[asciihacker]

Holding wealth in the dollar means holding wealth in a depreciating asset. Gold, silver, bitcoin, real estate, etc much preferred.

But given that my income and expenses are head up (at the moment), I'm in the same boat ... 7k net in and 7k out, a lot of which is me re-buying my own CC debt with loans from lending club, etc.

[pilom]

Bitcoin is by definition depreciating. Precious metals have very little utility and are only used as stores of value. They can not generate dividends and are therefore likely to under perform in the very long term: http://www.businessinsider.com/buffett-on-gold-2012-2

Real estate can be a decent way to store money long term because of the rent you can collect. Because many people are highly leveraged with real estate, selling before your mortgage is paid off can be very volatile.

[1812Overture]

Good real estate investment: Buying a rental property. Bad real estate investment: Buying a bigger house than you need for yourself hoping it will go up in value.