I am always amazed by the countless financial advisors who give various investment strategies for troubled economic times. But what do you do when you have no money to invest? Thinking about dividends, stock returns, and 401ks is important, but if you are laid off, underemployed or flat broke, the thought of planning for retirement is largely ludicrous. I say this from personal experience. When for example you have lost your life savings from a business failure, it is hard to see beyond the realities of food and clothing.

So what should you do? Should you simply ignore the experts and your successful friends who pout about having lost several hundred thousand dollars in the market, yet still maintain million dollar homes, college funds, and large bank accounts? One thing you can do is micro invest. When I lost my not so small fortune in business, I found myself in a very depressed mood. So what I did is I started looking for the most affordable option to invest. I considered a certificate of deposit but found that the minimum was typically a thousand dollars. After a little research I found something what worked for me.

It was silver coins. Silver like gold is a tangible asset. You can actually hold it in your hands. It is something that unlike paper stocks never completely loses its value and instead is typically a safe and moderately growing asset. A typical circulated Morgan Silver Dollar at the time of writing sells for approximately fifteen to sixteen dollars. That's a couple of movie tickets. Even if you can only afford a coin a week or one a month, the number can build over time.

With the current federal deficit and the growing federal debt, most economists agree that interest rates must ultimately rise as the dollar falls in value. While gold is certainly the preferred asset given such forecasts, silver has some practical advantages and typically rises in value under such circumstances. It's obviously less expensive and affordable for even poor people like myself. Furthermore, silver has a practical uses in industries such as the semiconductor industry. It's in demand, and is apparently undermined.

A fifteen dollar coin may not solve your retirement problems, but collecting them over time and actually having something in your hands that you can touch, can go far in lifting your spirits and adding to your recovery.