Precious Metals

Man, it's been a while since I posted. Lots of news and it will take a few posts to catch up.

Silver and precious metals have been on fire.

Silver is up over 60% this year with inflation fears and the fed destroying the American dollar buy running the printing presses at full throttle.

Silver closed today at $27.33 an ounce. Gold at $1354.

Silver American Eagles are running at over $31 ( I bought some last month at a little over $28).

I like owning silver bullion. I get some satisfaction of being able to hold real value in my hand. Definetly more rewarding then a paper asset. I plan on adding more PM's but will look to do this on dips. I have my eye on 90% silver coins. Currently going for $2k for $100 face generic bag.

Dont fight the fed

Funny (and very sad) video on QE2:

GE raises dividend 20%

Good news on Friday as GE unexpectedly raised their dividend 20% from $.10 to $.12 per share.

My GE annual dividend income jumped from $214.13 to $256.96.

GE climbed 3.29% to close at $15.71.

Critical Mass

I was been thinking about this today. I will call it critical mass. I actually picked up this term from another blog I read last night:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/2010/03/money-goals-and-score-keeping.html

Anyways, this is the point where you are making more- or just as much money from your investments each year as you do at your job.

I think of it as a rolling avalanche behind you and it rapidly picks up more speed every year.

I think once you hit this milestone, you can take the short ticket to retirement..its not too far off. At least you can slow down a little. You have this compounding monster behind you growing bigger and bigger.

How much is critical mass?

I think it is $500,000 in investable assets not including your own home.

I am going to include 401k and retirement in this number, though my opinion may change down the road.

If wealth building is your goal, I think one should try to reach this as fast as possible. If one reaches before 40, I think you can retire by 50.

It's like the old saying- the first million is always the hardest. After you have the first million..the second is much easier.