Gold 401K

What are the safest investments in an crashing dollar, hyperinflation environment?

…if that is where we are headed. Are ANY 401k-type investments safe in this type of environment? I could switch to a 100% international fund but wouldn’t that still be tied to the US dollar? Is it possible for our dollar to crash yet these foreign investments would actually increase in value enough to offset the dropping effect of the US dollar? What about precious metal IRA’s? Would those be any safer?

I won’t argue your hypotheses. I think you’re just guessing, but any argument on my part would be guesswork, too.

You can safely protect against inflation by buying Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS. These are government bonds which adjust along with inflation. Whether they adjust enough is an open question. If you can’t invest in individual TIPS, try the ETF whose symbol is TIP.

And certainly you can reallocate to international funds. Why not? I have over half my investments outside the US, and those investments have been doing much better than domestic investments. China and Brazil may be over, maybe Canada is still strong… but you need to do your own research to decide where to invest. Some will say it’s time to get back into emerging markets, but IMHO, that’s about as risky as US stocks at this point.

If the dollar really “crashes” as you say, then all bets are off. Even safe harbors like money market funds will sink. But the government won’t let that happen. They’ll pick one of your pockets and put the money in another pocket. After taking a cut, of course.

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