All posts by Derek

Please listen to this radio broadcast if you want to see the big picture of financial meltdown!

I came across this radio broadcast yesterday.  It was a 3 hours talk show.  I would urge everyone to download it and spend 2.5 hours (there are breaks in between) to listen to it.

The hosts and guests gave us a clear big picture of what is going on with the power struggle between East and West.  They explained the fight for oil, dollar and gold.  They explained why there are more than 20 bankers/traders are reported “suicide” recently around the world.  They explained why the imminent collapse of the US financial system.  This is the BEST explanation I have came across so far.

In the last hour of the show, the guests also provided solutions on how we can prepare.  One of the guests Steve Quaye is a Christian and all through the show he kept quoting Bible verses and kept reminding people that everyone needs to get right with Jesus Christ.

Go to the following link and download.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/cfp-radio/2014/02/18/steve-quaye-and-v-the-guerrilla-economist

 

All about money – how to protect your wealth during the financial meltdown

Let me be clear once again.  No amount of wealth can protect you from the judgement of God.  You need Jesus Christ to save you from sins and hell eternally.  It is a free gift from God.  You cannot buy your salvation.

As Christians, however, we are also charged to be good stewards of this earth, and that includes money which God has put into our hands.  Money is not evil; but the love of money is the root of all evil … (1 Timothy 6:10).  With the stewardship responsibility in mind, I believe we should protect our wealth in the coming global financial systems meltdown.  I have been an equity investor for more than 10 year. I made some and lost some.  I have even traded options.  However, I believe it is time to get out of any paper traded system and invest in hard assets:  gold and silver.

Here the resources that have helped me:

Reading and Research:

  • http://hiddensecretsofmoney.com/ – sign up is FREE and remember to watch the video episodes 1-5.  It gives you a clear picture of when fiat currency and money is.  It tells you a brief history of currency and money.  It tells you why you should hold physical gold and silver right now.  They also sell precious metals but if you are in Canada, I would recommend you buy from the 2 dealers I list below.  The shipping from GoldSilver.com is pretty costly.
  • http://usawatchdog.com/ – tells you what is really going on in the world from a financial and political perspective.  Far different from mainline media.
  • http://www.silverdoctors.com/ – a collection of blog posts and news from different websites that touch on gold, silver and financial developments of the world.  They also sell precious metals but if you are in Canada, I would recommend you buy from the 2 dealers I list below.

Buy gold and silver:

  • Canadian Bullion Services – based in Toronto, Ontario.  Many different choices of gold, silver, platinum and copper bullion, even diamonds.  They are BBB accredited.  Free shipping over $5000.  Gold price is among the lowest while silver is a little bit higher than The Troy Ounce.
  • The Troy Ounce – based in Grimsby, Ontario.  Price of silver is among the lowest I have seen.  Fast service, free shipping over $5000.  I have ordered from them before so it is genuine.
  • Atlantic Gold and Silver – based in New Brunswick. Higher prices than The Troy Ounce and Canadian Bullion Services.  However they have “vault account” where you can invest your money in gold and silver without immediate possession.  You can take delivery anytime. Another advantage is that they provide “recurring payments” in the vault account.  Basically you can invest a small amount of money in precious metals on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis.

Step-by-step guide to protect your wealth:

