We now have the answer to the important question I discussed last week: “He will.” Or technically, he did, asserts Mike Larson, growth and income expert and editor of Safe Money Report.
Over the long holiday weekend here in the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to recognize the breakway Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine. He then sent Russian troops across the border into those regions, triggering the first round of sanctions from the US and our NATO allies.
Diplomats and pundits have been debating whether this constitutes an “invasion” or not. But let’s be clear. It is.
Moreover, Putin himself made clear in fiery comments on Sunday that he wants to bring back what he sees as his country’s glory days. He views the Soviet Union’s breakup...and the eastward encroachment of NATO-backed democracies that followed...as dual disasters. And he wants to reshape Europe’s future to fix those past “mistakes.”
What happens next? That depends on how much Putin wants to press his luck and/or military advantage.
He could try to push Ukrainian forces out of the remaining territory the breakaway republics claim, but that Ukraine still controls. He could attempt to attack the capital Kyiv from the north using forces staged in Belarus. He could try to carve the country up in order to create a “land bridge” between Russia proper and Crimea, which Putin already annexed in 2014.
But it’s highly unlikely Putin will just stand pat given how many troops, artillery pieces, tanks missiles, and other hardware he’s staged all around Ukraine.
And of course, given his “grand vision,” it’s only logical to ask “what next?” If Putin truly wants to reconstitute some version of the USSR, why wouldn’t he eventually turn his eyes to the Baltic states? They were formerly part of the Soviet Union after all.
None of this is what I want to happen. But as I’ve said in various commentaries for various reasons over the years, you only have one sane course of action as an investor. Invest for the market environment you have, not the one you may want.
With that in mind, I can’t stress enough how important it is to stick with “Safe Money” strategies and Safe Money investments.
That means owning a higher than usual allocation of precious metals and mining shares.
It means continuing to rotate out of overvalued, overhyped growth stocks and in to undervalued, underowned value names.
It means keeping more cash in your portfolio to take advantage of panic-driven dips driven by scary headlines.
Finally, it means focusing like a laser on income-generating tactics and investments. Putting more cold, hard cash in your pocket at a time of negative, inflation-adjusted interest rates and the worst geopolitical chaos in years.
I’m doing my best to help you do exactly that...and I recommend you stick to my strategies in these challenging times.
