Hiding Your Valuables Securely - UPDATED

I first did the research on this subject and published a video with my conclusions in 2015. I am doing this update for four reasons:

1. The most frequently asked question I get from Precious Metals owners is, “How can I safely store my Gold and Silver?”
2. The number of Americans who own precious metals has increased by ten times in the last year and a half.
3. Protection technology has grown and there are now better and safer ways to protect you Gold and Silver, jewelry, passports, and other important papers.
4. The threat level has increased with millions out of work due to China Virus shutdowns of businesses.

At least once a week (and sometimes much more often) someone asks me, "Where can I safely hide small, valuable items?" I have spent many hours on the telephone and in person explaining the principles and going into great detail on specifics. I also spend time reasearching creative ways to secure valuables that the bad guys wouldn't think of.
 
Recently I had an epiphany: Why should I spend time explaining the same things over and over when I can do so once in an article that thousands of people can read? I decided to spend the considerable time required to research and present this information in a comprehensive way, and save a lot of time in the future.
 
What are my qualifications to write on this subject? Well, I'm not a locksmith or a safe installer, but I have hired many of these professionals and overseen many installations over the years. And I always asked lots of questions (because that is how I learn!). I also have a background in law enforcement, and have seen my share of burglaries - both in homes that were well-protected and those that were not. Finally, most of the advice I will share here was gleaned from people much smarter than I in these areas: Locksmiths, security experts, and law enforcement personnel.
 
Why should you make having a safe place for valuables a priority? Who do you need to hide your “stuff” from? 

1. Crooks
2. Lawyers
3. The government
4. Your family 

CROOKS: This one is obvious. As we near a debt collapse in this nation due to the fact that we have accumulated more debt than any nation on earth, we also face the very real possibility – I would even say probability – of a currency collapse. Debt collapses are the usual trigger for a currency collapse such as nations like Germany, France, Argentina, and almost every nation have suffered at various times.
 
The best-known hyper-inflation (another name for a currency collapse) is the one in Germany, in which the government kept printing larger and larger bills to try to keep up with inflation. Eventually they were printing multi-billion Mark notes that were so worthless people burned them to stay warm, because they were worth less than the coal they could buy with the bills. At the beginning four Marks equaled one US Dollar. Four years later it took 4.2 Trillion Marks to equal one US Dollar. And this was just one of the two times Germany saw its currency go to nothing.
 
The buyer for my Gold company once asked a French Gold expert why the French were so concerned with protecting their assets with Gold. The expert replied that France had experienced FOUR currency collapses, and therefore didn’t trust paper money. My friend mentioned that Americans weren’t nearly as enthusiastic about Gold as the French. With typical Gallic frankness, the expert replied, “Then Americans are stupid!”
 
The point is that at some point – possibly very soon – a dollar crash could result in the U.S. Dollar becoming worth nothing. At that point Gold and Silver will again be what they have been for 6,000 years: the only money that merchants will accept. There will be millions that didn’t prepare, and they will try to steal your stuff.
 
LAWYERS: Everyone knows that anyone can sues anyone at any time – whether or not t there is any merit to the lawsuit. The United States has three times as many lawyers as Great Britain, which is swarming with lawyers. It has 40 times as many lawyers as Japan. So, if some trips on your step, don’t be surprised if they sue you. But lawyers always check out the assets of potential victims. Any teenage hacker can find out everything you own in minutes – unless it is in Precious Metals. Gold and Silver are the last financial transactions you will ever engage in that are non-reportable (except for certain types and amounts of bullion).
 
If you have a good part of your assets protected in Precious Metals, the lawyers can’t see them. (unless they have Superman-style x-ray vision and can see inside your safe.
 
THE GOVERNMENT: Why would you need to hide your “stuff” from the government? In 1933 FDR confiscated all the Gold in the nation, except for rare coins and jewelry. Since our money at that time was Gold (or paper currency backed by Gold) he stole 40% of the private wealth of the nation by Executive Order (sound familiar?). If the government did it once, it can do it again. The new occupant of the White House is openly discussing confiscating your guns. A good, well-hidden safe can protect you from both types of confiscation.
 
