What would you invest in?

[happyuk]

Posted by Raskolnikov (here)
If you had a few hundred thousand extra dollars that you didn't need for anything else, in today's day and age when the central banks are clearly in the process of breaking all banks so that cash will soon be toilet paper, ala Nazi Germany, where would you set your sights, what would be your highest priority? In other words, what would you invest in to 1) Get your money out of the banks, 2) Turn it into something both tangible and worthy in a barter society, and 3) prevent the loss of those dollars?

Low-cost, passive index funds, funds that charge a minimum of fees (as in less than 0.1% p.a.) and track a broad range of the market such as the S&P 500, or the FTSE All-Share.
Vanguard and Fidelity are good providers, and provide easy online servicing. Plus I know that the money is being put to work in productive businesses that actually do things for society, such as in feed, clothe, house, transport, medically treat etc people.

In fact, I consider John "Jack" Bogle, the inventor of the low-cost index fund, to be a modern day saint in making this kind of product available to the general population, allowing them to bypass stockbrokers and financial consultants (read: salesmen) and their hefty fees.

Gold, silver and physical cash? Maybe a bit put away for emergencies not as an investment. Gold has nice properties that are useful in electronics and other applications. On getting this stuff dug out of the ground, it has to be stored in a secure bank vault (unless you want to risk getting robbed for it) all the while doing precisely nothing.

In fact cash and cash equivalents are terrible long term investments, ones that pay virtually nothing and are subject to the obliterating effects of inflation and bad governance.
Gold holds its value - an ounce of gold in the middle ages would have bought you a fine outfit, and it will still do the same today - but that's all it does.