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I am a systems thinker. It’s how I see the world and I want to help others see it this way too.
Everything connects to everything else. It’s all interlinked. One cannot possibly hope to have an informed opinion about the economy without knowing how that complex system rests upon and interacts with energy, itself another complex system. Each of those is also a subset of the ecological or environmental systems, themselves composed of innumerable nested complex systems.
Energy is THE master resource and oil is the king of the land of energy. As goes oil, so goes literally everything.
This is a difficult concept for many people to accept because they have grown up in a world that teaches linear thinking and which has been so steeped in abundant energy for so long that, like a fish and water, it’s too pervasive to detect.
So, let’s take a look at the actual situation at hand. Inventories are too low, investment in oil & gas has been too low, and the world is shunning Russian oil and gas at a very bad moment in time.
Further, inflation is scorchingly hot and rising, while interest rates are spiking. Nobody seems to be in charge, and nobody in power is displaying any sort of appropriate context or leadership.
Add it all up, and the threats to our current and future prosperity are overwhelming. We’re going to be taking hits. If we’re lucky the financial system won’t implode taking a big swath of the economy along with it.
I talk about all that and end by encouraging everyone to get prepared and as resilient as possible.
Buying precious metals is not as easy or intuitive as many people might think. I originally wrote this guide more than 10 years ago certain that before long the media and Wall Street would eventually do a much better job explaining precious metals and demystifying the purchase process to investors.
But that hasn’t happened. So, if you feel particularly uninformed, there’s a reason for that. Best guess, Wall Street would prefer that you remain “in the market” buying their paper-based wares such as stocks and bonds while skimming their cuts along the way.
So, in the spirit of helping you buy your first gold or silver, here is the latest version of the original Gold and Silver Buying Guide I last updated in 2018.
I remember buying my first gold in 2001. When it showed up mostly covered in stamps (insured, of course) I was taken aback that so much wealth was contained in a surprisingly small but heavy package. Once I held my first coin in my hands, I was hooked. Something universally primal was triggered. Holding physical, concentrated wealth is an unmistakable sensation. It’s real and tangible.
But first, a legal disclaimer:
Nothing in this document constitutes personal financial advice. Always consult with a professional financial advisor before taking any big steps. While we may endorse some strategies and companies we like, it is expected that you will conduct your own due diligence before investing your money. We’ve done our best to screen every promoted company for great service and competitive prices, but you may find better options on your own and we heartily encourage you to work with whomever you prefer.
I do care about one thing, however: that you get some gold and silver by whatever means (legally)! A local coin shop in town, or a single coin from a friend? Whatever works best to get you started on the correct path.
What’s The Cliff-Notes Version of This Tutorial?
Build an emergency stash of gold and silver immediately if you don’t have any.
Focus on owning much more silver by weight.
Buy well-recognized coins and bars (Eagles, Krugerrands, etc.).
Use GoldSilver.com for physical purchases (Mike Maloney is a good friend, and Peak Prosperity has an affiliate relationship).
Hide them carefully, don’t tell anyone, and leave a treasure map somewhere just in case.
Decide how much total asset exposure you want to precious metals, then make a plan to obtain it.
Use Hard Assets Alliance for larger purchases to be professionally and securely vaulted and stored.
Invest in mining stocks and other leveraged plays only after you’ve built up your physical positions. This really requires some help from your financial advisor. (More on that in a different article.)
The Simple Strategy
Everyone who buys insurance should consider gold and silver an economic policy. Don’t try and pick a day when the price seems best, just do it. And don’t stress the prices, you’re buying for the long-haul because if our world goes sideways, today’s prices will be meaningless.
Start buying your insurance today and keep at it until your insurance portfolio of physical gold and silver has met your personal target(s).
Many people buy both gold and silver. So, the first question is “how much of each?”
Keeping it simple, you might invest a similar, 50:50, dollar value in each. Which means that on an ounce-by-ounce basis you’ll end up with 80 times as much silver as gold (based on the 2022 ratio of 80:1 for silver to gold). But on a dollar-for-dollar basis, they will be the same amount.
Personally? I have a 2/3rd to 1/3rd ratio of gold to silver, but some people have more silver than gold. It’s a matter of personal preference.
Why Precious Metals?
During tough times, fiat money loses value. Always. Today, the inflation we’re experiencing is the real-life process of our dollars (fiat money) losing buying power (value). It’s not “gold becoming more expensive” as the media tries to paint it, but a case of each dollar being able to buy less and less gold (or silver or food) over time.
History is replete with examples of nations going bankrupt and their paper (fiat) money becoming worthless. Germany post World War I is an iconic example. The alternative and safe bet is always precious metals. They always have value. In every period throughout history, gold and silver have had value which has been remarkably stable. It is often said that an ounce of gold would buy a rocking toga in Roman times and today it would get you a killer Italian suit. That’s what we mean by stable.
If you have a decent financial advisor, they should tell you having some physical gold or silver is a good way to diversify your portfolio. If they don’t…fire them.
Now, there are two terms to keep in mind:
Bullion is the most common term for coins and bars.
Sovereigns are government-minted coins that also are the most recognized around the world.
