When an economy is based on healthy, sustainable activity with a balance of production and consumption, the type of depression we are in can’t happen. In our consumption-based economy, on the other hand, nothing can “stimulate” things back on track. This is because the track we were on is unsustainable. There’s no going back on it. American consumers can’t spend & consume more today in an effort to “save” the economy because we already spent and consumed the goods of today.

Despite the “green shoots” talk that all the economists and politicians are spreading on TV and in magazines and newspapers (pay no mind that these are the very people who didn’t see the crash coming–we are expected to now value their opinion about what’s going to happen next), what’s next isn’t good for the general economy. As illustrated by Ian Mathis of at Daily Reckoning, by the end of the year about 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment benefits.

We know that unemployment is sky high right now (10% official figures and 20% as figured by shadowstats.com), but millions of those jobless Americans are receiving checks from the government that are continuing to pay for their rent, groceries, Venti 7 Pump White Mochas, etc. By year’s end, about 1.5 million Americans will no longer have a source of income. In other words, the further reduced consumption affiliated with unemployment hasn’t even come home to roost yet.

Waiting for the “general economy” to be brought back to life will turn out to be a disappointing plan. Your personal economy is what matters, and thriving is a matter of what you make for yourself. Just as the Soviet Union taught us that central planning doesn’t work, we will relearn that lesson as central planning continues to fail in the United States. Don’t wait around for stock markets to go into a long term rebound (as opposed to the bear market rally or “bounce back” that comes before the next leg down in every stock market crash) or for the government to get your job back for you. If anyone’s going to bring your prosperity, it’s going to be you!

Finally, it’s here! Amazon won’t have it in stock for another 2 to 4 weeks, but you can use the buy now button above to order the book and I’ll ship it directly to you immediately. (If you’ve already ordered one, it’s going out to you today.)

If you’re reading my blog, I assume you want to take control of your finances and your life. Get the book to find out…

• Why  a rising stock market steals from us
• Why savings accounts don’t save
• Why you’re on track to working harder for longer for less
• An action plan for escaping financial slavery
• 5 simple steps to freedom

Here’s the official synopsis:

What if everything you’ve been told about personal finance leads you to working harder for longer and for less? Conventional wisdom says to spend less than you earn and dump the rest into the stock market or a savings account. If you follow this plan, you won’t know that you’ve been stolen from until it’s too late. Even a rising stock market steals from its investors. 5 STEPS TO FREEDOM offers a way out.

Nabers and Chongchua reveal illusions that create an invisible bondage that stands in our way of being able to keep what we have and live the life we want. One illusion comes from measuring all things in dollars. Consumer price inflation is a hot topic and 5 STEPS TO FREEDOM gets to the root of the matter: the dollar is an inconstant unit of measurement. Nabers and Chongchua warn, “Each time you look at any dollar-based bank statement, portfolio statement, or any chart or graph and assign meaning to it, you are being misled. You can’t win a game if you can’t see the real score board.” A more effective way of measuring value and avoiding unpleasant surprises is detailed in this groundbreaking blueprint for freedom.

Putting a stop to the silent erosion of your investments and savings is crucial. If you are looking to go a step further and regain your losses, 5 STEPS TO FREEDOM can be customized for rapid wealth growth. Over a dozen real-life case studies are examined to show the patterns of success and failure. Reclaiming individual freedom is integral to the larger struggle for freedom amidst an expanding government and the elitist favoritism practiced between politicians and their corporate friends. This book is your weapon to escape financial slavery and parlay your personal freedom into making our country great again.

Get it today!

Recently I received a question from somebody looking into self-directed IRA/401(k) investment for themselves. They said, “I ran this by my financial planner in New York who said to roll over my IRA to put some of its money into my home is illegal.” This statement is technically correct. Putting IRA money into his primary residence would be a prohibited transaction. The disturbing thing about the situation is that these three people (a person, their realtor, and their financial planner) could all be on the same page about something so fundamentally ridiculous.

The misconception

In the past 10 years, many people think “real estate investing” equals “putting money into my home”. Their home can’t be an investment in the first place because they are paying for it rather than having it paid for by a renter.

When somebody wants to help people rationalize buying the stuff they sell, they often call it an “investment”. Bill Clinton started changing the way people thought about government spending (when he was increasing it) by calling it an investment.

An investment or a consumer product?

Selling a primary residence to a home buyer is selling a consumer product. It’s for their use. They can buy what they really need. Or they could get extravagant and buy the Lexus/Mercedes version of a home and spend more. Either way, it’s a consumer product if they are paying for it and using it themselves.

But realtors followed Clinton’s spin move and started calling home buying an investment. This really caught on once Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Fed all took actions to artificially inflate home prices in order to defer the recession of 2002. Once you could buy this consumer product (the home) and then have it rapidly increase in value (supposedly) and realize this value by selling it or doing a refinance cash out, then the talk about the home being an investment seemed to make sense.

Today, the bubble is over, and the illusion that your home is an investment should be easy to correct. If it was an investment, then somebody else would be paying the mortgage. If somebody else was paying the mortgage, they’d probably live in it instead of you.

It’s not to say that buying a home is a stupid thing to do. That can only be decided on a case-by-case scenario that depends on the buyer and the home in question. Buying a home can be a financially beneficial thing to do in some cases, but it hardly could be truthfully classified as “real estate investing”.

Back to basics: real estate investing means buying properties that produce income. And, yes, real estate investing can be done inside an IRA or 401(k).  

$3 trillion normal government spending + $2 trillion additional emergency spending = $5 trillion government spending in 2009.

That amounts to $50,000 of government spending per non-government, non-taxpayer-paid U.S. worker in a single year.

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