After the financial blogs of the past two nights, let me pass on another warning about the approaching housing market disaster: I’ve have lots of questions about using gold as a hedge against whatever is coming.
Please listen carefully: Do not! Do not! Do not buy gold unless you truly understand it, which I seriously doubt anybody does!
Look at the charts linked below: every peak represents a person who’s won a fortune in gold investing at the right time. But that subsequent valley represents an investor who’s lost a fortune in gold investing. If you think you can time the market you’re just flat out wrong. Many’s the speculator who bet on gold to hedge a collapsing economy and ended up as a net loser.
If you ever see that I’ve made a fortune in the gold market, then I give you carte blanche permission to tell everyone, “Ward cheated. He’s a liar. He’s a shyster.”
Betting on gold is worse than going to Vegas. Stay home. Pay the bills. Buy some emergency rations, enough to last your family for a few months. Don’t go nutty on me. We who are questioning the HOA debacle aren’t survivalists. (I have serious doubts that a survivalist can survive much of anything, anyway.) We’re just carefully analyzing an approaching disaster that every economist in the country is talking about… and puzzling over. There are just no clear answers. But I guarantee there’s a phalanx of con men out there being trained to take advantage of your fears.
Last night’s blog referred you to a comedic look at those predicting a financial and housing tsunami, but this link isn’t comedic and it isn’t satirical. I suppose I don’t mind spreading the word about interesting and pertinent books, since many of my blog readers have supported my own HOA book. But this guy should really be taken seriously.
James Rickards’ new book looks at the approaching financial calamity and explains that there’s really no safe harbor for any of us. An avalanche is triggered by a single snowflake. A world financial collapse is triggered by some no-name company that goes broke at precisely the wrong time.
As an extreme HOA pessimist and critic I would never urge people to dump their HOA homes. But if I honestly believed that the pending financial collapse will claim HOA residents among its first victims, I would be remiss in not alerting you to look for safe harbor.
While I honestly believe the approaching mortgage and housing collapse will be the biggest in our history, I still respect well-written satire of economic fatalists like me.
Yes, China might someday be the biggest holder of American homeowner debt, but in the meantime I’ll always be able to smile at such wonderful prose:
Many HOA board members who are tired of fulfilling their duties try to hire professional management companies to do the heavy lifting. But an HOA in Houston has learned a sad lesson about how some idiot HOA managers can get them into massive trouble.
Jacqueline Greene, a single mom with three kids, got behind in her rent at the Villa de Cancun complex owned by Woodfair Properties. Woodfair has a nifty way of forcing late-payers into forking over the money. They just screw the front door to the doorframe. Jacqueline removed the screws. The HOA management company did it again, once again forcing her to remove the screws so she access her apartment.
This time, Woodfair properties simply removed the front door altogether. Neat trick to pull on renters, right?
Well, not exactly. After Jaqueline and her kids spent several nights in the cold she contacted a lawyer. They filed suit based on the fact that this oh-so-professional management company had blatantly broken the law. There are legal ways to evict a tenant. Woodfair chose the illegal way. And guess who won? Jaqueline, the tenant.
If you’re a homeowner whose board just decided to hire a management company, remember you may be more vulnerable than ever. And if you have deep pockets just remember the phrase, “joint and several liability.” It means that even if you had no idea your management company was being so stupid, a lawyer can start digging through your pockets to force you to pay the entire judgment.
I’ve been accused by one of our forum members of doing a ‘bait and switch’ in my recent offer to discount book sales during the month of June. My original intent was to discount bulk purchases of my book Neighbors At War. But my wording was poorly thought out and it led to some bruised feelings among some. The misunderstanding was my fault and I apologize to anyone who felt deceived.
While Amazon frowns on authors who discount books below their online price, I still need to correct my error. So If anyone wants to purchase a single copy (or more) for $5 per book I will respect and fulfill your order while my stock holds out. If my supply of books gets low I will instruct my fulfillment house in New Hampshire to honor the same arrangement. I am out of town until later this month, but when I return I will gladly fulfill any requests.
