When those who would never consider investing in gold today begin attending gold buying investment conferences together with friends and neighbors, or they start recommending books for you to read about gold investing, you’ll know it’s time to transfer your wealth into a different asset.

The only thing holding this thing together at this point is market confidence. When that goes, everything else goes with it.

Gold and silver investors are putting away precious metals to use in a worst case scenario – if and when a paper currency collapse wipes out the purchasing power of traditional units of monetary exchange. In this respect, we can’t stress enough that before you buy you must do your research, especially if you are investing large portions of your retirement savings, lest you lose everything.

Sent via email: ‘Due to the recent incredible demand for Gold and Silver bullion products, APMEX would like to offer you an exclusive opportunity to LOCK IN YOUR PRICES and sell us some of your U.S. Mint collection. This is a limited time offer and it is first come, first served until we have secured enough U.S. Mint bullion products to meet our current demand!’

For those concerned with the unlikely possibility of confiscatory action by government we continue to recommend, as we have done previously, that you obtain a shovel – and dig deep. Confiscation is a purely speculative proposition at this time, and we strongly believe that gold and silver remain some of the best investment assets in today’s uncertain world.

Bill Cramer of St. Louis purchased 5000 ounces of silver back in 2003 for a spot price of $4.94 and stored it with an east coast broker. When he was discussing his holdings with his coin dealer, the dealer dared him to try and take delivery of the metal.

For now, if you’re a gold buyer, you’re still a little wacky, but certainly not a tin foil quack like you were back in 2008 or before.

Throughout history there has been one asset that, regardless of the type of crisis, has always been turned to in times of confusion and panic. Whether the crisis was financial, energy related, or involved global confrontation, individuals and governments alike have always turned to gold as a last resort. When currencies collapse, when governments lose credibility, and when people panic, precious metals have always been the sought after wealth preservation mechanism.

If there’s one asset that’s heated up over the last several months amid tensions in the middle east and a second round of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing, it’s silver. The price has risen so dramatically, some 20% since January 1, 2011 through today, that investors may be wondering what actions they should take.

As the price of precious metals sky rockets the world over, enterprising counterfeiters in China are jumping on the bandwagon.

We’ve learned that the puppeteers behind the US government, in order to facilitate a move into a new world currency, are considering or may have already begun moving forward with a plan to confiscate gold and silver from the American public.

Most of our neighbors and fellow citizens have not an inkling what is coming their way. They won’t be ready. You can be.

If part of your wealth diversification strategy includes the stockpiling of gold and silver bullion outside of the United States, be warned.

The fact that large financial institutions like JP Morgan are able to place ‘bets’ on paper, essentially without limits, means that manipulation may continue unabated for a while longer. Until, that is, global instability leads investors to request physical metals in exchange for their paper receipts. It is at this point that the entire paper gold and silver markets will be revealed as the house of cards that they actually are.

As explained in the latest mini-documentary from Future Money Trends, silver has a long history of use in practical application. From health related benefits to current uses in industrial application, silver is by far a more useful precious metal than its rarer counterpart.

When it hits the fan, and you really need access to that allocated gold you bought through a bank broker, you can be assured that it won’t be available. Imagine a scenario where the US dollar completely collapses causing panic across the world. Everyone with physical gold holdings is going to head straight to their local banker to claim and take physical delivery of their precious metals.

Many financial advisers suggest a balanced portfolio of stocks and bonds. This strategy has worked since the 1960′s, and many advisers believe it will work going forward. Just listen to any Sunday afternoon AM talk show host promoting mutual funds. They’ll set you up with a diversified portfolio of blue chip stocks, US Treasuries and corporate bonds. In the past, when one went up, the other went down – providing security for savings.

It is literally impossible to pay off all claims at current (par) dollar value. If nothing is done and we do go through a hyperinflation of the dollar, all of these fantastic dollar gains in equities will be an illusion. It is those who hold the real tangible items or claims on those items who will win.

Both have been used as money since forever. Historically, the price of gold has almost always been greater than that of silver. This is because silver is somewhere around ten to twenty times more plentiful in nature. Does this mean that we should only hold gold? I say no for a variety of reasons.

One can only surmise that the mega-rich, those in the know with connections within our political and financial systems, already have a good idea of what’s headed our way. And they’re not taking any chances with their wealth.

If one were a speculator or stock market trader playing gold’s short term moves, they would likely be on the long side of the trade with tight stops built in case it were to reverse course. Since we prefer not to speculate with our wealth, our outlook for gold is and always has been to invest, not speculate, for the long term.

The recent price rises in gold, possibility of more quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve, collapsing home prices and uncertainty about the future of the US dollar have sparked much debate about what steps to take in order to achieve maximum preservation of wealth and ensure that you are holding on to the right assets if the SHTF.

Europe’s central banks have all but halted sales of their gold reserves, ending a run of large disposals each year for more than a decade.

With gold reaching all time [nominal] highs several times in the last few months, ABC news and mainstream media has been asking: Is gold in a bubble and should you invest?

US consumers, already getting hit hard with permanent job losses that are never coming back, wage decreases, and depreciating real estate prices, understand that with their current debt load, most will never be able to pay back the money they owe. So, instead of defaulting on their debt with available credit remaining on their cards, they’ve decided to max out those cards before they stop paying.