

Ask HN: how to react to government borrowing billions? - Tichy

My country has just decided to take out the biggest debt ever. Is there anything one can do, short of leaving the country? I just feel very uneasy about this. I think eventually money will just be devalued or taxed away - but what other investments are better? Maybe just education, knowledge, networking? All material property seems to be fair game.<p>I don't feel like any of the money the government is taking out is doing anything for my benefit (which would include social expenses - I don't mind helping the poor), and I resent being exploited. I feel pessimistic about being able to reach financial independence - all in all, it is just depressing.<p>Edit: writing it felt a bit overly dramatic, but maybe another sentence expresses it better: I feel like they (the government) just sold my future.
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pfedor
I don't have any advice specific to the situation described, but I'll make one
general statement: you should not adjust your investments in any way based on
news about recent political and economic events. You learned that the
government is going to issue some new bonds and whatever, but so has everyone
else. There are legions of highly paid PhDs whose full time job is to invest
money for some pension funds and the like. Whatever action there might have
been to take based on the new information, they have already thought it
through and acted on it, and the price of any security you could sell or
purchase has been adjusted accordingly. What's left is random noise.

There may be people here or elsewhere who will tell you about sure-fire ways
of making money off of the fact that the government goes into debt, by
shorting stocks or buying gold or trading foreign currencies or what not. I
suggest you disregard them. If they were really this smart, why would they
share such valuable insights with anyone on the Internet, instead of getting
very rich?

If your asset mix was good before the news arrived, then it is still good now
and I would stick to it. If you suspect it's not good, then by all means
change it after consulting some good book about investing and sleeping on it.
In any case keep in mind that your future is hopefully a very long time and
with that horizon in mind you should plan your investments. Good luck.

