What are your opinions on the rising prices of silver? I am 18 years old and I wanted to get your guys inputs on investing some of my pay check on silver bars/coins. I just bought a 1 troy oz silver bar for about $44 and I was wondering if it's worth keeping till I'm out of college maybe medical school?
That really depends on what your goals are. Do you want to: make a profit bearing investment? Protect your wealth as you progress through life? have a hedge against inflation? Have something to barter with "just in case". For me, I invest in silver for all of these reasons... However for almost all situations i would recommend: I would recommend putting a % of your paycheck into: half your funds into 1 ounce rounds or coins (ASE's or Maples), and the other half into junk silver aka 90% silver (Quarters, halfs, dimes, minted 1964 and prior). Junk silver carries the smallest premium, it is the most recognized, it is the most divisible if you need to barter, the most liquid, gov't minted, carries a small face value. So in summery, Put half your money into 1 ounce rounds (or bars, brand names are best, but thats another topic) or coins, and the other half into junk silver. As for the price of silver, I (and many many others) believe that it will continue to perform very well. It is still well under priced when you consider the historical gold/silver ratio. I would suggest that after you buy your silver, you hang on to it for virtually forever, or until you need to sell/trade it. Its like having a security blanket.
I'm 18 so I really don't have a clue financially, I mean I would like to have something to cash in one day to make a big profit as well has to have just in case ____ happens ya know?
Well, its a neat thing to have. Long term, putting 10% of your assests into gold/silver would be wise.
Your worry about a (singular) one ounce silver bar tells me you cannot stomach the ups and downs of any of the markets: Stock, bond, metals, farmers, etc. Only you know your risk/reward tolerance. "Invest until you cannot sleep, then back off." - The Oracle of Omaha. Personally, I have a few hundred ounces with a cost basis below $20. I would love for silver to drop to $6 an ounce or lower again and stabilize. That would make my day. Why? Because I could back the truck up and increase my inflation hedge. Also, I would love for silver to hit $100 an ounce and stabilize. Why? I'd make money, IF I sold. Bottom line for me, I want it to stabilize and not play this up and down crap. However, I can ride the lightning because I have other investments that earn me more money. Silver is one of my security blankets. Bottom line for you, you need to go read some books about investing and economics. Since you don't know what you are doing, you are going to hurt yourself.
The fact that you are 18 and thinking about investing puts you ahead of 90% of the other 18 year olds out there. If you want to invest in silver, one of the most simple ways to do it is to buy silver rounds or junk silver. I like these two because they don't carry the premium you pay for some bullion coins like ASEs(American Silver Eagles). Silver bars are another option. You can buy either through APMEX, on line via eBay, or at your local brick and mortar coin shop. The smartest way to do it, as some have already suggested, is to buy some every month out of your paycheck. Set aside $100 a month or whatever you can afford and consistently buy whatever amount of silver that dollar amount will purchase. This is called dollar cost averaging. It is a good strategy for investing, because you buy more of the commodity at the dips, when the price is low, and less at the peaks, when the price is high. The other piece to this strategy is to stay in the game for the long haul. Here is where your age comes in, since you are young, you have the potential to accrue serious long term gains the longer you hold your commodity. Precious metals are a great hedge against inflation. As the dollar's value erodes over time, your precious metals will increase in value proportionally. This strategy works for other investments as well. You can dollar cost average your way into mutual funds, stocks, bonds or whatever. Even real-estate can be thought of as a dollar cost average proposition, as you pay some principle into your home every month. Time is your biggest assett, and it is heavily in your favor as an 18 year old. In fact I would recommend you diversify, most financial advisors will tell you that you should have no more than 10-15% of your investment portfolio in precious metals. That percentage is probably a lot higher for most of the people on this forum, as they are familiar with gold and silver. If you take the long term view, even at $40/oz, I believe silver is a good investment. Either way good luck!
I just bought one $44/0z bar because it's the first one i've ever bought. I just wanted to test the waters. Once I get more information on what to buy, I would willingly buy. Right now, I'm also a roll searcher, It's kinda late in the game but it is a time killer. I may spend part of each paycheck, to buy a bar or two.
That's interesting because Ifeel that the only reason to own silver is to make a "quick profit" over the next couple of years. There is a pretty good chance that the rate of return on silver will be less than satisfactory over the next 20 years. But there could be enormous profit potential over the next couple of years for those who sell when the price gets crazy high.
If you have plans to go to medical school, it might be a good idea to avoid anything that is a "time killer."
I feel that someone who is expecting a "quick profit" may not be able to handle a huge loss. of course this pretty much applies to everything else, still though. My investing reasons are to protect my wealth, have a hedge against inflation, have something to barter with "just in case", and several other reasons.
I agree with this, but would add for me, that I prefer the zig-zag moves/trades as it can limit losses in case of a crash to just the last trade rather than 2+ yrs of holding without any taking of profit. IMO. Jim
Maybe, maybe not. My whole approach to market is to expect volitility and structure my holdings with that in mind. So my personal expectations don't have a big effect on my investment actions, which are largely mechanical these days.
I try to own things in major long term uptrends [primarily PMs and oil stocks these days] and trade a little along the way on major moves. So while I have expecatations for what silver will do, I don't bet the ranch on it. But I think the way you do it is probably safest because you will always catch the major trends up and avoid the ones going down.
I recommend waiting for when it drops back to $20. It was LESS than $20/oz for 3/4ths of 2010. Now people are falling over each other to pay over $50 on ebay for one ounce. Things are bad but I find it hard to believe we're at "silver rising a dollar a day" bad. Moves that used to take 6 months to a year are happening in days now. What's real and what's not? Who knows any more? I wouldn't go crazy buying at this time.
