Staying ahead of inflation is hard enough but even trying to tread water, to stay even with inflation, becomes extremely difficult when you have the lead weight of inflation taxes around your neck, pulling you down.

A large number of investment professionals confuse risk and volatility to the point where the terms are treated as being virtually synonymous. This has resulted in the flawed investment principle that reducing volatility will (and must) reduce risk. Such thinking is deeply misguided, and following it has dire consequences for investors. Let me explain more about what risk and volatility are and are not.

Asset allocation is one of the most crucial aspects of building a diversified and sustainable portfolio that not only preserves and grows wealth, but also weathers the twists and turns that ever-changing market conditions can throw at it. However, while the average [financial] advisor or investor spends a great deal of time carefully analyzing and picking the right stocks or sectors, the basic and primary task of asset allocation is often overlooked. [According to research by both Wainwright Economics and Ibbotson Associates and the current Dow:gold ratio, allocating a portion of one's portfolio to gold and/or silver and/or platinum is imperative to protect and grow one's financial assets. Let me explain.] Words:1060

It has been put forth that the U.S. dollar will soon lose its position as the world's reserve currency, and that when that happens, the world will fall into a deep depression. Is such an event really likely to unfold? Would such an event be really something to fear? How would/should we prepare for such a presumed collapse?

The resource markets (including gold & silver) are well known for moving in cycles...Raging bull markets & crippling bear markets, repeat. The data doesn’t tell us exactly when gold & silver will enter their respective upcycles, nor how big they will be, but it does tell us this: new bull cycles are coming. Let me explain further.

Where the gold skeptics have their argument wrong is their belief in the almighty dollar. If the U.S. dollar crashed then gold prices would undoubtedly surge as the only credible rival safe haven currency, except perhaps the Swiss franc and the crashing of the U.S. dollar is not an unrealistic expectation. Let me explain.

It’s safe to say that the EU, the U.S., and quite a few other jurisdictions are nearing currency crashes, and in all likelihood, the euro will go before the dollar. When the euro and U.S. dollar fall, however, there is a very sound alternative - and it is NOT gold!

It does not makes sense to expect any major shake-up that would affect the pricing of gold and silver in a major way until at least January 2016 at which time the IMF is scheduled to meet to discuss the possible inclusion of the Chinese RMB in the basket of fiat currencies that make up the constituents of the U.S. Dollar Index. Let me explain why that is the case.

The term ‘safe' fiat currency is as intellectually disingenuous as terms like ‘fair' tax or government 'innovation’ but, as we’ve been exploring recently why modern central banking is completely dysfunctional, it does beg the question– is any currency ‘safe’? Let’s look at the numbers for some data-driven analysis.

Though the river of gold market analysis runs wide and deep on the Internet, precious little of that content is devoted directly to the most basic rationale for gold ownership. Here we fill that void in chart form – a quick reference for the first-time investor.