What’s happening in Afghanistan right now has placed a significant financial burden on US taxpayers.

Just short of 20 years, America’s longest war has taken over 2,400 service member’s lives. Not including the lives of aid workers, journalists, US contractors and more, the total amount of lives lost reach over 100,000.

The US has spent more than $2 trillion of borrowed money to pay for the war.

That’s $300 million dollars spent per day, every day for two decades.

And because of that, the next generations of Americans will be burdened by the cost of paying it off.

Brown University researchers estimated that more than $500 billion in interest has been paid and figure that by 2050, the cost of interest alone on the war debt could reach over $6 trillion.

To put it into context, the cost is equal to $20,000 for each and every American citizen.

There are so many tragedies here.

American soldiers’ lives lost, money spent, the accumulated debt, and what is accomplished… We are not so sure with the Taliban completely taking over Afghanistan in less than a month.

Financial strategists are flagging potential long-term scenarios, like the US becoming a breeding ground again for international terror attacks.

The war may be coming to an end, but the human cost is incalculable and the economic burden is far from over.

US taxpayers have been giving Afghan soldiers $750 million a year in payroll and the cost so far to care for 20,000 US casualties has been $300 billion with roughly another half-trillion expected to come.

Afghanistan is a tragic metaphor for everything that could go wrong and the serious implications that will go far beyond the current administration.

We talk a lot about the importance of having a plan B in place. This is an excellent reminder that one of the most essential parts of having a plan B is knowing when to act and not waiting until it’s too late.

During stable times, usually when we’re not in the middle of a pandemic or having to worry about terrorist attacks, the need for a second plan doesn’t seem so apparent.

Unfortunately, we are far from anything stable and it could be time to rethink what plan B is set in place.

Louis-Vincent Gave, chief executive officer at Gavekal Capital told Bloomberg that, “the unraveling in Afghanistan poses questions about the U.S. and its role in the world… And it will be bullish for gold, the ultimate antifragile asset at times of geostrategic strife.”

Historically in such times of economic turmoil and with the amount of existing global friction like there is right now, gold is traditionally seen as a top-performing asset.

That’s why it has received its nickname as a safe haven.

Inflation isn’t going anywhere soon according to this wealth manager who believes it is likely to persist over the intermediate-term for many reasons including the US’ excessive levels of debt.

The US has more debt today than it ever has, with a debt to GDP ratio of nearly 300%.

Then add the Afghan war debt that’s left to Americans to pay for.

Last year, the emergence of the pandemic drove gold to break its all-time price high.

This year, we have the surfacing of a new virus strain that continues to hold the economy back, geopolitical uncertainty, the risk of terror attacks, and the year isn’t over yet…

Call American Hartford Gold today at 800-462-0071 to learn how to protect your wealth and retirement with tangible assets like gold.