the chaos starts. The key question for each of us to ask ourselves is whether we are getting prepared – and if not, why not now?

Jason Hartman, http://www.HolisticSurvival.com