I recommend you start by buying bullion in the form of sovereigns. Why sovereigns? Because trying to convince someone to sell you food or fuel in exchange for your company’s anniversary gold coin will be more difficult than making an exchange with coins a merchant is familiar with.
The most recognizable are the American Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, South African Krugerrand and the British Sovereign. There are plenty more like the Austrian Philharmonic or Australian Kangaroo, but they are not as prevalent in most countries.
For simplicity and purchasing options, buy in small one-ounce portions like the coins pictured here. It’s just too impracticable to make change with a gold bar.
Also, the popularity of sovereigns makes it easy for dealers to spot a fake, which is especially popular with increasing concern over China’s amazing forgery talents.
Here are four ways to perform tests for real gold or silver three of which can be done at home rather easily. Yes, there’s an app for that.
How to tell if gold is real, from the Money Metals Exchange:
And here’s a more in-depth look at a professional device, the Sigma Metalytics Gold and Silver Verifier:
Measurements Matter
Bullion is measured in ounces, but it’s not same ounces your kitchen scale measurements. Precious metals are measured in a “troy ounce” which is 9.7% heavier than a regular ounce. One troy ounce = 1.09714286 ounces. In metric terms, a regular ounce is 28.35 grams and a troy ounce is 31.10 grams.
To complicate things further, some gold coins are pure gold (24 carats, or 0.999 pure) and the rest are alloyed with silver (or copper in the case of Krugerrands giving them their distinctive reddish tint). So, they will weigh even more than a troy ounce because of that additional weight.
When you buy an ounce of gold bullion, you are getting a troy ounce of gold. Here’s an example:
Gold is a soft metal. Other metals are infused into the gold to give it strength. The Krugerrand includes copper to give it the beautiful coloring.
Why Does The “Spot” Price Differ From The Store Price?
When the price of gold is quoted on TV it is always the “spot” price that one would pay at that very moment (on the spot) if one were able to buy a 400-ounce bar of gold directly from the COMEX exchange which virtually nobody can actually do logistically or financially. After all, 400 ounces at $2,000 an ounce is an $800,000 bar.
Someone has to buy that huge bar, process it, turn it into 400 separate coin “blanks” and then stamp them into the beautiful shapes we see above. Which means that you and I will always pay more than “spot price” for an ounce of gold because manufacturing and storage costs are included in our price. Like any business, everybody in the precious metals supply chain has costs to absorb and deserves to make a profit.
The total price above the spot is the “premium” we’ll pay. Luckily, the industry is highly competitive in the U.S. and so the premium we’d typically pay during calm periods is between 1% and 5% above spot for one ounce gold coins (other countries with VAT taxes have wildly different experiences with this, sorry to say). Silver tends to be a lot higher on a percentage basis because of the high cost of processing relative to the value of the intrinsic metal in each coin.
In general, if you buy 1 oz. sovereign coins, you’re in the sweet spot for affordability. You also should be aware that the smaller you go in coin weights, the more processing there is per coin, which translates into a higher premium. For example, the premium for teensy-tiny one gram bullion bars will be in the vicinity of 30% or more over spot. As an example, if spot gold were $2,000 per ounce, a one-gram bar might cost an additional $85 representing a 31% premium over spot.
Don’t Buy Numismatic Coins for Your Bullion Strategy
According to Websters, numismatic means the study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money and sometimes related objects (such as medals). In short, numismatic coins are bullion collectibles no longer in circulation. The bulk of their value rests with their rarity, not their gold or silver content.
While that rarity premium is a downside, the potential upside is that historically, at least in the U.S., the government has not confiscated numismatics.
I find them to be beautiful and attractive and certainly understand their allure.
Here are a few U.S. examples:
However, steer clear of numismatics as a part of your bullion strategy because in a crisis such coins are likely to be valued only on the basis of their gold content and none of the collectible premium you paid. In short, you’ll lose money on that premium.
If you do contact a gold dealer and they try to steer you towards numismatics, my advice is to run and scratch them off your trusted list.
Silver’s Role in My Insurance Plan
I personally prefer silver over gold at this point of the story. Roughly, at the time of this writing, gold costs 80 times as much per ounce as silver. That’s an extreme difference historically speaking and I expect silver to do better over time than gold as it “catches up” with the price of gold.
I also happen to have gobs of data to suggest that the price of silver is a plaything of Wall Street firms and is heavily rigged by them to keep the price down. Why do they do this? Because they can, and because they make money doing it. Part of me is annoyed at the games and rigged markets Wall Street revels in. The other part of me enjoys buying silver at these discount sales Wall Street manufactures from time to time.
However, price suppression has a deeper cost, and that happens to be throttled output as new mines are not brought online because prices are too low. If, as they say, the cure for higher prices is high prices (meaning high prices encourage new supply to come to market) then the corollary is that low prices are the cause of low supplies. So, I am extremely bullish on the imminent shortages of silver that I see in the future.
Further, silver isn’t like gold. Gold is mined and then it sits in guarded metal boxes being traded over and over again. Gold is money. That’s its use. Silver is money, or it could be money again I should say, but it is mainly an industrial metal. That means it is mined, used and only partially recycled, with the remaining balance forever disbursed into landfills the world over. In other words, it is both depleted and depleting from the world. So, I happen to own quite a lot of physical silver.
