More about money

Here are 2 of my most favorite flowers. As I am almost out the door to another adventure, I'm not leaving my life to just trips and chance. There is meticulous planning and decision making. I don't just be ultra frugal and save. I invest also. I have my own brokerage account, one that I've had for 14 years. I've bought and sold many stocks during these 14 years, some years were so good and I made a lot of money. Other years are down but I've still come out ahead. It is interesting to see what people read on buses, in book stores , trains and planes. Everyone seems to be reading a gossip column or the sports page. I'm into neither, I read only financial articles. I'm always looking out for the next trend in the stock market. Of course I've had been burnt during the tech bubble, who wasn't, well, those who don't invest in the stock market are not affected whether the market goes up or down. Not really, if we have a pension plan or a 401K we are affected.

I have both a pension and a 401K and my pension trust is in danger of collapsing and my 401K has lost so much value, it's no laughing matter. The new retirement guide is to work longer and save more. Simple, don't plan on retiring just yet. Love your job 'cos you might have to go it for a lot longer.

I've been reading the video blogs of one contrarian, Peter Schiff. While some of what he says makes sense and I'm following some of his advice, others don't. I'm not into buying solid gold and keeping it in the house. I don't know how gold stocks work. He says the US dollar will be worth a lot less and it is true. While every world currency seems to have increase in value over the US dollar, it would be unwise to have savings in US dollar. The buying power is fast being eroded by the Feds printing more and more money to maintain the lifestyle we, Americans have been accustomed to.

He said to buy things with US dollars now, equities or gold, preferably foreign equities. So lately I've been following his advice, sold all my US equities and bought some foreign stocks.

Sold all my stocks in Apple, Google, Exxon-Mobil, Celgene, Repligen, Yahoo, Microsoft, Monsanto, Amaxon and United Technologies. Bought GDF Suez (France), Sanofi-Aventis (France) and Novartis (Swiss).

My foreign stocks are doing really well, it's gone up everyday. Even the Wall Street Journal remarked that there is a run up on foreign stocks. Why? People are seeing the problem of this huge deficit in the US and the massive printing of more US dollars and whether the Chinese are going to buy more of our treasuries, thus continuing the easy money lifestyle that we've been accustomed to. We've sent our women folk over there, Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, with a begging cup. Imagine that.

We can buy foreign stocks through what is called an ADR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Depositary_Receipt check this link for the explanation of what an ADR is.

It is not enough to be frugal and save. Where are you putting your savings?