2 Ways an Economic Downturn in 2025 Is Your Chance To Get Rich

2 Ways an Economic Downturn in 2025 Is Your Chance To Get Rich, According to Robert Kiyosaki

Adam Palasciano   Wed, March 19, 2025  GOBankingRates

Economic downturns are inevitable from time to time. Whether it’s a minor dip in the stock market or something as significant as 2008’s Great Recession, we all need to be financially prepared for whatever lies ahead. However, whatever’s coming next might be big, perhaps as big as the Great Depression.

In a recent post on X, financial expert and “Rich Dad Poor Dad” author Robert Kiyosaki predicted the next “Greater Depression” in 2025:

“In 2014 I published RD’s Prophecy predicting the biggest stock market crash in history. Unfortunately that ‘prophecy’ is coming true, in 2025. Markets are crashing and my concern is the world may be entering into another ‘Greater Depression,'” said Kiyosaki.

Under the new administration, The Wall Street Journal reported that the S&P 500 recently saw its biggest drop in years, down more than 10% from its February 19, 2025, record high. This drop can likely be attributed to Trump’s threat of upcoming tariffs on foreign nations.

No matter the exact reason, economic uncertainty may lie ahead and you’ll need to be prepared. This includes figuring out how to grow your wealth at the same time.

Here are two important ways to leverage an economic downturn to get rich, according to Kiyosaki.

Invest in Gold, Silver and Bitcoin

Kiyosaki is a proponent of investing in precious metals like gold and silver as well as cryptocurrency like bitcoin (BTC) ahead of an expected economic downturn.

“For years I have [advised] people to do what I do …. which is buy gold, silver and bitcoin,” said Kiyosaki.

Here are the current prices of gold, silver and bitcoin to prove his point:

According to APMEX, the price of gold is reaching an all-time high. The current price per 1 troy ounce of gold is around $3,013.40. This figure represents about a 13.7% increase from just three months ago and a giant 43.5% increase from just one year ago.

APMEX also reported that the price per 1 troy ounce of silver is around $33.96. This figure represents about a 10.7% increase from just three months ago and a significant 45.1% increase from just one year ago.

TO READ MORE: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/2-ways-economic-downturn-2025-200122152.html

4 Common Mistakes Affluent Americans Make With Their Money

4 Common Mistakes Affluent Americans Make With Their Money — and How To Avoid Them

Vance Cariaga  Tue, March 18, 2025  GOBankingRates

Affluence, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder. What looks like wealth to one person might not seem that way to others — especially if that “wealth” is offset by high debt and reckless spending. Just because someone earns a high salary doesn’t make them immune to the same financial mistakes as everyone else.

Even defining “affluence” isn’t easy. As Forbes reported, many factors go into determining someone’s wealth — including net worth, household income and location. A net worth of $500,000 might make you affluent in some parts of the country, while in other parts even $1 million falls short of the mark.

A recent survey from financial services provider Equitable defined the “mass affluent” as Americans who have an income level at or above $90,000 per year. According to that survey, 80% of all Americans are “concerned” about the affordability of everyday living costs, regardless of income. Nearly half aim to change their financial habits in 2025 to ease financial stress. Almost 70% of the mass affluent said they plan to increase their savings by $500 or more per month.

Increasing savings is one way to bolster your finances. Another way is to avoid making the same mistakes over and over. Here are four common mistakes affluent Americans make and how to avoid them, according to Nasha Knowles, CFP, a financial advisor with Equitable Advisors who counsels high net worth individuals.

Underestimating Income Taxes

Many affluent people don’t realize the tax impact when they start earning more money, Knowles told GOBankingRates in an email.

“They will now pay more in taxes because they make more, and they will also be in a higher tax bracket,” she said. “It always surprises them how much they are now paying in taxes.”

To avoid this mistake, hire a tax professional or financial advisor to help with tax planning.

Making Big Ticket Purchases Without Considering Related Costs

TO READ MOREl:  https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/4-common-mistakes-affluent-americans-150403040.html

$3,000 Gold Is Not The End Of This Story

$3,000 Gold Is Not The End Of This Story

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black) March 17, 2025

On November 1, 2023, just as the price of gold reached its record high price of $2,000 per troy ounce, I clearly stated my position that $2,000 gold was just the beginning.