You have many options to consider when buying silver. First, how much do you want to hold yourself? In which forms? How much can you store at home given how bulky it is. How much would you prefer to be held in a vault for you somewhere?
The basic forms are bars and coins with both government-issued and private mint options. Again, as with gold, there will be a premium over spot and with silver it is often a lot higher than gold.
Sovereign silver coins such as the American Silver Eagle and the Canadian Maple Leaf typically have the highest premium over spot.
Private mints make a wide variety of coins, called “rounds” and various assorted bars ranging in size from 1 oz. to several kilograms. Again, less popular “brands” will be less recognizable by dealers and the average person, and you might be forced sell them at a discount (or perhaps, not at all).
One of your best silver options is to purchase pre-1964 U.S. coins (quarters, dimes, etc.), also called “junk silver”. Back in the day, the government minted our coins with 90% silver. It’s a much cheaper option and if you’re bartering with silver, you literally have change you can use versus bars or larger coins.
Besides having smaller increments to buy smaller products, if you need to use pre-1964 coins, remember they are worth much more than a quarter, dime or half-dollar. You can monitor their real (intrinsic silver) value at Coinflation.com.
I have quite a bit of junk silver with the idea that it might become useful to help re-start our local economy if/when the dollar fails. However, if you attempt to sell junk silver during a recession, dealers will offer less because of the difficulty of them being able to sell the coins to refiners.
It’s Silver and Gold, not Silverandgold
Sometimes people say “silver and gold” as if it were one word expressing once concept. Silverandgold.
I prefer to think of them as entirely different metals with entirely different investment theses. Gold is a monetary metal. It is not used industrially to any notable degree, and really has one, singular use; it is money.
I hold gold because of that quality. I believe that fiat currencies are going to bankrupt themselves as they always do because they are driven by human whim. Will gold eventually come back as money? I believe it will, as it always has.
Silver, on the other hand, is an industrial metal. It is mined and consumed. I buy silver because of its rare qualities. On the period table of elements, it is the most reflective and the most conductive of any element. It also has the highest thermal conductivity.
This trio of amazing qualities assures that silver will be sought after for industrial purposes for as long as there is industry to make use of it.
It is also being mined and lost molecule-by-molecule back into the soils and oceans of the world. This dispersion of silver assures that there is effectively less and less of it each year for we humans to eventually get our hands on in useful form. Mines are depleting with every passing year.
Add all that up and we have a rare industrial metal element that is prized for its amazing qualities which is depleting rapidly from the earth’s crust. And that’s why I hold silver. It’s my “Rip Van Winkle” holding. Wake me up in 20 years with just one asset from my entire collection and I’d pick silver to be that thing.
So, it’s not silverandgold. It’s silver and gold.
How Much Should I Store for Emergencies?
I am a terrible person to ask because I have an insanely unsupportable over-exposure to gold and silver in my portfolio. Think “over 50%” and you are headed in the right direction.
You want enough to survive over a long period of time, but without needing a vault and an armed guard. And by all means, do not watch the prices. Remember, this is about survival in a crisis.
One good thought on value, precious metals aren’t popular products in the vast majority of homes. So, a little will go a long way.
Who Should I Trust to Buy Gold and Silver?
Peak Prosperity endorses several firms, all of which we trust will treat you well and give you high-quality service. For buying physical gold and silver, my good friend Mike Maloney has built an exceptional company in GoldSilver.com. We have an affiliate relationship with them which means some of their profits flow to us, without costing you a penny extra. We also have endorsed Hard Assets Alliance for many years, have an affiliate relationship, and will explain more about them below.
An affiliate relationship allows companies like Peak Prosperity to earn a small percentage from each sale we generate for a partner company without costing our readers anything extra.
Whether you use these or a different online or local firm, my advice is to deal with a firm that has been in business for years – ideally a decade or more – and has a well-respected brand. These firms have a reputation to protect, and thus will be less likely to gouge you, sell you inferior product, or do anything shady/illegal.
There should be no product quality difference whether you buy sovereign coins from a local or an online store. But there is an important advantage to buying from a local dealer: the relationship.
It can be highly valuable to have a local dealer who knows who you are, values your patronage and knows they have sold you good products. In a time of panic, bullion supply can quickly dry up, as it did in supreme fashion in 1980, when coin shops had lines around the block of people desperate to exchange their dollars for gold. In that kind of limited inventory environment, being on a dealer’s “preferred customer” list – getting first access to restricted supply if you want to buy more, or receiving discrete VIP treatment should you want to sell – will be a tremendous advantage.
If instead, you prefer to purchase online, as I tend to do, there are many good merchants out there and a few questionable ones.
Bullion Stored for You (at Hard Asset Alliance)
For many investors, bullion storage companies can be a good fit.
Peak Prosperity has, for years, endorsed solutions like the Hard Assets Alliance. (Again, Peak Prosperity has an affiliate relationship with HAA. They share some of their revenues with us for directing customers their way, without costing customers anything. Our Peak Prosperity Insiders and VIPs can secure their first six months of storage completely free, another benefit to our higher tier members.)
