I agree.  

It has taken the wife and I years to get to a place where we are finally somewhat secure with a healthy savings.  Along with .gov retirement I invest in extra deferred comp but only a very small percent.  If the dollar goes belly up it won't matter where my cash is, savings, retirement, 401K, I honestly feel it will all be compromised.  The best I can do is a little of everything.  The only real way to secure wealth is in precious metals, and/or hard assets, but you have to be able to secure those as well.  You also have to wait post event to "cash in."  I know I am not in a place to bother with silver and gold, I would rather pay my mortgage off first.  Having good down to earth basic skill sets, and a strong mind will be key for most situations.  A few extra preps won't hurt ether.

Financial collapse aside I also think enjoying life is very important, because if your not doing that what's the point?  What's the point of save-save-save-save-invest-save if your not having any fun.  Of course there are happy mediums and balance to all but I am sure as hell going to enjoy pizza and wings with a cold beer on occasion vs saving every penny just to "prep."

If your to the point of investment, which I like most am not, I would think putting a few penny's in every piggy bank you have access to would be a good start (metaphorically speaking.) -Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.

 Updated at the beginning of the thread.

People really should not feel bad about their financial positions.  All the time young guys on the Arf compare their place in life at age 25 to that of their grandpas.  It's apples to oranges because the at-interest currency we are forced to use is designed to steal our wealth.  That is it's purpose, and that of the Federal Reserve.

The question I always have when I read these discussions is the effect the galactic sized black hole in the market from derivatives and similar securities.

From an individual who is not an investment professional observations are that amount of fake money greatly dwarfs all real currency in existence. Add in all of the debt both personal, business and government which is at all time highs.

These are all deflationary in nature.  In the land of the broke, the man with a buck is king. In fact inflation and the much stressed inflationary scenarios often discussed here can be effected by raising interest rates which makes having cash, bonds etc more lucrative options.

I have kind of arrived at a belief that deflation is more likely than inflation, unless there is a global dump of the dollar. Which would need a viable competitor, which i don't see right now. Again just observations from someone who looks at the numbers and weighed things against each other. I suspect no one really knows what's going to happen.

This is really going to pound people retiring in the next 10 years or so. I am not in that group so I just an staying in the market dollar cost averaging when I can while having food, water, and the usual covered and ready to go.

I would love someone smarter than me to explain how I am wrong.

Some commentators like Maloney and Rickards feels deflation precedes the hyper-inflation which will come.  As for replacement of the federal reserve note, the latter believes it is the IMF's SDR.

Mebbe, mobbe not.  If the people wake up (ha ha) and realize how wealth has been stolen from them, then they will reject the solution offered by the very institution that created this mess: the central banks.  

Regardless of what happens after the dollar's demise, we will see a period where barter and even local currency will arise (perhaps even bitcoin and ehterium (sp) and other crypto-currencies).  PMs will play a role too.

 A derivative contract for say a million dollar security isn't actually about the million.  Two people might make a $40,000 bet that the security goes left or right, up or down, etc.  The $40k is up for grabs, not the million. So the derivatives market looks like it represents more currency than exists.  Not true.

There is much confusion between inflation and rising prices, and us financial people being sloppy with definitions doesn't help.  Inflation is the increase in the supply of the currency. That isn't going down, and the Fed says it will keep going up.  Since they love to print currency into oblivion, we should probably take them at their word on that one.

Prices can fall in the face of inflation; like with TVs and cell-phones (and everything else that moves too fast for .gov to hamstring).  But, most prices rise as inflation outpaces population growth, no doubt about it.

An extreme drop in prices (not deflation) can precipitate hyper-inflation, but does it matter?  If it happens, it wont last too long before they run the presses out full-tilt.  Maybe only a few years.  It doesn't change the long term investment strategy because a) it may or may not happen and b) if it does, it's too hard to time.