As usual, my argument was grounded in history. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, US government spending soared thanks to the mounting costs of the Vietnam War coupled with incredibly expensive social initiatives dubbed ‘The Great Society’.

The national debt exploded as a result.

Then, throughout the 1970s, the US suffered an incredibly humiliating withdrawal from Vietnam, complete with a helicopter airlift from the US embassy in Saigon. The Cold War with the Soviet Union was at its peak. Serious trouble brewed with Iran. War broke out in the Middle East.

Civil unrest and ‘mostly peaceful’ protests were also a constant problem in the 1970s, and major cities like New York, LA, and Chicago became synonymous with violent crime.

It was also a time of soaring inflation, weak leadership and political chaos in the US, not to mention rampant criminality in the federal government.

All of this led to a significant loss of confidence in America’s standing on the global stage.

Simply put, the world stopped making sense, and gold became a safe haven from that chaos. That’s why the gold price rose more than 20x over the course of the decade.

When I wrote to you back in late 2023, I described a number of similarities between the 1970s and the 2020s. Chaos and criminality. Weakness and war. Humiliation and inflation. Oh, and that little thing called Covid.

Similarly, the world stopped making sense in the 2020s.

And based on that conclusion, I wrote that $2,000 gold was just the beginning of a much bigger story... and that the price of gold would continue to surge.

It’s not hard to understand why.

Back in late 2023 when I wrote that article, the US national debt was around $33 trillion (it’s up $3+ trillion since then).

The federal government had recently ended its fiscal year (FY23), in which it spent every tax dollar collected just to pay interest on the debt, plus mandatory entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

100% of US government ‘discretionary’ spending, which includes everything from the military and homeland security, to national parks and federal courts, had to be funded with more debt.

I assumed that this trend of higher spending and higher debt would continue. And it did.

The following year, in FY24, the government spent an unbelievable $1.1 trillion just to pay interest on the national debt— vastly exceeding the defense budget. Plus the FY24 budget deficit increased to more than $1.8 trillion.

So the fiscal situation has only become worse. Not better.

The other issue that I foresaw driving backlash against the dollar was the heavy-handedness of the US government against other nations.

Whenever foreign governments (or even foreign businesses) did things that the US government didn’t like, the Biden administration’s knee-jerk reaction was to impose— or at least threaten— sanctions.

In many respects the only reason that the US government even has the power to sanction other nations is because the dollar is the dominant global reserve currency.

If Costa Rica threatened to sanction other countries, everybody would just laugh... because Costa Rica has no power. But America has enormous power, simply because the rest of the world has to use US dollars for global trade and commerce.

I concluded that, sooner or later, foreign governments would get tired of being pushed around by the US government and start seeking alternatives to the dollar. This is also happening.

One thing that modern history makes very clear is that global monetary regimes tend to reset every few decades.

We can go back to the year 1867 in which the International Monetary Conference in Paris ultimately led to a global gold standard.

This gold standard lasted for a few decades... until World War I broke out. One by one, sovereign governments suspended their gold standards, causing significant disruption to the global monetary regime.

Three decades later, the global financial system was reset at the Bretton Woods Conference which anointed the US dollar as the global reserve currency... on the understanding that the dollar would be backed by gold.

This system lasted for 27 years, when, in 1971, Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard; this led to a system of “fiat currencies” around the world which were backed by nothing but phony promises from politicians and central bankers.

That system was adjusted once again in the late 1990s in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, and Russia’s sovereign debt default, in which most of the developing world piled into US dollars to hold their reserves. Foreign ownership of US government bonds skyrocketed as a result.

That system has lasted for a few decades— during which period a number of countries (like China) bought up trillions of dollars of US government debt.

Well, we are now witnessing in real time what appears to be another reset in the global financial system. And in some respects, it may even be planned.

The main problems that foreign governments and central banks have against the US dollar— the Treasury Department’s heavy-handedness, the constant threat of sanctions or tariffs, and the unimaginably high levels of debt— are still absolutely present.

And on top of that, this new administration is actively floating what has been dubbed the Mar-A-Lago Accords, i.e. an agreement to force America’s foreign bondholders to reset the financial system.