You can purchase gold and silver through HAA at competitive prices, and they will store it for you in a high-security vault in one of several locations. HAA also will sell small amounts of precious metals and ship them directly to you.
What’s really cool is that your vaulted contents are insured in bullion. It’s a one-for-one replacement.
In terms of storage options, the HAA holds any precious metals you buy in your name. By definition, this is called “allocated” storage. It’s yours alone.
An example of allocated storage (not an HAA vault room).
Allocated means a specific bar with a specific serial number, or a set number of coins on a specific shelf, are legally allocated to a specific owner: you. If it’s “unallocated” it means your sharing the bullion with others. When using a storage company, definitely choose allocated solutions over unallocated ones.
Also, the vaulting company should be routinely audited by third parties at least once a year. HAA goes further than that: “The contents of each vault we use are audited daily by the provider and reconciled with HAA records. Every movement in and out is meticulously logged and tracked on camera. At least twice each year, the vault is independently audited by an internationally recognized auditing firm that specializes in precious metals.”
When doing business with HAA, rest assured that it offers excellent pricing because it uses Gold Bullion International’s industrial-grade platform, and a minimum of four dealers compete for your business.
They also offer a “worry-free” automated purchasing program that lets you create a set-it-and-forget-it plan for accumulating bullion over time. This lets you tap the power of dollar-cost-averaging without having to actively manage the process.
In addition, HAA will ship it to you with a click of your mouse.
Should I Store Bullion at Home?
You might, but if you do, keep it a secret. Because I have a very public persona, I keep all of mine offsite in a combination of safety deposit boxes and vaulting solutions. But some people prefer the closeness of keeping it…within reach.
Obvious storage options are a safe in your house, or somewhere more imaginative.
Gold is a highly concentrated form of wealth. You can easily wrap your hand around $50,000 of the bullion. Such tiny volumes can be hidden almost anywhere. Again TELL NO ONE what you own. The fewer people who suspect you have any gold, the lower your risk of robbery, or jealous family members wanting a loan.
One real concern though is that many insurance policies do not cover large amounts of bullion. Or possibly any at all. If you are counting on insurance in any way shape or form, you should spend a little bit of time investigating your policy and its limits.
If you do stash any wealth away in a hard-to-find spot, be sure to write down instructions to that stash where a loved one can find it should you unexpectedly pass or you are away from home and need to tell someone where to find it.
Or be sure to place it with an aluminum dog tag with your name on it in case you forget where you buried it. That way, when it is unearthed in 1,000 years and placed in a museum, the displayed hoard may carry your name.
Obviously, bank safety deposit boxes are generally safer. However, if banks close during a financial crisis, you’re out of luck. Some will tell you that in 1933 the U.S. confiscated gold and forced people to open their safety deposit boxes in the presence of a Treasury agent who would seize any gold coinage or bars found therein.
While true, it is also true that in 1933 gold WAS money. Today, that’s not the case and so we don’t anticipate a repeat seizure episode. If or when gold is once again made into sovereign money we will reevaluate this position, but for now it’s not a concern of ours.
Act Before It’s Too Late
My concern? The market realities: when the big money decides to buy gold and silver, you and I will be effectively shut out. Quoted prices will skyrocket, and there simply won’t be any available supply. By the time there is, the price will move up even more locking out all the late and smaller entrants.
I’m old enough to have experienced three periods when the retail silver market completely ran out of supply leading to wait times of between six to eight weeks for product. And that was with only us few devoted retail players involved (aka “silver bugs”).
When (not if) the big money and the general hordes of the buying public arrive, the world of gold and silver will prove to be too small to accommodate them all. As they say, the doorways will get clogged. You can expect long frustrating delays to get your hands on any gold or silver, and that’s if you can find any to secure at all.
That future world will consist of those who pre-positioned themselves and those who didn’t (but wish they had). The haves and the have nots.
Maybe the most important concern: a crisis is not guaranteed to go slow. If it happens, and you’re trying to make a decision, and haven’t yet eo knowstablished a banking line with a precious metals company, you and your loved ones may be out of luck…in ways we don’t want to ponder.
Is it important that we find out whether SAR-CoV-2 originated from a natural source or due to human activity in a lab?
Of course it is!
The solutions you need to apply to each source are entirely different. Getting this right is important for all sorts of reasons. Not least of those reasons is that millions of lives were lost and billions of lives were upended as a consequence.
You’d think the media would be all over this story and exceptionally interested in getting to the bottom of it all. But, you’d be wrong.
Instead, the media not only ignored the lab leak angle for over a year, they demonized anybody who dared to explore that option. As a result, they gave far more credence to the natural origin story and failed to correct their many mistakes. Now the NYTimes is clearly, obviously committed to promoting the “natural origin” angle above any other possibilities. You might want to ask yourself why that is…?
To me, the data is thick and rich and increasingly and overwhelmingly points to SARS-CoV-2 having arisen as a result of human efforts in a lab.
So, what does the New York Times do in the face of all that evidence? They pounce on a couple of pre-print papers written largely by the same scientist already caught up in the Fauci-email cover-up scandal, and then completely fail to point out that massive conflict of interest to its readers. How was that left out? Again, you might ask yourself how that ‘oversight’ might have occurred…?
