大咖福利影院

wrote:

In the mean time it would be wise to convert as many paper dollars as you feel comfortable into gold and silver coins.

Owning physical gold and silver usually results in the loss of money unless you are a jeweler or trader.聽 It costs money to buy precious metals and it costs money to store it, either in a safety deposit box or by having to purchase a safe.聽 It can also put you and your family at risk, should the wrong people find out you have large sums of money in your house.聽 Most personal financial advisers advise against owning significant amounts physical gold and silver for the average person.聽

Should the dollar collapse, then other currencies will also loose value, and thus gold and silver will not maintain its current value.

If doomsday-coming-soon is the mindset, it would be more wise to invest in stock piles of food, water, and protection.聽 At least these still have value when currency is removed.

jlconst wrote:

Do you remember the photo/caption of the argentinian crying..."I should have bought gold" ?

afair that was Brazilian...

jlconst wrote:

And like I said, buy silver and gold. The ONLY proven protection thruout the history of man....This is why I brought the subject up in the first place. Any country tied to the dollar will be hurt.....BTW...silver is up 20% in the last week. Silver is money. Paper dollars are backed by nothing but debt and will be perceived as near worthless in the future.

I am unsure how you reach that conclusion from my posting. I trust you are a commodities dealer. Historically, commodities including gold and silver, are poor investments vs other options.

Buying commodities will not protect expats from political, economic or security risks in Ecuador. Also, any reasonable investment adviser will warn if you insist on investing in commodities to limit to no more then 2-3% of net worth. I would not recommend them to the typical expat residing in Ecuador.

jlconst wrote:

Gold and silver are NOT commodities. They are money. And if you believe anything "financial advisers" tell you then you deserve what you get..... Like invest for the long run....it's a buyers market....yada, yada, yada....They're salesman who haven't a clue about the real markets......factoring in inflation if you invested 25 yrs ago you're still even..... Ten yr bull market in gold and they're still telling you to stay away....while all the central banks and the world richest are buying. Who's the fool and who will be left empty handed when the banks implode.....[ ]

Again, I do not understand why this conversation continues to revert to the relative value of investing in gold and silver. My posting related to the impact on Ecuador having its currency denominated in USD.

I have no problem investing in gold, silver or commodities or real estate or bonds or pork bellies or art or anything else that might increase in value. When asked by family members for investment advice I consistently recommend 1. subscribe to Money magazine to educate yourself to make intelligent financial decisions and 2. diversify your investments.

From my perspective, gold and silver can be a modest part of a diversified portfolio. If a significant part of a portfolio, your time horizon has to be sufficiently long enough to recoup periodic downturns and be prepared to have sleepless nights.

jlconst wrote:

The fact that you rely on Money Magazine pretty much tell it all about not knowing what you are talking about. The whole world is in printing press overdrive, all currencies are going down, and the whole world is in a debt spiral down. If holding 1-3% in a "hard" currency makes you sleep better that's good.Sounds to me you hold NO gold, which is almost always the case when I argue with you guys. My post started with just wanting to encourage others to protect themselves financially....Make sure you re-post off and on during the next few months and yrs. I'll look forward to your next post that has no relevance to facts or history.

JLCONST, lets end this with agreeing we disagree without being disagreeable.聽 聽

I wish you luck with your investment decisions.

Pica1 wrote:

Hi all - I'd like to revisit and expand this question.聽 My husband refuses to consider Ecuador on our list because he doesnt like their government. My question to you (please, only those folks who have or are living there) is: As an expat, have you found government policies to be a problem for you? Some issues: property ownership, taxes, law, etc. I don't want to start political arguments...just want to explore the real-life day-to-day problems (or not) for expats (particularly American expats) with the Ecuadorean government.

Thanks much!
Tes

Tes, as an American married to an Ecuadorian and residing in Quito since 2005, I strongly suggest your husband reconsider Ecuador. While residents love to complain about politics, in reality their efforts have little if any impact on local quality of life issues such as cost of living, security and acceptance of expats.

Pica1 wrote:

Thanks fdmcg.聽 I suspect as much.聽 The blogosphere is so full of everybody's angry comments, often from people who haven't even been to the place they're criticizing.聽 That's why 大咖福利影院s like this are so important. That, and, of course, visiting first if you can.

I have lived in Ecuador since 2006.聽 I live in Cuenca since 2011. Govt interference in my daily life has been limited to encounters with the bureaucracy for visa and driver's license.聽 In fact in Cuenca the Govt has opened a visa office and staffed it with English speaking personnel.聽 If the visa is straight forward there is no need to get an attorney.聽 Retirees 65+ yoa are treated very well.聽 We have all the benefits that Ecuadorian nationals do like half price on airline tickets, special window at banks, reimbursement of sales tax...

Foreigners are not singled out in any way by the police or any other govt institution. While the Govt of Ecuador and the US do have differences, this does not translate into harassment of US citizens.

Come down and visit.聽 See for yourselves.

Mike