Just as predicted, all of this uncertainty has been incredibly bullish for gold— primarily because foreign governments and central banks are aggressively seeking an alternative to the US dollar.

At the moment, nobody really knows what the next global financial system will be.

Personally I don’t think the dollar is going to disappear as a reserve currency. But “King Dollar” probably won’t dominate the world— instead perhaps it will be “Earl Dollar” or “Viscount Dollar”, in a mix with other currencies.

No one knows for sure. And that’s why central bankers have been buying gold— because it’s the only asset in which they can have complete confidence. No matter what the new global financial system looks like, gold will continue to have value.

It has been those central banks buying up gold (literally by the metric ton) and pushing prices to record highs.

We said in November 2023 that $2,000 was just the beginning. We’ve just hit $3,000 gold.

I won’t say that is “just the beginning.” But it certainly is not the end to this story.

To your freedom,  James Hickman   Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC

https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/3000-gold-is-not-the-end-of-this-story-152316/

Freedom Is Like Inflation: You Lose 2-3% Every Year

Freedom Is Like Inflation: You Lose 2-3% Every Year

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black)  March 13, 2025

My grandfather was born on April 19, 1915 in a dirty, one-room shack in the town of Bonham, Texas. Given the era, they had no electricity and no running water. And the family considered themselves fortunate that both mother and baby survived childbirth.

Pretty much everyone in the area was a farm laborer; they worked long, hard days in the unforgiving Texas heat trying to beckon life from ungenerous soil. But it was a living-- one that my grandfather joined at an early age.

He was 14 years old-- considered a “man” by the standards of his time-- when the Great Depression struck.

Few people, including my grandfather, would have understood that the worst economic crisis in American history was a manmade virus cooked up in the laboratory of political incompetence. All he knew was that banks in his home town failed… and many of his neighbors lost their life savings overnight.

This led to a lifelong mistrust of the banking system-- not just for my grandfather, but for an entire generation.

Throughout his life he kept his savings in an old coffee can. It wasn’t a lockbox or combination safe. He didn’t even bother hiding it; my grandfather literally just stuffed bills and coins into a metal can under the kitchen sink. He didn’t worry much about security because everyone in town knew and trusted one another, and no one would dare violate another man’s home… let alone his coffee can.

The other thing he did was save. If there was one thing my grandfather hated, it was spending money. On anything. You name it.

Food? He grew it himself and fished at the nearby lake. Medical care? The man barely ever went to the doctor in his entire life. Insurance? He had no concept of what that even was. Recreation? No one had time for such trivialities.

So, he saved just about everything he earned, depositing his meager wages with a satisfying and encouraging ka-ching into the ‘Bank of the Coffee Can’ week after week.

Whenever the coffee can became overly full, he knew it was time to invest his savings into something more durable and long-lasting.

But I’m not talking about stocks. In fact, given that he lived through the Crash of 1929, my grandfather believed that only a reckless, crazy person would buy stocks. And this trauma was shared by much of his generation.

So instead, he emptied out the old coffee can and invested in the one thing that he truly understood: land, i.e. one of the realest of real assets.

He always knew, worst case, he could plant more food on his new land. And this security had far more value to him than any other asset.

Then the cycle would begin anew: work, save, work, save… until, eventually, the coffee can would fill up again. He’d then use that money to buy building material and then build a small house on the land. No construction crew, no contractors. Just his own two hands and some basic tools.

Once complete, he’d put the house up for rent-- I remember he typically charged by the week to coincide with the farm laborers’ weekly pay. And, again, everything was settled in cash… so the coffee can began to fill more quickly.

Soon there was enough money to build another small house. Then another. And another. This man was living a real-life version of the old board game Monopoly; the only thing he didn’t do was trade his houses out for hotels.

But he wasn’t unique. My grandfather was extremely typical of his generation: highly productive, self-reliant savers who worked hard and never expected anything for free.

In their value system, being unproductive was frowned upon. Vagrancy was a crime. If there were any jobs available, you were expected to have one, no matter what it was. If there were no jobs available, you were expected to be looking for one-- or figure out how to produce something of value on your own.

My grandmother was cut from the same cloth. And the two of them eventually had a pretty substantial real estate portfolio of rental homes.