  1. Read the Bible, especially Book of Proverbs and pray to God for wisdom.
  2. Research, research and research. I would highly recommend you to watch all 5 episodes from Hidden Secrets of Money that I listed above.  You need to understand how the modern banking system works.  You need to realize that the global financial system is a giant Ponzi scheme to suck money from middle and lower class and transfer them into the top 1% elite of the world.
  3. After you are convinced the dire situation we are in, start to research books/websites on gold and silver investment.  Again Hidden Secrets of Money and Silverdoctors are good start.  But I wouldn’t recommend you to buy from them if you are in Canada.
  4. Sell your stock, funds, bonds.  These are going to drop in value dramatically when the system collapses.  Withdraw the money from the accounts and buy gold and silver.  Even if you have to take a hit in tax from your RRSP accounts, do it.  Beside the fact that there will be a big loss in value, the government can and will confiscate YOUR money to help save the nation’s debt.  It happened in Cyprus last year.  It is happening now in Europe and USA.  As long as your money is in the banking system, you are in danger.
  5. You need to, of course leave some cash in the banking system for daily transaction, paying bill, etc….but keep that as minimum.
  6. Buy gold and silver from the 2 dealers I listed above.  Of course, do your research.  You might find a better deal elsewhere.  However, be careful to deal with a reputable dealer.  There are fake gold and silver bullion from China.
  7. Buy silver first, then gold.  I believe silver has a better upside value because the historical ratio should be 10 silver to 1 gold.  Right now it is about 60 silver to 1 gold.  There are less investment silver on the ground than gold.  Silver is used widely in industry.  Silver is more affordable for general public.  Both gold and silver will go up, but I would invest more in silver.
  8. Buy bar first, then coins.  USAWatchdog does not recommend people to buy bar, but I disagree somewhat.  Bars carry less premium.  The goal is to protect your wealth and the more ounces you accumulate the better.  With that said, however, I would also buy coins because they are more recognizable and easier to sell and they are legal tenders as well.
  9. I wouldn’t recommend you to buy 100 oz bar because of weight unless you hold them in vault.  If you are going to store some metal at home, stick with 1 oz and 10 oz bars.
  10. For coins, go with Canadian Maple, then American Eagle.  Since I live in Canada, Canadian Maple is more acceptable and cheaper.
  11. You have to find a good place to store your gold and silver.  Don’t put them in the bank’s safe deposit box.  You don’t have access to them during bank close or market crash.  And it is not under insurance.  Dig a hole, buy a safety storage cabinet, whatever.  And if you are blessed with large amount of metals, consider storing them in specialized vaults out of the banking system.
  12. You don’t have to report your purchase or sale to government unless it is more than 10,000 in cash transaction.  In other words, if you make money on metals when you sell, it is not recorded by the coin shop or bullion dealer. (that might change when government gets desperate, who knows?)

These are my suggestions and feel free to discuss more with me.

 

We are heading toward Massive Global Financial Crisis!!

For a couple of months now I have came across books and websites that talk about the imminent breakdown of US Dollar and debt crisis, which in turn would bring global havoc in everyone’s daily lives.  After much research, I believe that this is true.  I am not saying that this would be the start of 7-year Tribulation as stated in Revelation.  But I believe this would set the stage for anti-Christ to take power and control the world.  For when the global economies are destroyed and when countries encounter huge inflation, violence and riots; people would turn desperate.   They would look for a powerful “saviour” who can bring them peace and prosperity.

In order to understand the problem we are facing, we have to remember that the fundamental problem lies in the massive printing/creation of paper currencies around the world.  Currency is different than money.  Currency does not hold value.  It is just a medium of exchange.  Throughout history, only gold and silver were used as money.  Gold and silver are medium of exchange, but they also store the economic value produced by human labour and time.  Because the government can print as much money as they want, the paper currency loses its value with each new dollar that is created.

What happen when we have more paper money?  It drives prices up.  It destroys people’s savings.  How long do we have ultra-low interest rate now?  Why are houses so expensive when the median income does not go up proportionally?  This is insane.  Who can afford a $500,000 house while making $50000 a year?  Sadly, people do not adhere to the Word of God and get themselves into huge debts.  Look at the mortgages, car loans, student loans and credit card loans that people take on these days.  The number keeps getting bigger and bigger.  The love of money is indeed the root of all evil.

In 2008, we had the financial crisis and following recession.  I was laid off for 10 months.  This time, when the US Dollar fails, the whole world would be in a greater crisis and deeper recession.  From 2009-2013, there wasn’t any recovery in US.  Look at the middle class.  The wealth of middle class is sharply lower:  http://www.silverdoctors.com/28-signs-that-the-middle-class-is-heading-toward-extinction/.  A healthy economy is where you have a large population of middle class.  More people in the US are on food stamps.  Food prices are on the rise.  But most importantly, people do not have the Christian faith as the previous generations.  They have rebelled against God and do not follow His commandments.  They dive into entertainment, adultery, pornography, drugs, alcohol, etc…..  The families are separated, or utterly destroyed.

Meanwhile, BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are hoarding gold and trading directly with each other without the US Dollar.  You see, the US dollar has been the world’s “Reserve Currency”.  That means, most international trades are settled in US dollars.  Now the whole world is flushed with toxic US dollars because of massive paper printing from Federal Reserves, its purchasing power is getting lower everyday and many countries want to get rid of US dollars.  What are these countries doing?  They are accumulating gold and silver and using the age-old money as settlement.

