"In 2004 I read the writing on the wall that the Fed induced low interest rates were going to come to an end, and my business (mostly doing “no cost refinances”) would dry up to almost nothing. I was right, and it wasn’t rocket science. I had been through the jump in interest rates in 1994 which destroyed my business and my income for about 2.5 years.
" During this time I started to study money. I discovered that gold is real money, and that gold is a hedge for a falling US dollar. I learned that the US dollar had been declining since 2001 in the Forex markets and is likely to continue to decline. I learned that gold prices had gone up at the same time from a low of about $256 an ounce in 2001 to about $375 (a few years ago) and $833 today (all easily tracked at www.kitco.com ). In 2004 I jumped in head-first into buying gold and silver coins, and gold and silver stocks. And my portfolio has more than tripled during the same time that the lending industry has crashed and burned. I never could have done it without the capital generated (earned) by my years as a loan officer. That portfolio is now the source of 99% of my liquid assets, not my job as a loan officer which I have all but given up (having done just three loans in 2007, my heart is not in it anymore.) Over the next three years gold is likely to go up 100% or more, while Real Estate is likely to decline up to say 20-30%. To me it is as clear as the nose on my face which is the better investment.
"I know that few people will listen to me, and that most people do not take precious metals seriously as an investment, but that is what I have done to fly away from the lending industry rather than crash and burn like most of my colleagues."
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