One particular complex had about a dozen or so houses on it, and my grandmother was in charge of collecting all the rent. They built her a small office near the entrance of the property, and not being one to waste resources, my grandmother decided to open a beauty salon there.

Bear in mind, my grandmother never went to cosmetology school. She didn’t have a license. She didn’t pass through a myriad of state and local permitting inspectors. She just hung her shingle out one day and customers started showing up. And because she provided good service, the customers kept showing up.

This is the sort of thing you used to be able to do in America. The government didn’t smother its citizens with endless regulations; if you wanted to start a business, you started one. No one asked permission to produce.

This is an incredible contrast to the America of today. God help you if you want to start a restaurant in the State of California, where you’ll spend years in the permitting, licensing, and inspection process, only to have employees go on strike over Gaza while customers brazenly steal from you with legal impunity.

That may be an extreme example, but government regulation at the federal, state, and local levels continues to strangle businesses-- small and solo businesses in particular.

A few years ago, the Institute for Justice sampled 102 lower-income occupations in American and found a total of 2,749 license requirements across the fifty states, demanding hundreds of dollars in fees, exams, and an average 362 days of bureaucracy.

These are for vocations like tree-trimmer, hair-braider, fisherman, auctioneer, locksmith, upholsterer, florist, and even farm laborer.

(Neil Gorsuch, sitting US Supreme Court Justice, bemoans similar statistics in his excellent book Overruled, which I can’t recommend enough.)

But this didn’t happen overnight. From my grandparents’ era to today, the bureaucratic, administrative state crept in little by little.

The effect is much like inflation where you lose 2-3% of your purchasing power year after year. One year’s inflation is no big deal; it’s only after looking back 10 or 20 years can we see how expensive things have become.

I really appreciate the tremendous efforts by Elon Musk and the people at DOGE to cut government spending. It needs to happen-- responsible spending is critical to solving America’s $36+ trillion debt crisis.

But perhaps even more important is turning back the clock on regulations… and going back to an era where you didn’t need to ask permission to be productive.

To your freedom,  James Hickman

Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC

https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/freedom-is-like-inflation-you-lose-2-3-every-year-152295/

Inheritance Can Destroy A Family Or Be A Life-Changing Gift

Inheritance Can Destroy A Family Or Be A Life-Changing Gift

Here's how I advise my clients as an estate-planning attorney.
Story by insider@insider.com (Jen Glantz)

Dana Blue is an estate-planning attorney who helps families navigate assets after a loved one dies.  Inheritances can create an opportunity to purchase a house, return to school, or run a business.  They can also tear siblings apart and lead to losing a family legacy or even bankruptcy.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dana Blue, a 44-year-old estate planning, probate, and real estate attorney in Philadelphia. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

When I started my law practice in 2017, I drafted simple wills for free. Since then, I've expanded my practice to offer trust-centered estate planning and probate administration services.

I value the opportunity to support families during their times of grief, but sometimes, when you mix grief, money, and family dynamics, it can be a very volatile cocktail.

I work closely with heirs or beneficiaries to navigate them through the probate process. Once the assets are distributed, clients are often left with money, property, or a business. Some people inherit just a few thousand dollars, and others walk away with life-changing money.

After almost a decade of being an attorney, I've witnessed the variety of ways inheritance has changed people, both positively and destructively.

It can bring on newfound wealth, but it might come with more responsibilities

When you inherit a business, learning its operational, financial, and legal aspects is crucial. I've seen cases where people inherit their family's business with no experience and bankrupt it in just months due to poor financial management.

If you plan to keep the business within the family, developing a succession plan that details how the business will be transferred to the next generation, including training and mentoring the future leaders, is vital.

TO READ MORE:  Inheritance can destroy a family or be a life-changing gift. Here's how I advise my clients as an estate-planning attorney.

3 Records You Should Keep Indefinitely Once Your Taxes Are Filed

I’m a Tax Expert: 3 Records You Should Keep Indefinitely Once Your Taxes Are Filed

Kerra Bolton   Fri, March 14, 2025  GOBankingRates

While it could be tempting to throw away documents after filing tax returns, doing so could put you at financial and legal risk. Maintaining certain financial records indefinitely can safeguard against future tax disputes, facilitate asset management and ensure compliance.