This was terrible journalism, worse science reporting, and the pre-prints themselves prove absolutely nothing at all. They fail to advance science in any way. All in all, a big fat “F” for all involved.
Alina Chan Map:
I'm still working through these preprints, but another problem is that their maps don't point out the location of the Wuhan CDC and the main Wuhan hospitals. One could easily argue that these were the epicenter of the outbreak as opposed to the Huanan market.
As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, we’re between stories. The old story based on endless growth, on a finite planet, forever kicking the fiscal can down the road, and generally acting as if prosperity was an assured right of existence, is winding down.
We’re now in the awkward interregnum between old and new stories. While we can’t totally predict the new story, we can safely say the old one is dead, it just doesn’t entirely know it yet.
Perhaps the biggest financial story of our lives is now unfolding, and it concerns the end of the petrodollar and its cycling as part of the economic and fiscal firmament. So, I discuss that in this video in some more depth.
As well, the covid narrative is entirely breaking down and thus the powers that be (which is the media/political axis) furiously redirected people’s attention to the horrors of the Ukraine invasion. Yes, this is the same media that still can’t manage to cover the ongoing horrors in Syria or Yemen, or any of a half dozen other horror shows currently running.
But the data mounts: the vaccines wear off quickly, meaning they aren’t really effective; and, they definitely aren’t safe. The powers that be are obviously fearful of that becoming common knowledge.
Add it all up, and we’re at the beginning of the end. The old story is over. Those still clinging to the old story are destined for a really rough ride because they are trying to return to something which is already dead and cannot be resurrected.
The U.S. dollar is at the beginning of the end of its long and storied moment in the sun. The U.S. empire is on the same exact trajectory.
But, there’s always a new story, and the trick to life is to be there helping to midwife the new into our world, as that’s both fulfilling and exciting.
We all know our bodies have an incredible ability to heal themselves. With the right ingredients, humans can handle most of life’s daily obstacles and even prevent some from ever happening in the first place!
To properly function though, we must consume clean water and well-balanced meals on regular schedules with enough rest time for the body to easily ingest, process, and detox. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to overwork or stress out your system. But when you learn exactly what your body needs, you can make yourself incredibly resilient.
Maximizing nutrition not only gives your body optimal support to live a long healthy life, but it also gives you more energy and mental capabilities.
Understanding what your body needs to thrive, not just survive, will keep you moving forward in your journey towards peak health so that you can live up to your full potential and be responsibly engaged in the world.
The author and her dog.
The human body has hundreds of metabolic pathways that make up what the majority of society calls a metabolism. Through these pathways, your body regulates literally everything. This system has a profound effect on your thoughts, movement, and senses. We’ve all heard that you are what you eat, but what if you’re not eating enough – then you’re not enough?
What if enough has more to do with quality than quantity? Let’s start with the basics: air, water, light, and food. Like plants, humans need a sufficient amount of clean fuel to regulate their bodies between feedings.
Air
Who would have thought that our most abundant resources are the hardest to keep clean?
Climate change and pollution are only making this worse. We once thought that we could get fresh air by stepping outside, but time spent outdoors in many parts of the world is dangerous to our health over time, according to climatecentral.org:
“Exposure to high levels of ozone has long been known to have serious health consequences, especially for children, the elderly, people with cardiovascular or lung diseases, and for those who work outside. Recent research also shows that low levels of ozone exposure can be hazardous for anyone spending time outdoors.”
Depending on where you live, you can either take a hike or invest in cleaning your home for better air quality. After an asthmatic childhood under doctors’ orders, a BA in healthcare administration, and a decade in the wellness industry, I’ve come up with a simple list of what you can do to breathe better.
Get some fresh air! Open those windows or buy a decent air purifier.
Decorate with houseplants! Even NASA knows that plants remove “high concentrations of indoor air pollutants”
Remove chemicals! There are a plethora of lung-friendly alternatives for cleaning your home, laundry and making it smell better.
Practice mindful home hygiene. Keeping your shoes in one place can reduce your dust load.
We literally consume more air than any other measurable substance. And with Covid-19 affecting lung health, it’s never been more important for you to take control of your life. The American Psychological Associate has reported a connection between pollution and cognition:
Over the past decade, researchers have found that high levels of air pollution may damage children’s cognitive abilities, increase adults’ risk of cognitive decline, and possibly even contribute to depression.
Water
Have you ever tasted the difference between tap water in the city and well water in the mountains? This one is a no-brainer. Your water quality is super important. If you’re regularly drinking out of plastic bottles, you probably don’t enjoy your local water supply.
There’s a HUGE difference between the two types of water for sale.
Potentially bad water.
Conventionally distributed water (e.g. Dasani, Nestle, and Topo Chico) are not the same as fresh, clean spring water. The majority of bottled water on the shelves contains an awful amount of pollutants and microplastics.
“In contrast to bottled water, tap water suppliers must undergo testing to show contaminant levels, offer quality reports to consumers, meet EPA standards, and disclose their water sources. This means bottled water isn’t always the safest option. Additionally, bottled water can be on average 1,000 times more expensive than tap water.”