Some worry about a house to house search by the government. That will never happen. If our military were ten times as large as it is, they could neve search 150 million dwellings. To make sure they never come to your house, first, buy your guns and Gold privately so that there is no record that you own them. Second, keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell anyone outside your household what you have or where it is hidden. Third, follow the instructions below to ensure that your safe is well-hidden. You can’t crack a safe if you can’t find it.
 
YOUR FAMILY: It’s sad to contemplate, but in my business I have heard dozens of stories of people who have lost thousands to millions by theft from family members. Use wisdom in who you tell about your hiding place(s). Don’t be like one family who came back from vacation to find that a relative had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of valuables.

 
A QUICK OVERVIEW OF WHAT YOU SHOULD DO 

1. I suggest a small safe, preferably in your own home. In a dollar crash when you’ll need your precious metals to survive, they won’t do you much good if they are in a bank safe-deposit box that you can’t access. Remember what happened after 9-11. You couldn’t enter your bank – or access your box – for a week.
2. An inexpensive handgun safe is adequate for most people – unless you have a large amount of Precious Metals.
3. Remember that it’s not the size or strength of the safe that keeps your things secure, but how well the safe is hidden.
4. One possible plan is to cut a hole big enough for the safe into the concrete floor (perhaps in the  basement), bolt it down and then put something easy to move (like your clothes dryer) over it.
5. Another is to cut into a wooden floor, bolt the safe down, then cover it with a rug and put furniture over it.
6. If you’re not good with tools, an easy solution is to cut it in the drywall in a closet (these safes are designed to fit between studs) and put clothes or boxes in front of it to disguise it.
7. The main goal is to make it time-consuming to locate the safe.
8. Burglars know you probably have a silent alarm linked to the police station, and that they have 3 to 5 minutes to get in, grab what they can, and get out.
9. Another option is a safe deposit box. It is not my favorite choice, but you may want to use one if your Gold is delivered before you get your safe installed.

SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES TO REMEMBER 

1. Don’t tell anyone what you have or where it is hidden.
2. An exception to this rule is that if you are single, you need to tell someone, preferably the executor of your will.
3. Don’t add Gold and Silver to your homeowner’s policy. Insurance companies are required to keep your information private. But they all have employees who can be bribed to provide a list of names and addresses where Precious Metals are located.
4. Concealment is better than strength. The stronger the safe, the larger it will be.
5. Most of us have a “junk room” – a spare bedroom where you put all the stuff you don’t know what to do with. Install your safe in the closet of this room, then pile the boxes and bags of stuff that was already there in front of your safe.
6. Never hide your safe in the master bedroom. After quickly searching your living room, they will spend the rest of their time in your bedroom – because they know that most people like to keep their stuff close to them.
7. The more difficult you make it for crooks to find your stuff, the better. Put it behind heavy furniture; cover it with carpet; hide it inside a cabinet or other furniture.
8. Always bolt your safe down. Even a huge gun safe can be taken from your home with a simple dolly. But they won’t be able to move it if it’s been bolted in place.
9. Don’t worry if you are a renter. Cutting out a small piece of drywall in a closet is simple, and easily replaced. Save the drywall, and when you move you can easily replace it, fill the gaps with drywall mud from Home Depot, then sand and paint it.  If you don’t want to do it yourself, and handyman will do it for you for $100. That’s a small price to pay for having had your safe hidden while you lived there.

