What should one convert dollars to at this time?

[tatertop]

I just received a bunch, over 10,000.
(Please don't put this in the lounge.
I am sure there are a lot of people
here holding dollars that must be 'converted.')

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

1. Gold, Gold, & More Gold!!

Or any precious metal, or metal stocks(do research first).

[northzax]

2. chickens

at least there'll be something to eat after the apocalypse.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Gold

is considered the best commodity to hold in times of crisis. Some say silver is ok, but I'd check prices first.

[dchill]

4. Reichsmarks.

:)

[jobycom]

5. A tank of gasoline. Maybe some canned food if you have any left.

[tatertop]

12. I have been looking into vintage bread crusts

old time, frailing bread crusts are bound to be
a five bagger ;)

[Sydnie]

6. water - a good blue water company

Water will quickly become the new oil. Not a short term investment, but if I had some to play with, that is where I would put it.

[tatertop]

15. Excellent medium term idea

[Tace]

7. Gold/Silver -- I Would Split It 50/50

I did this for a Christmas present for my little girls.

They are up 12% today. Go figure.

[LittleOne]

8. That is an interesting question....

Convert it to Canadian Dollars? Indian Rupies?

I have been thinking about the same thing actually.

[malaise]

9. Euros all the way n/t

[enigami]

10. pig bellies

[Danieljay]

11. common sense and compassion n/t

[Uben]

13. I wouldn't do gold!

Gold is at a 25 year high! Unless total chaos breaks out, I would choose another commodity...oil!
These bastards will never let the price of oil drop.

[JuniperLea]

14. Gold and art

Art was one of the few things that held a good price during the Depression. And many wealthy families were able to rebuild empires on proceeds from their art collections. Look at all the big wigs now... collecting art;)

[tatertop]

16. Art is a tough one

I know a lot about art and nothing about art buying.
Are you an art buyer?

[JuniperLea]

23. No but I worked for a couple of ultra wealthy people

In the past 10 years... A major distillery heir and a housing tycoon, both multi-billionaires and well within the top 500 on the Forbes list... and both collect art as an "insurance" to their continued wealth, regardless of financial times.

[girl gone mad]

39. That's been my experience, too.

I've worked with and been acquainted with a few multi-millionaires. They were all big art collectors and often traded with each other or loaned the art out to various museums. The vast majority of the art they bought was well outside of my price range, however.

[JuniperLea]

43. You and me both, girl gone mad!

One of the guys I worked for owns Warhol's "Forty Gold Marilyns", a ton of Jackson Pollock, Jeff Koons, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many, many other well known artist's works. At one time he owned "Michael and Bubbles", which I got to see in person. Revolting.

[girl gone mad]

37. Art and other collectibles.

Rare books (disclaimer: that's the business I happen to be in), jewelry, furniture, pottery. Basically, anything that you could sell to rich people, because there will always be rich people.

It's important to do your research and buy quality items in good condition. Also, be aware that bubbles do occur in the antique/art/collectibles industry. Don't buy anything that's gone up significantly in value over the last few years.

[ninkasi]

45. We found out not too long ago

that some pottery my in-laws collected in New Mexico, I believe, in the 1950's is considered fairly valuable today. It's Puebla Santa Clara, by Maria Popovia...beautiful, black pottey, with a silver design, a beautiful sheen. They also bought some paintings by a Southwest painter, and her works are fairly decently priced, but nothing like the great paintings, of course.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Chinese Yuan or Indian Rupees.

Those commies and socialists seem to be a lot better at a "free market economy" than the fat cat capitalists in this country.

[negativenihil]

18. Gold n/t

[LifeDuringWartime]

19. beanie babies

n/t

[mtnester]

20. In our house it is gold and guns (includes ammo)

so far....some water and fuel hording too.

[tatertop]

21. Guess we all should do some hoarding at this hour

It may be later than we think, if that's possible.

[davekriss]

22. Tulips, definately tulips...

...or, one word, plastics!





(You're talking to the person who talked my father out of investing a huge sum of money in gold just before the run-up to $800+ per ounce. me<--- unwise investor...!)

[SnowGoose]

29. That's funny!

I wonder how many people even know about the history of tulip speculating.

[davekriss]

30. Ah! but did you...

...catch the allusion to the Graduate, where some guy at Dustin Hoffman's graduation party (early in the film) throws his arms around Dustin to give some deep investing advice and pompously announces, "Just one word, plastics!", and then goes on and on (with many words) about how plastic is everwhere! My thoughts are most would get the tulip remark but fewer would have guessed what I referred to with the "plastics" line.

:)

[Sydnie]

31. I thought of George Bailey as in

"I don't want any ground floors".

[satya]

24. Instead of thinking currency, think barter -- skills/items necessary

during depressed times or of value to others.

Things like generators, water purifiers, heirloom vegetable seeds (check out Y2k survival-type websites).

Invest in training in emergency health care, mechanical repairs.

Invest in your own health.

Convert your house to solar energy.

Buy a diesel truck and convert it to run on used french fry oil.

The currency itself isn't of value, whether gold or rupees -- it's what you can buy with it.

[theoldman]

25. I Bonds. They are safe and the interest rate is high.

The stock market is still low so I would suggest a spider. QQQQ or DIA

[lse7581011]

26. Yen n/t

[RepublicanElephant]

27. prayers.

.

[lectrobyte]

28. hemp futures

[LSK]

32. gold or euros

[Uncle Joe]

33. Precious metals, such as Gold or Silver.

I read that Palladium is at an all time low, it is used in the place of the more expensive Platinum.

[berni_mccoy]

34. Gold or the New Zeland or Australian Currency

Those two currencies are both highly correlated with Gold. See this article here:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/06/CommodityCurrencies.asp

Plus, they have better liquidity in gold. It's not simple to buy and hold gold. Currency can be traded at any point.

[tatertop]

42. good article, liquidity is good

[carolinalady]

35. Euros n/t

[mwooldri]

36. Kindling.

Or something else... if things are going to divebomb (and they might...) then those dollar bills will become as useful as kindling to light up a good fire.

[anarch]

38. beans and bullets

or drugs of some kind.

The currency of the future.

[radfringe]

40. beans

to go with all the pork that will be in the next spending bill

[tatertop]

41. me like beans

[muriel_volestrangler]

44. What do you need?

If you have a mortgage, and expect the property ownership system to stay intact, then consider using the money to help pay off your mortgage.

If you feel like you might want to move to another country, and want security, consider converting it to that currency and opening an interest-bearing account with it.

If the money isn't needed now, and you want to stay in the US, and think the financial system is going to keep going, but that the US will go into recession, consider investing it in a mutual fund holding overseas stocks - in developing countries if you can take a larger risk, somewhere else (eg Europe, Japan) if you want a smaller risk, and think they won't follwo the US into recession.

If you really think the financial system is doomed, then put it in durable goods that can be traded at a later date - or that will give you a skill you can barter with (or pay for a course to teach you a skill). If you're thinking this way, then try and imagine the society you'll end up in without a functioning government (eg you may need guns to defend or attack other people, since there'll be no police or military to help you). If you think that people will accept payment for services in precious metal, then you could try that too, I suppose. Personally, if I were in a anarchy like that, I wouldn't give a toss for a bit of yellow metal that's no good for mechanical engineering purposes.

[SoCalDem]

46. Candy bars?..n/t

[benEzra]

47. Canadian mining and energy stocks are a good hedge...

possibly Euros, but if the dollar sinks due to some sort of Middle Eastern crisis, the Euro would probably sink as well.

Disclaimer--I am not a financial adviser, nor do I play one on TV.