 “It is important to keep documents that affect future years forever, such as documents related to losses that have created carryovers, agreements and investment records, which may create future cash basis,” said Crystal Stranger, senior tax director and CEO of Optic Tax.

While the IRS provides guidelines on the minimum duration for retaining various documents, GOBankingRates spoke to two tax and financial experts to explore three records you should keep indefinitely once your taxes are filed.

Filed Tax Return Copies

Individuals should keep copies of their filed federal and state tax returns even for years after they’re filed.

“General tax return documents should be kept at least three years,” Stranger said. “But it can be good to keep records for seven years, because the IRS could go back that far if there are certain types of underreported income or fraud.”

These documents serve as a historical record of an individual’s income, deductions and tax payments.

“If you get rid of tax records and then later need them, you will not have what you need to substantiate your deductions or credits,” Stranger explained. “This can cause a loss or reduction in allowed deductions, and you could end up owing taxes.”

Property and Real Estate Records

Documents related to property ownership, such as deeds, titles and records of significant home improvements, should also be kept.

TO READ MORE:  https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/m-tax-expert-3-records-160112864.html

Grow Money Like the Rockefeller Family

Grow Money Like the Rockefeller Family– 5 Ways They Created Generational Wealth

Caitlyn Moorhead  Thu, March 13, 2025   GOBankingRates

There is no way around the Rockefeller name being associated with money, as it’s synonymous with immense wealth and the realization of the American Dream. The family’s fortune, established by America’s first billionaire John D. Rockefeller Sr., the founder of the Standard Oil Company in the late 19th century, has endured for generations, making the Rockefellers one of the wealthiest families in history.

In large part, this massive amount of money was thanks to the following factors:

• At one point, the company-controlled 90% of U.S. refineries and pipelines, which led Rockefeller to become the richest man in the world and one of the first billionaires.

• The family fortune was valued at over $600 billion in today’s dollars. Today, that translates to one of America’s richest families having a net worth of $10.3 billion.

• The Standard Oil Company would later evolve into the ExxonMobil and Chevron corporations that everyone knows today.

• The Rockefellers also developed one of the first major business trusts, which controlled Chase Manhattan Bank, now known as Chase Bank.

• The Rockefeller Foundation went on to establish themselves as industrialists and philanthropists throughout U.S. history, and have given away an estimated $1 billion to varying charitable causes.

Over a century later, the Rockefeller generational wealth still establishes them as one of the richest families in the world. Valued at $10.3 billion among 70 heirs and family members, the fact that the Rockefellers have continued to keep the wealth in the family for decades is proof of their knowledge in investing in generational wealth building. Here are five ways the Rockefellers built and sustained their generational wealth.

Diversified Investments

To further grow the Rockefeller wealth, they safeguarded their real estate and bond investments which supplied both physical assets that grew in value over time and consistent income. A well-diversified and balanced portfolio helped offset riskier ventures and protected their fortune.

The Rockefellers recognized the importance of diversification in wealth preservation. While the initial fortune was built on oil, the family expanded their investments into various sectors over the years and have stakes in real estate, industry and even venture capital, thus ensuring a consistent growth and safeguarding of their wealth against market volatility.

Rockefeller Center alone was purchased out by Jerry Sperry for a whopping $1.8 billion. With Exxon mobiles and Chevron stations still being built today, the family has consumed and purchased many companies over time such as General Mills, Kellogg, Nestle, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Procter and Gamble to name only a few.

Though most of us don’t have billions lying around to purchase a company like Nestle, it is great advice to diversify one’s money into companies, through our own research, to bank on being successful.

Philanthropy and Reputation Management

Philanthropy has been a significant aspect of the Rockefeller family’s legacy, and each generation has taken up the torch. In fact, he and his son John D Rockefeller Jr. dedicated themselves to philanthropy, giving away more than $1 billion and establishing the University of Chicago.

The establishment of numerous charitable foundations has not only contributed positively to global society but also helped in maintaining and enhancing the family’s reputation. Their philanthropic efforts have facilitated network building and influence expansion, inadvertently aiding in wealth preservation and growth.

Simply put, the more you give, the more you make.

