"Liquid" does not mean that you can get as much as you think you'll get later, so that is why I'm saying "be aware" about increasing your debt load. Liquid just means you can sell it for something quickly.

There are a lot fewer absolutes in today's environment. Gold could take a temporary tumble just when you needed to raise a lot of cash, like if interest rates are suddenly jacked up (remember how Paul Volcker popped the gold bubble?). A bad economy or or bout of deflation could dampen demand and/or prices even for firearms/ammo to a surprising extent. Food will always be valuable, sure, but not necessarily the easiest thing to sell in quantities to pay off the balance of your mortage. It's very conceivable that you could find yourself wishing you had simply stuck that cash in the mattress or at least hadn't taken on more debt to buy all that extra (put your favorite liquid asset here).

I'm not saying "don't" but just trying to present the other side of the equation for people to consider.

Edit: One other factor often not stated in relation to "What do I do with my money?" is what is each person's personal timeframe.

I guess this question particularly resonates with me because I have had to make the calculation myself. I have a situation where I may need to pay down/pay off a rather large debt within a year or so. The amount is large enough that I can't really afford to lose any principal in price fluctations because my salary won't allow me to make up the difference on short notice. Look at silver, it got slapped down hard this year at one point. If someone had bought or sold at the wrong time and needed to at least get their original stake back right then, they would've been better off in cash.

With my timeframe and tolerance for capital loss, I have decided that holding this amount in "cash" makes the most senes to me, even knowing that I'm gradually losing purchasing power in real terms with each passing day. If this money were for retirement 20 years from now or "just in case civilization collapses", I'd almost certainly do something totally different with that chunk of change.