When people around the world starts to dump their US dollars in exchange of gold and silver, those paper money would have to come back to the USA.  That would trigger the US dollar collapse and debt bubble burst, which in turn would create inflation and wide recession.

What can we do to prepare for the crisis?

  1. Get saved by Jesus Christ right now if you are not a Christian.  What we are going to see would be much worse than 2008.  No gold nor silver can protect you.  Only God the Almighty has the final say on everything.
  2. Pray, fast and study the Bible.  Do not be too worry about what is going to happen, but at the same time:
  3. Educate yourself on what is going on with the world.  Forget about Superbowl, hockey game night and Justin Bieber.  Research.  Do your due diligence.  (Read my other post here)
  4. Prepare yourself and your family.  Those who prepared are usually spared.  (Read my other post here)
  5. Help others when the crisis hit.  Do not lose faith.  God is always there to help those who cry out to Him with a pure heart.

Email me if you want to discuss these things personally.

Our new addition – Basement Wall Panels

The other day some DPI panels were on sale at Lowes.  Noticing that they were the pattern we want, we decided to grab 14 sheets of “FashionWall 1/4-in x 4-ft x 8-ft Neutral/Low Gloss Hardboard Wall Panel”.  There are several reasons why we picked wall panels as our basement walls.  First, they are cheaper than drywall.  Secondly, they are easy to install.  Finally, they look pretty good, honest.

The installation is straightforward.  Cut the piece to the right size, apply construction adhesives to the board and stick it to the Barricade wall panel.  Using my nail gun, I also shoot some 1 1/4″ finishing nails to hold the wall panel while the adhesive works its magic.  Total cost is around $500 for the entire basement, not bad.

We laid the panels against Barricade walls for 48 hours to allow them to “adjust” to the humidity of our basement.
Finished basement wall.  Looks pretty good to me.

Our new addition – bathroom

Finally, the bathroom is mostly finished, except the shower stall. I put on the wall tiles and sealed them. I like larger tiles because they make the job faster and less grouting. The plumber put in the toilet and vanity for us and now we have an additional, much needed bathroom!

Vanity and toilet.
Unfiished shower stall. Hoping to get help from a brother at church to finish it together.
Wall tiles. Will put chair rail on top of the last row to make it looks nicer.

Our new addition – laying floor tiles

It is time to lay floor tiles in our bathroom.  There is no trick in laying tiles and applying the grout afterwards.  However, it is a tedious and slow process.

 

 

 

First, clean any debris on the bathroom subfloor.

Laying the 12" x 12" tiles.

We use a wet tile saw and grinder with diamond blade.

The grinder really comes in handy when trying to cut circular holes in tile.

Our new addition – Cold Cellar

The cold cellar is one of the most desirable "feature" of our new addition.  We have always wanted a place to store our grains, squash, potatoes and such.  With the new cold cellar, we can expand our garden so that we can preserve some of the food grown over the summer in our garden.  The size of our cold cellar is by no means big (only 10' x 8'), but with careful organization with shelves, we can store a lot of stuff inside.

 

 

 

Shelves waiting to be filled.

We put plywood to cover the ceiling, which was filled with sprayed foam.

Duck to Market

After about 3 months raising ducks, it is time to butcher them and put them into good use.  Again, we use the same processing facility to perform the killing and packaging.  However, each duck cost $7 to process, versus $3 for a chicken.  The reason for higher cost?  Ducks are 3 to 4 times more difficult to pluck because they are waterfowls with oil glands. 

We found that the male Muscovys are heaviest while Rouens are small.  White Pekins are in between and pretty consistent in size.  So I guess for commercial purposes, Pekins would be the ideal choice of ducks.

Ducks ready to be hauled for butchering

Roast duck!!

Our new addition – stair spindles

It is time now to build the stair rails.  The contractor gave us 48 stair spindles to pain.  Believe me, it takes 3-5 mins to finish a coat for 1 spindle.  But we have the girls to help! 

The color of the spindles matches the color on all the trims and baseboards.  I can't wait until to see everything is done:D

 

Tiffany and Odelia painting spindles.

Finished look of stair spindles.