Strategic Financial Management

TO READ MORE:  https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/grow-money-rockefeller-family-5-130046841.html

8 Key Signs of a Quiet Millionaire

8 Key Signs of a Quiet Millionaire, According to Rachel Cruze

Ashley Donohoe  Thu, March 13, 2025  GOBankingRates

When you think about millionaires, you might picture people who visibly show off their expensive things or who got rich by receiving an inheritance or making one lucky investment.

However, the National Study of Millionaires by Ramsey Solutions showed that millionaires more often built their wealth by more ordinary means, like stashing funds in a 401(k), and many didn’t even earn extremely high salaries. It can even be hard to tell who is rich sometimes.

A recent YouTube video from financial expert Rachel Cruze looked at eight common signs that can help you identify “quiet” millionaires.

Not Living Paycheck to Paycheck

A recent Pymnts Intelligence report found that 65% of respondents relied on their next paycheck. That number also included some Americans who lived paycheck to paycheck but didn’t necessarily struggle to pay their bills.

Quiet millionaires don’t share this problem. Cruze explained that such people thrive because they have a bigger margin thanks to budgeting and not spending excessively.

Not Worrying About Upcoming Expenses

Unlike those living paycheck to paycheck, quiet millionaires are less worried about becoming financially damaged if they face a big expense. They’ve already saved up the money.

“Having an emergency fund for upcoming expenses for the unexpected is key, but then also planning for upcoming expenses ahead of time, being proactive,” Cruze explained.

Investing Money Wisely

TO READ MORE:  https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/8-key-signs-quiet-millionaire-150135402.html

4 Types of Financial Documents You Should Keep Together at All Times

4 Types of Financial Documents You Should Keep Together at All Times in Case of Emergency — Here’s Why

Adam Palasciano  Tue, March 11, 2025  GOBankingRates

Life is full of the unexpected. You never know when you may find yourself in dire straits or faced with an emergency that’s totally out of your control. Sadly, Americans are affected by weather-related disasters now more than ever before.

According to the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), 2024 alone was full of “billion-dollar” weather-related natural disasters: There were 27 individual weather and climate disasters with at least $1 billion in damages, which is only one less than the record of 28 events in 2023. Last year’s natural disasters took nearly 600 lives and cost approximately $182.7 billion in total.

With natural disasters on the rise, you’ll absolutely need to be prepared for whatever comes your way. This includes having a “financial go bag” at the ready.

A financial go bag is basically what it sounds like: It’s a bag with everything related to your finances, identity, emergency contacts and medical information that you need to keep on your person.

Here are four specific categories of items you’ll want to be sure you have in your financial go bag.

Financial and Legal Documents

Having copies of any applicable financial and legal documents printed and at the ready is critical, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). For example, if your home is destroyed in a fire, maintaining copies of these documents in your go bag may be the only physical proof you have of account ownership.

These include but are not limited to the following types of documents:

• Credit and debit card statements

• Checking account statements

• Savings account statements

• Retirement and investment account statements

• Utility bills

• Student loan statements

• Alimony and child support documents

• Elder care information.

Identification

When faced with a catastrophe, you’ll need to have at least a few forms of identification in your bag, according to FEMA.

TO READ MORE:  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/4-types-financial-documents-keep-150101110.html

3 Ways To Avoid Being Exploited As You Get Older

3 Ways To Avoid Being Exploited As You Get Older

‘They left us with nothing’: This elderly couple was evicted from their home of 20 years — after their son transferred ownership. 3 ways to avoid being exploited as you get older

Serah Louis   Sun, September 24, 2023

An elderly California couple was devastated when they were served an eviction notice in April for the home they’d been making regular payments on for two decades.

Ismael and Angelita Ramirez purchased their home back in 2003 with their son, who told them they didn’t need to include their name on the title.

"He told us they told him it wasn't necessary. And well, since we don't know English, that's where they lied to us," Ishmael told FOX26 News.

The eviction notice reportedly stated that the owner of the home was selling the property and the couple said they later learned their son had transferred the home to a woman who sent them the notice. Although the couple tried to get legal help, there wasn’t much the lawyer could do since the house wasn’t in their name.

“We thought, why did our boy do that to us if he knew the house was ours?" Ishmael said.

