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Despite its ups and downs, the U.S. stock market has long been a go-to destination for investors, with the benchmark S&P 500 delivering a total return of more than 90% over the past five years. Yet investing legend Jim Rogers isn’t feeling optimistic — far from it.
“I sold all my U.S. stocks recently, because I’ve seen this party before,” he said in an interview with Wealthion (1). “You see a lot of new people talking about how much fun it is, how easy it is … I hope it stays easy to make money for lots of people for the rest of history — [but it] never has.”
One problem he highlighted is the sheer size of America’s debt.
“The U.S. is the largest debtor nation in the history of the world. And I sit and look at the numbers, and I say, can’t they read in Washington? Don’t they know what’s happening?”
According to Treasury Department data, the U.S. national debt now stands at $38.3 trillion (2).
Rogers also warned that even the Federal Reserve “doesn’t have unlimited amounts of money that can save us all,” adding that the central bank “usually makes things worse.”
His suggestion? Tread carefully.
“My advice is, be very, very careful wherever you think about investing. This is a rare time in investing history,” he stated.
Similarly, Goldman Sachs CEO, David Solomon, cautioned investors to brace for a drawdown on stocks over the next two years at the Global Financial Leaders’ Investment Summit in November (3).
“It’s likely there’ll be a 10% to 20% drawdown in equity markets sometime in the next 12 to 24 months,” Solomon said. “Things run, and then they pull back so people can reassess.”
If you share their concerns, here’s a look at a few strategies to help protect yourself.
Rogers finds refuge in precious metals.
“I own a lot of gold and silver,” he said. “I am not a seller of gold and silver. I hope that someday my children have all the gold and silver, because I don’t see any reason for any human being to sell gold and silver in the 21st century.”
Gold and silver have long been considered popular hedges against inflation. Unlike fiat currency, these metals cannot be printed in unlimited quantities by central banks.
At the same time, investors often look to these metals amid market volatility and global instability, as their value isn’t tied to any specific country, currency or economy.
What’s more, in just the last 12 months, the price of gold has surged by over 60% during a historic bull run (4).
One way to take advantage of gold while leveraging significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Priority Gold.
Gold IRAs allow investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, which combines the tax advantages of an IRA with the inflation-hedging benefits of precious metals. This can make it an attractive option for those seeking to protect their retirement funds against economic uncertainties.
To learn more, you can request a free information guide that includes details on how to get up to $10,000 in free silver on qualifying purchases. Just keep in mind that gold is often best used as just one part of a well-diversified portfolio.
Like stocks, real estate has its cycles too, but real estate doesn’t require a bull market to earn returns.
Even during a recession, high-quality, essential real estate can continue to produce passive income through rent. In other words, you don’t have to wait for prices to rise to see a payoff — the asset itself can work for you.
Legendary investor Warren Buffett has often pointed to real estate as a prime example of a productive, income-generating asset.
In 2022, Buffett stated at an annual shareholders meeting that if you offered him “1% of all the apartment houses in the country” for $25 billion, he would “write you a check.”
Traditionally, investing in real estate meant buying property and becoming a landlord. But new investing platforms are making it easier than ever to tap into the real estate market — and without a 30-year mortgage commitment or contending with midnight maintenance calls.
For instance, Mogul is a real estate investment platform offering fractional ownership in blue-chip rental properties. That means you can get monthly rental income, ongoing appreciation and tax benefits on your investment — no hefty down payment needed.
Founded by former Goldman Sachs real estate investors, the team hand-picks institutional-quality offerings: the top 1% of single-family rental homes nationwide, which you can then invest in for a fraction of the usual cost.
Each property undergoes a vetting process, requiring a minimum 12% return even in downside scenarios. Across the board, the platform features an average annual IRR of 18.8%. Their cash-on-cash yields, meanwhile, average between 10% to 12% annually. Offerings often sell out in under three hours, with investments typically ranging between $15,000 and $40,000 per property.
Each property is held in a standalone Propco LLC, so investors — not the platform — actually own the property. Blockchain-based fractionalization adds a layer of safety, ensuring a permanent, verifiable record of each stake.
Getting started is a quick and easy process. You can sign up for an account and then browse available properties. Once you verify your information with their team, you can invest like a mogul in just a few clicks.
Fed Powell is giving his opening remarks and says:Purchase of shorter-term securities to support effective control of policy rates.Consumer spending solid, business fixed investment...
