doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Retirement Strategy

I don't think I could do this with the whole-she-bang but buying a few would be fun. I wonder if he still uses them or they sit in the closet???

Retirement Strategy

Most of us have done this unintentionally.

The market does swing up and down, but guns of good original quality in good condition will never lose value.

The guns I bought more than ten years ago have on average nearly doubled.

Do take advantage of IRA's and 401K's where available because that's deferral of today's taxes (not 'savings' as the genius advisors always say) and likely to pay off in the long term, but once those advantages are exhausted, quality iron is better than most investments.

Besides, it's fun.

It's a flawed strategy based on the imbalance in their personal relationship. It's a demonstration of power over her, not an investment strategy.
"I'm spending MY money on what I want."

The difficulty with hard asset investments, is that you can only sell them once. Most "investors" have little desire to be toting a high grade shotgun around at gun shows when they are 80 trying to pay for their prescriptions.
And even fewer follow an orderly liquidation of their accumulations prior to their death. So, the beneficiary is usually your "friends" with similar interests, as they are the ones that will see to it that your wife is properly screwed after your demise.

It's a lousy strategy. I know, I am there.

The problem is, while a gun's value may increase, the market for medium high-end guns is degraded. There will always be a rich guy to buy a $100K shotgun, but the number who buy $10K guns is less, because those consumers aren't rich, and many of them are out of a job.

The value of a gun, or anything else, is what it will sell for, not an intrinsic value.

Case in point:

A good friend of mine bought an entire collection from the estate of a fiend of his who had passed. The widow had the collection appraised, and my buddy stepped in at the last minute and bought the stuff from under the nose of the appraiser/broker.

The widow received the same amount as had she sold it to the broker they screwed out of the deal. The lot was $25k, +/-. You might say the original guy didn't have a good strategy.

My pal sat on the stuff another 15 years, until he reached about 80 years of age. He then sold it off, one by one, on Gunbroker and netted near $50K. Most of the value was in Colt pistols and Winchester rifles.

He had a better strategy.

CD's are paying 1-3%. Real Estate is depressed in value in some areas and may be depressed for many, many years. Stocks are a crap shoot for most people. Buying guns is more of a crap shoot for most. You have to know what to buy and what a good price to buy it is. Most "investors" will have neither. Just money for a buyer to try to get them to buy "almost" collectible guns for top dollar. A sellers dream come true.

Profits on guns are made on the buy, not on the sale. The sale, to maximize return, should be on the day after the buy, so the money can be recycled on another buy. This is not fun, or a retirement strategy, it is business, a way to make a living. Some people in the business have outrageous collections, but they are sucked out of the business, very little at a time. And the 28%? Fill out the forms and send in the check.

I held a securities license, Series 6, 63 & 26, for about 18 years. I advised good people on where & how to invest their hard earned money. Most of that time I watched them lose money. At the same time I lost money on the same investments. I finally came to realise that investing in the market, whether it be in common stocks, mutual funds, REITs, etc. is a lot like going to Las Vegas except that you don't get free drinks, cheap hotel rooms and floor shows. Over the past fifteen years I invest my little money in guns and land and have never lost with either. That's just my strategy, I'm not recommending it for anyone else. I just wish that I had been doing it for the whole 30-40 years.

Best Regards, George

OK, so some guy buys a collection of firearms for 25K and 15 years later sells it for 50K. His return is just about 5% per annum. And he's had to store and care for the stuff for 15 years. Guys, this is an act of hobby, not investment. It's nice to collect something that you like and then maybe make a few bucks on it when you're done. But if you seriously want to retire off something or live on the returns for the next 20+ years a closet full of guns probably won't do it.

If someone's lost money in the stock market consistently for 18 years something's wrong. Seriously wrong. Any index fund would be way ahead. What is wrong is the entire retail financial industry - it is set up to fleece retail investors and, making exception for present company, financial advisors are an investor's worst enemy. In 50 years' investing I have met only one or two who were both honest and competent. And they only worked with very large portfolios.

The industry is rotten. Don't trust anybody other than yourself and if you can't or don't want to be responsible for your own market investment decisions buy a Vanguard index fund and be happy and play with your hobby.

Where we live is significant with retirement strategies. "Land is the only real estate," my mother would say. We live on the coast in rural Nova Scotia where land is in hot demand, particularly from the US and overseas. Almost everyone with half a mind keeps eyes and ears open because land becomes available from time to time as bargains. A neighbour picked up waterfront for $5,000 and sold it 20 years later for $1,000,000. A Pittsburgh newspaper editor paid $150,000 for land my mother bought for $4,000. Real estate is where it's at for those of us with day jobs.