Elder financial abuse impacts millions of Americans

The Ramirezes were victims of elder abuse — which is far more common than you’d think.

In fact, the National Council on Aging reports up to five million older Americans are affected each year, while victims of financial abuse are estimated to lose at least $36.5 billion a year.

And in almost 60% of cases, the perpetrator is a family member — often the adult child or spouse of the victim.

The Ramirezes told FOX26 they’ve since been displaced and their Social Security income isn’t enough to buy a new home or even afford rent.

"They left us with nothing," Ismael said.

Their other son, Ismael Jr., created a GoFundMe fundraiser, which has already received more than 1,600 donations to help the couple.

Here are five ways to avoid being exploited as you get older, or to protect your aging parents from predators.

1. Appoint a power of attorney

A power of attorney (POA) allows an individual to act on your behalf in legal or business matters — and you can appoint this person while you’re in control of your mental faculties.

Appointing a financial POA allows someone to manage your financial affairs, like signing and mailing checks, filing tax returns and managing investments on your behalf. They can have specific and limited powers, or more broad capabilities.

But most importantly, be careful who you select to safeguard your finances, as the Ramirezes learned firsthand. You should only appoint someone you really trust — but you can tell your (trusted) friends and family about your POA so they can look out for you. You could also request that your agent report to another person so that they’re held accountable for any transactions they make on your behalf.

TO READ MORE: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/left-us-nothing-elderly-couple-100000273.html

Is the US Headed Toward Recession?

Is the US Headed Toward Recession? [Podcast]

Notes From the Field By James Hickman (Simon Black)  March 11, 2025

By the late 1920s, the US economy was booming and had advantages that most of the world did not yet enjoy.  Manufacturing in America was extremely competitive due to mass electrification powering factories. Farmers had traded out horses and mules for trucks and tractors.

US productivity was surging.

Global trade was still recovering from World War I, but there was enough sense at the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) to campaign against trade barriers.

The final report from the World Economic Conference in 1927 concluded that “the time has come to put an end to tariffs. . .”

But America decided to move in the opposite direction.

Two politicians, Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot put forth a plan to impose steep tariffs that reached as high as 59.1% on some products.

The infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act passed in 1930, and almost immediately, countries around the world imposed their own retaliatory tariffs against the US.

Global trade plummeted as a result, which became a major factor in prolonging an almost never-ending and extremely painful economic depression.

I don’t think another Great Depression is in the cards right now, but frankly all these threats of tariffs are starting to have an impact.

Stock market investors are realizing that a recession is clearly on the table, and that business and consumer sentiment across the board have taken a nose dive.

That could all rebound just as quickly as it has fallen, but the larger point is that tariffs will absolutely make the country, and the world for that matter, much worse off.

The key reason is that tariffs force the economy to operate below its maximum potential.

Think about it on an individual basis. Imagine if Tom Cruise were sacking groceries instead of making movies. I think most people would probably acknowledge that creating multi-billion dollar box office hits is a hard thing to do, and sacking groceries would be below his potential.

The same goes for a trained and experienced neurosurgeon— picking turnips is not the best use of his or her time.

The US economy is certainly capable of producing just about anything. But there’s no point in deliberately producing below your potential— i.e. taking scarce talent and resources away from more valuable more productive sectors, and instead focusing that energy to make socks and underwear.

If an economy consistently underachieves its potential, everyone is worse off as a result— regardless of whether that results in a near-term recession.

The US has the potential in small-scale nuclear reactors, and emerging technology in AI, automation, robotics, and high-performance computing to create a level of abundance and prosperity that is almost unimaginable. That advantage is specific to the United States and that reality could be just a few years away because most of that technology exists or is close.

And that’s what the US needs to get out of its $36 trillion debt problem— a productivity and innovation driven economic boom.

Tariffs throw cold water on the whole thing.

This is what we discuss in today’s podcast.

We also touch on:

• Recent stock market swings

• The valuation of stocks now, and historically

• Who is investing in the stock market today

• What could drive investors into bonds

• And more.

You can listen here.

(For the audio-only version, check out our online post here.)

To your freedom,  James Hickman   Co-Founder, Schiff Sovereign LLC

https://www.schiffsovereign.com/podcast/is-the-us-headed-toward-recession-podcast-152224/