Truth is, your tap water might be just as good as your bottled water, unless:
Source water, typically known as spring water, is superior to all ingestible water. Water from a source, like a mile-deep aquifer, a mountain spring, or volcanic well can truly satisfy your body and not just pacify it. If you must drink bottled water, invest in source water and thank me later. The further north your source is or the less polluted the area is that your water comes from, the better. This type of water contains minerals that your body needs to thrive, which we will discuss more down below.
Obviously, all water is not the same. And if you think you don’t like water, I would bet that your body doesn’t like the pollutants in the water you’ve been drinking.
Light
All of my life, I’ve had an adequate light supply. It’s not something that most people consider, but if you live in prison, under the streets of Vegas, or in Alaska all year long, you might know a thing or two about how sunlight changes your life.
Much like a plant again, the human body needs light to grow – some more than others.
Northwestern University published an interesting research study on what I’ve known all of my mixed life: black people need more sun. But have we ever talked about why? Most of my black Texas family refused to move up North in the winter. It’s not that they couldn’t handle the cold – we snowboarded and skied on vacations growing up. The research shows that:
African-American men have lower levels of Vitamin D because the increased melanin in darker skin blocks the ultraviolet rays necessary for the body to produce the vitamin. Thus, African-American men require up to six times more sun exposure than Caucasian men to make adequate Vitamin D levels.
So if we put skin color on a spectrum and think about how much lighter or darker people are as they live in places further or closer to the equator, it’s a relatively simple understanding that we are not all the same. Just like mangoes need more sun and heat, people with more melanin (all races included), need proper supplementation or sun exposure to live a healthy life. Vitamin D deficiency is not always obvious. Lack of sunlight and Vitamin D affects your mood, bone density, muscles, joints, and energy levels.
Vitamin D
Light is so critical to our existence, obviously. But, have you heard during the pandemic that the sun’s rays can help fight off disease? Of course! Adequate Vitamin D in the body literally prevents illness!
“A new research study at the University of Chicago Medicine has found that when it comes to COVID-19, having Vitamin D levels above those traditionally considered sufficient may lower the risk of infection, especially for black people… While levels of 30 ng/ml or more are usually considered sufficient, the authors found that black individuals who had levels of 30 to 40 ng/ml had a 2.64 times higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than people with levels of 40 ng/ml or greater. Statistically significant associations of Vitamin D levels with COVID-19 risk were not found in white people.”
There’s not much we can do to change our external world before we change our internal world. So, I suggest that you work on your body if you want to be the change that happens in the world. Healthy humans means healthy communities. Healthy communities love their environment, economy, and neighbors. Start your trip down the Vitamin D rabbit hole here:
From the dawn of time, humans have been obsessed with food. It’s what we use to cope with stress, what we use to celebrate success, and what we are probably here to create for other humans and animals. No matter what diet you choose, you do need some living organisms to function in addition to macro and micronutrients.
What are macronutrients?
We are literally obsessed with macronutrients because, without them, we can’t survive or think to thrive. These nutrients provide energy in the form of proteins or carbohydrates so they can continue replacing themselves while also replenishing what was used up during activity or digestion. You’ve probably heard the terms before, but The Food Network breaks it down simply:
Carbohydrates, protein and fats as a group are called “macronutrients,” and are affectionately referred to as “macros.” In short, macronutrients are where you get your energy from. Carbs are your brain and muscles’ primary source of energy. You know how nutritionists say you shouldn’t completely cut out carbs? This is a major reason why.
To fully understand how much and what percentage of carbs, proteins, and fats you should consume, I highly recommend you speak with a nutrition specialist.
You can reduce your environmental impact by consuming macronutrients more mindfully. Macronutrients should be locally sourced, organic, and as fresh as possible regardless of what diet you choose to follow- this will help improve not just the taste but also nutritional value for yourself!
Nearly 30 vitamins and minerals that your body cannot manufacture in sufficient amounts on its own are called “essential micronutrients.”
According to government bodies and doctors around the world, the general consensus is that “the best way to get vitamins and minerals is from a well-rounded diet, with plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and lean sources of protein, along with healthy fats, such as nuts and olive oil.”
However, conventional medicine and popular academic entities all seem to avoid diving into the topic of micronutrients. They explain the basic vitamins and a couple minerals essential to survival.
But what about the minerals and vitamins we need to thrive?
There’s an interesting idea floating around the holistic health community:
From 30 to 102, that’s a lot of minerals we are not discussing. Yes, you should definitely try your best to improve and maintain your health via food consumption. But with the supply chain changing so rapidly, pollution taking over the world, and growing processed food consumption, it’s almost impossible for people to adequately supply their bodies with just the right minerals.
Sebi is the thought leader responsible for promoting minerals and herbs to heal the body of any and all diseases. To keep it simple, Sebi taught that the body needs 102 minerals to function well. While you can source these minerals through food, it’s easiest to consume Sea Moss and Bladderwrack to replenish your body’s supply. Many followers of his teachings claim that the combination of these two herbs assists in fighting iron deficiency, reducing mucus, improving mental function, and healing your body from poor digestion and even radiation exposure.
In the next year or so, since this idea of 102 necessary minerals is taking off, we can expect to see some fact-checking and literature supporting or denying Sebi’s contributions.
