Posted on 03/06/2009 6:26:29 AM PST by KeyLargo
Investing? Here's the Safe Option
By EUGENE SILVER
Updated 11:12 AM CST, Thu, Mar 5, 2009
Safes are becoming popular again, due to unpredictable financial markets.
Afraid that cash isn't secure even behind the thick walls of banks, more people are turning to something that has protected money since the days of Jesse James and Bonnie and Clyde: safes.
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Safes are becoming popular again, due to unpredictable financial markets.
Safes are Flying Off the Shelves Watch Video
Safes are becoming popular, again.
The metal vaults are so popular in some part of the country that shopper are depleting store supplies as worries about the nation's economy spread.
During the three months that ended June 30, the latest period for which data is available, domestic bank deposits slipped nearly $40 billion, according to federal data.
And so far this year, market declines have erased $8.7 trillion in wealth. That's a figure so staggering that some people are cashing out assets and shifting to other investments in a no-holds-barred effort to stanch the bleeding.
Companies, such as SentrySafe and Lowe's, have seen a substantial increase in sales of safes. Honeywell, which makes them, and Home Depot, which sells them, also report similar increases.
heavy metal
We’ve had one for about a year now. Mainly guns and ammo stashed in there; a little cash. :)
Still on my to do list.
I am looking for another one myself.
Curious: Is junk silver the same as regular silver, but kinda junky?
I don’t think cash money is what folks are putting in safes.
Pre-1965 US coins are 90% silver.
Ammo is the best bet to stash there as it will double in price when Holder’s schemes to tax it by fingerprinting each bullet is done, according to Remington rep.
For various reasons, I have had to visit our bank branch and retrieve stuff out of our safety deposit box a few times this year.
Our bank is ranked high and is gaining customers.
However, there is a stack of unused safety deposit boxes in the vault/safe by the boxes.
It wasn’t that long ago there was a waiting list. A few years ago, our son and DIL wanted one and was told there was a waiting list of over a year.
On my last trip the bank manager helped me retrieve my box to get what was needed.
I asked him what happening re the stack of unrented boxes.
He said people were buying home safes and helping to pay for them by not renewing the rentals on their boxes.
Our son bought two heavy duty gun safes and bolted them down in his garage. They use the safes for his guns, her jewels, expensive reels and other items. They had a medium to large safety deposit box in their bank in their home city, and the cost per year went over $100. That was when he bought his first safe.
So what are the best safes and best places to buy them. I would like to store my guns and other stuff in them.
Might be good to buy a safe as a decoy and keep valuables disguised in plain sight.
I like it. You could also put some really good costume jewelry in the safe like gold plated stuff and cubic zirconium.
Or just leave it empty. Someone breaking in won’t know until they waste their time getting in. Meanwhile your solid gold/silver but painted garage door handle will go unmolested.
I was thinking if there was a home invasion, they might point a gun to your head and get you to open the safe.
Good point. That’s probably not a situation in which I’d like to laugh and say ‘joke is on you.’
As a solution to the current financial crisis and chaos, it is the among the most stupid solutions imagineable. Even the other real option, discussed below, is not significantly "safer."
Storing a big stack of cash in a safe will in no way prevent its devaluation due to inflation, which is the only possible result of government printing money which is essentially what the multi-trillion "stimulus" bill is doing as we speak.
Functionally, this is no different than keeping 401(k) funds where they presently are; in fact it's worse, since "cashing out" makes the tax liability on the total amount due immediately!
The alternative, buying actual metal gold or silver, would require the value to increase in the reasonable future to the original amount cashed out, plus whatever the tax penalty is for "cashing out," plus appreaciation to make up for the 30-50% of values lost; an almost impossible expectation. That's the only hope (slim as it is) to recoup without playing the current game.
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