 
TYPES OF SAFES 

1. Most “safes” that are advertised are not safes at all. They are containers with a lock, and are usually Fire Rated. But they are not burglar-proof. Don’t be impressed by claims that they can survive a 30-foor drop, or be immersed in water without any water getting inside. Those add nothing to the difficulty of breaking in to the safe.
2. Whatever type of safe you choose, make sure it has a Fire Rating of at least 30 minutes – one hour is more common. Unless you live far away from a town, your fire deptment will be at your home in three to five minutes, so long Fire Ratings (like two hours) will just add to the cost of the safe, and won’t be beneficial.
3. Fire Rated safes are inexpensive. If you go for a burglary rated safe, you will spend much more; and they are much heavier. Unless you have a huge amount of stuff to protect (or just have money to throw around), hiding your safe well will do the job.
4. A minimum rating for a burglary is a TL15, certified by UL (Underwriter’s Laboratory). This rating means that it would take an experienced safecracker with modern tools 15 minutes to break into your safe. Since the cops will probably be on the scene in 5 minutes, that’s fine for most people. A TL 30 is good for 30 minutes, and so on.

 
A “DECOY” SAFE 

1. Having a cheap, easy-to-find “decoy safe can keep the crooks occupied so that they don’t have time to look for the real safe.
2. Get a cheap safe from Costco. Don’t worry about Fire Ratings – this is just for show.
3. Install it in the dumbest possible place – in the wall right in front of your front door.
4. Hang a framed print or photo over it.
5. The crooks will probably pry it out of the wall with a crowbar and take it back to their lair to open it. So make sure there’s something inside that will sound real; some loose change cheap costume jewelry, perhaps some photocopies of important-looking papers.
6. Make sure you include a note to the bad guys: “Gotcha! I hope the cops catch you and put you in prison for a long time.”

 
YOUR ALARM SYSTEM 

1. These days EVERYONE needs one. You can order inexpensive kits with wireless devices, and install it within an hour with no wiring required.
2. An alarm system is useless unless it I connected to a Central Station ( a monitoring service that will send police, fire or medical personnel depending on which alarm is triggered.
3. Make sure you have a good battery backup for power outages, and check it regularly.
4. A smart crook will cut your phone lines before he breaks in to defeat your alarm system, since the monitoring people are notified by phone. So make sure you have a cell phone notification system that will call Central Station if the regular phone lines are cut.

 
OTHER POSSIBILITIES BESIDES SAFES
 
Proverbs 8:12 says, “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.”
“Witty inventions” is King James language for great, innovative ideas. Ask the Lord to show you the best, creative places to hide your stuff you don’t want to install a safe. Here are a few ideas:
 

1. A private vault company. These have the same types of safe deposit boxes as your bank, but will cost you twice as much – perhaps $50 to $75 dollars per year for a small box. There are two upsides. Since these are considered storage facilities, not banks, they don’t have to be licensed by the government. That means they don’t have to shut down when the government declares a “bank holiday.” And they are private. In most cases you can use any name, and they won’t ask for your social security number.
2. A hole in the ground – otherwise know as “Midnight Gardening.” After dark when your neighbors can’t see you, dig a hole (three feet is plenty) and place a water-tight container in the hole.
3. Offshore. It is best to keep your valuables close to you. That’s why I don’t recommend Gold IRA’s. In an enmergency having you Gold in a vault in Delaware won’t helpful. But if you have large amounts of valuables, you may want to consider diversifying- having your stuff in several locations. This works well if you live close to a border or have friends in other countries.
4. Hide things in furniture or cabinets. You can buy inexpensive magnetic locks that will keep the door from opening unless you use your magnetic fob. In the unlikely event that the crooks take the time to open every cabinet door in your house, they will just think that door is stuck.
5. Creative hiding places. I don’t have time to go through all of them here, and most are easier to understand by seeing photos. So I have done a one-hour video on this subject that goes int much greater detail, both on creative ideas and new technology, and also on safes and how to install them. You can see the video at https://christianfinancialconcepts.com/article.php?id=5177

 
SUMMARY 

1. A small, well-hidden safe is better than a huge thick-walled one.
2. This works whether you rent or own,
3. Tell no one outside your household.
4. Make sure you have the “right stuff.” Cash in your safe when the U.S. Dollar crashes will only be useful as toilet paper. Protect your family and assets with Gold and Silver. Go to www.ChristianFinancialConcepts.org and request the Gold Education Starter Package.