I can say that I’ve consumed these herbs on a vegan and omnivorous diet, and they didn’t hurt.
Living Organisms
Our bodies are made up of so many things – bacteria, fungi, and more. We need them all to function at our best!
Bacteria commit more than 90% (and sometimes all) of their cells’ DNA to make us who we are – our genetics; they help regulate moods by producing serotonin while also breaking down drug addiction hormones like dopamine into less harmful substances so we can feel better fast when needed…
… a growing number of researchers feel that alongside bacteria, the fungi that inhabit our bodies – or, collectively, the “mycobiome” — may also be influential in both our well-being and, at times, disease.
In all, they reported 101 fungal species, with each person harboring between 9 and 23 strains. They considered a healthy fungal community to include those species present in at least 20 percent of the participants, including, most commonly, various Candida species.
I bet you never thought that the things living on and in your body could make up such a vital part of who we are as people, did ya? It’s true!
All of our health concerns are connected and cannot be solved in isolation.
To properly support the body’s ability to heal and maintain a state of youth, we must consider our environment’s cleanliness or lack thereof, energy sources, and economic power. If you live in a prison, how do you get adequate light? Live in the “hood”, how do you get adequate nutrition? If you live in New York City, how do you get clean air?
Every person is beautifully unique. We all require different air, water, light, and food to live. Like plants, we are all in need of good soil that provides microbes and nutrients for our many biochemical pathways.
If you are fortunate enough to grow your own food, check out Earthfood, it’s a microbe for plants. They help reduce algae growth and restore soil virility. It takes several decades to restore soil naturally, but with Earthfood, one can restore stripped soil in about 21 days.
Identify just one simple way to improve your life based on this article and start there. You don’t need much to feel better, but you do need more than we were taught to become resilient enough to thrive.
– Peak Prosperity –
About the Author: Shay Jackson is a passionate and experienced marketing project manager at Mount Lily with an extensive history in health, tech, and agriculture industries. After a BA in Healthcare Leadership and Long-term Care Administration at Concordia College, Shay moved to the crown of the U.S., Montana, where she managed physical therapy clinics, indoor cannabis grow operations, and relearned how to snowboard after a brain injury. A strong believer in growing wealth through wellness and community activism, Shay keeps an eye on the best ways to biohack and give your body what it needs. Her marketing experience includes the Chicago-based Digital Marketing Agency, Envisionit, and the international leader in getting home-grown food on every table, TheGrowNetwork.com.
Ever since Edward Snowden blew the whistle on how much our government and corporations spied on us, and just how much data they have on each person, privacy has become a critically important topic. Yet, surveys show that average Americans are concerned, but not enough to take action. In other words, a lack of privacy worries them, but it depends on the situation.
Unfortunately, the surveys show that a lot of people don’t understand why privacy is important. Some don’t even care about their own privacy. Even former Google CEO Eric Schmidt showed his lack of understanding when he made this surprisingly tone-deaf comment, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
This is popular thinking that, in my opinion, is dangerous and wrong. For someone of his stature to make such a careless comment is bewildering. It shows even someone like him didn’t think through the critical importance of privacy.
Privacy is not just about whether your activities are problematic morally or legally. If Mr. Schmidt really has nothing to hide, how about telling me his e-mail password? This question is a very good test for those who think that privacy is not important. Almost everyone will balk at such a request.
It is my hope that this article helps people understand the importance of privacy and not be so complacent at what governments, corporations and other entities hold over us. Here are the reasons why you still need privacy even though you believe you are absolutely “clean” with nothing to hide.
Privacy protects you from malice and malevolence
Many people believe that if you have done nothing wrong, then you don’t need to worry about privacy. This thinking assumes there are no malicious and evil people in the world (a very naive assumption, obviously). It also trusts that present and future institutions, corporations, businesses, governments and the people within will always be benevolent and incorruptible. Privacy is important because it protects you from people, institutions, businesses and governments who have less than honorable intentions.
Some may argue they trust the institutions, corporations and governments, but they should not. I have three counter-arguments against that.
Can entities can be trusted in the future, for example, when the current cohort of people running them is long gone (e.g. retired, replaced or supplanted)? Remember, electronic information lingers indefinitely in cyberspace and on servers. The bits and pieces of information that we regularly hemorrhage is for all intents and purposes, indelible. Obviously, that means entities will have access to the information in the future. Even if your current institutions are well-intentioned, they will always control your information. To illustrate this point further, consider this (hopefully) extreme case in the Netherlands, during World War II:
Because the Dutch civil records were so complete and full of data on its citizens, the Nazi’s had an easy time finding Jews (and other “undesirables”). There was no easy way to hide. The data on every Dutch national was collected with good intentions but didn’t stay that way. Of the 140,000 Jews that lived in the Netherlands prior to 1940, only 30,000 survived the war. The Nazi regime could easily determine who was Jewish (whether fully or partly of Jewish ancestry) simply by accessing the data.
Can they guarantee that no rogue elements will ever exist within these entities? For example, organized crime has already infiltrated parts of the Mexican government. Or in China, corrupt officials are reported to have worked in cahoots with untrustworthy elements of society. Recently, Google had to fire an employee for breaching the privacy of a teenager. The NSA has even fired employees for spying on citizens outside their legal purview. The civil servants spied on spouses, ex-lovers and journalists, among others.
