Jul 17 2009 3:24PM

It’s time for real investors to indulge their financial lust.

One of the inexorable investment laws is “buy low, sell high.” Silver and gold have seen sharp dips in the last few days. Silver is now a lot better buy at $12.80 than it was over $15 awhile ago. If your holdings have dipped, think of this as an opportunity to buy more.

When silver goes to $25 an ounce, everyone, including many of my subscribers will want some, and I will get emails from some people asking, “Isn’t silver too high?”

Silver bought at any price under $30 will be the buy of the century, and some day you will brag about how smart you were. $12.80 is a lot better than $30. I hope that silver stays down for a while so my new subscribers have a chance to get in cheaply.

Don’t give up the ship! Buy, buy, buy!

Real Estate

A thoughtful email from a man asked me if we should buy real estate now.

The decision to buy or not to buy real estate has several factors:

1. Now could be a great time to buy a home. If you buy a foreclosed property, you can get a good price and a very low interest rate. It may go lower later, but you should be able to drive a real bargain. 

Buying a home to live in, buying may be a fine idea.

2. There are two factors to consider when buying real estate:
   1. the price of the property;
   2. the interest rate. Interest rates are near all-time lows, and a sharp buyer can find some real bargains.
      
      
3. This is not the time to speculate on real estate, either residential, commercial or industrial, unless you drive some real hard bargains. Investment real estate will not bottom out for one or two years.

Inflation hedges are only a good deal if you can buy them cheap enough. A good inflation hedge should go up, not down or sideways.
In the inflation of the ‘70s, I recommended real estate as an inflation hedge. Even though interest was going through the ceiling, prices weren’t out of proportion.

Someday I will consider residential and commercial real estate as inflation hedges, but not yet.

What do you about real-estate loans? Should you pay them off now, or should you pay it off later with diminished dollars when inflation takes off.
Managing real estate debt is pretty simple:

1. Only used fixed-rate, 30-year mortgages. Some day you may pay it off with money that’s worth a lot less than the dollars you used to buy the property.
   
   
2. Whether or not you buy real estate depends on why you bought it. Did you buy it as an investment or a home? A home is your castle for your family, and everyone should own one. Now is a good time to buy if you shop wisely and drive hard bargains.

By Howard Ruff
The Ruff Times

*****

Howard J. Ruff, the legendary author and financial advisor, has re-edited and re-issued his 1978 mega best seller, How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years, still the biggest-selling financial book in history, with 2.6 million copies in print. He is founder and editor of The Ruff Times financial newsletter. This article is from a recent issue of The Ruff Times. The newsletter is much more comprehensive and deals with a broad spectrum of middle-class financial issues and includes an Investment Menu from which you can build your portfolio. (You can learn about it here). The Ruff Times has served more than 600,000 subscribers – more than any financial-advisory newsletter in the world. His updated and revised book, How to Prosper During the Coming Bad Years in the 21st Century. You can get it free when you subscribe to The Ruff Times (www.rufftimes.com), or if you buy the book at your favorite bookstore, you can deduct $10 from the subscription price.