These days, companies outsource their call-center operations to countries where wages are relatively much lower. Many of these call-center operators have access to personal (and even private) customer information. Who can guarantee that criminals will not eventually target these operators?
Even if you can trust that these entities will always behave ethically, can you trust them not to be careless with your personal and private information? Consider the ubiquitous (almost daily) stories of data breaches. In fact, 2021 was a record year for data breaches.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s 2021 Data Breach Report, there were 1,862 data breaches last year, surpassing both 2020’s total of 1,108 and the previous record of 1,506 set in 2017. The numbers reflect a year of high-profile cyberattacks that targeted everything from the country’s largest oil pipelines to companies entrusted with the personal information of millions of American consumers.
By now, we all know criminals and perhaps foreign governments are constantly on the lookout for ways to steal information from corporations and institutions. Therefore, the more personal and private information you deposit into the hands of third-party entities, the greater your risk.
You may have nothing to hide from good and honorable people and entities, but you certainly have much to hide from those who are evil, malicious and dishonorable.
Privacy protects you from suspicion and wrongful accusations
Without the protection of privacy, your chances of being suspected, misunderstood, judged incorrectly, taken out of context and treated unfairly increases substantially.
A person is far more complex than the bits and pieces of information that describes him/her. Even if the government has information about you, it can never really know you (like friends, family or spouses). The reason is that bits and pieces of information about you often lack context. Without privacy, at some point you will almost certainly be pigeon-holed, put in a box, misunderstood or misrepresented. To help you understand this, let’s consider some overly-simplified examples that, with a little imagination, can easily be taken out of context and used against you:
Imagine that you have the web surfing data of Tom. In this data, you notice that he has been frequenting the underground membership web site of a child-pornography ring. Is Tom a pedophile? Well, the answer is no! He is actually an undercover cop trying to infiltrate the child-pornography ring.
Dick’s library records indicate that he has been reading a lot of books about communism lately. Is he turning communist? No! He is reading them because he is researching communism for his school term paper.
In 2020, Jenny replied with the words “all lives matter” in a response to a friend in a conversation on Facebook about the many aspects, opposing sides and rallying cries on each side of the George Floyd riots. Someone unknown to Jenny, but connected to her friend on social media, took that one piece of the discussion and forwarded it to Jenny’s employer (listed on her LinkedIn page) accusing her of White Supremacy. Jenny was fired.
In the hands of a very clever schemer, your private information can be easily misconstrued and twisted out of a context to spin you into whatever he wants you to be.
We are living in an era where lots information about you are turned into detailed sets of searchable electronic data. This mass data, no matter how detailed it is, promotes a false belief it illustrates you accurately. This is not true and, unfortunately, many of those in authority believe otherwise.
You can never be absolutely “clean” legally
Let’s say that you are absolutely upright morally and your conscience is crystal clear. Does that also mean that you are also absolutely clean legally?
Nowadays, laws and regulations are insanely complex. Legislation often runs thousands of pages. Some laws antiquated and may even contradict each other. On top of that, for each piece of legislation, there can be many ways for an average individual to interpret it.
Also, there is no way anybody can be absolutely faultless legally. In other words, while you are trying to live the most perfect, law-abiding life, someone somewhere can accurately accuse you of breaking a law at any given time.
For example, do you know that in the United States, at least, it is a felony to violate a website’s terms of service? How many of us have read all the terms of service of every website we use? Can you be absolutely sure that you have not violated any of them?
So, what keeps us from going to jail? Common sense, goodwill and most importantly, privacy.
Privacy is our last line of defense against getting wrongfully convicted. As Leo Laporte said in a Security Now! podcast (emphasis mine),
So, the point being that I think, if [the government] have enough data about what you do, they can find stuff. They could build – they could build a case against you. So, it’s really a question of do they want to build a case against you or not. And one of the reasons they say, they explicitly say, the reason we save this data is so we could build a case against you should we want to go get you someday. So, you just really have to trust them.
Maybe we each should strongly consider what we put online about ourselves.
– Peak Prosperity –
About the Author: This article was written by Terence Kam, founder and cybersecurity consultant at iSecurityGuru.com. You can follow his company on LinkedIn. Or subscribe to his writings on Medium, where he writes on a wider variety of topics.
Inflation is busting out. The 7.9% claimed as the current U.S. yearly rate of inflation is but a minimum bid on the true reality (which is certain to be much higher than what the government reports).
The various powers that be are busy pointing fingers of blame for these horrendous inflation readings in every direction but the right one; at themselves. And, they are more focused on blaming others instead of fixing the problem.
The true source of inflation is excessive money printing and deficit spending. The past two years have been unlike anything in history on both fronts. Clearly, for anyone looking, it did not start with a Putin military buildup outside Ukraine per the current narrative.
So, it’s time for everyone to let go of the idea that things will somehow magically revert to how they were before. It will not get better. So, it’s time, instead, to plan as if several decades of really bad decisions, false ideas and fake narratives are finally coming home to roost, which they are.
About the Author: Shay Jackson is a passionate and experienced marketing project manager at 
