How I got into bullion investing.

i personally feel that buying gold at under to about 900 and silver at 17 to 20 was much better then keeping a 401k.if the market changes you can always reinvest and if it should make a commodity change that drives gold back to 900 you would now gain again from a stronger dollar.just what i think and no i am not mad at myself for more then doubling my money.

 

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I recall back in the 1990s the mantra was buy the dips with tech stocks. [I even recall the one-decision stock craze of the 1970s.] And this worked very well for several years, right up to the day when it stopped working and those who bought the final dip saw a large percentage of their portfolio vanish. So the question is, who is going to tell everyone which dip is the last dip for PMs? I know many people believe PMs will never drop signifincantly again in their lifetime, or at least for a good number of years, but let's be real -- that's a fairy tale. PMs are not a one decision investment. Such a thing doesn't exist. And market history has shown that the greatest number of investors jump on the bandwagon late in a bull market. I don't know if it is late or not, but it's more than a decade old -- very old by bull market standards.

 

you know who the smart money is how exactly?

Of course its about being on the right side of the odds. PM's have had a good run, but I wouldn't say its been huge. (silvers inflation adjusted high would be at least $125, so its at about 1/4 its all time high currently)

Lmao about the few more spins around the sun comment, age has very little to do with intelligence or wisdom. We'll see who is right over the next few years.

There are many reasons to believe PM's will outperform stocks in general. (of course some individual stocks will do better). I'm not going to go through all the reasons but I simply have to disagree that the smart money is going into equities at current times.

 

Rather than buy bullion why not buy gold and silver comm. legal tender coin issues'? Thanks to raising spot prices there numi value is all about gone and they sell in secondary markets for spot price.

 

The other good thing about "junk silver" is that, should the price of silver drop, some dates can retain numismatic value, offering an additional level of protection.

...unless you've ruined them by "shining them up". Please, please, stop doing this. I know shiny silver is beautiful, but you're not only ruining any extra value you might have gotten out of those coins, you're ruining them for everybody who gets them after you, until they land in the melting pot.

 

cleaning is wrong even though people keep doing it.according to david bowers he feels that there would be no such thing as a proof 65 of any year if the coins were not cleaned and taken care of properly.this is in his book grading coins by photographs.

 

LOL I knew that would get a rise out of ya. You are correct about intelligence. That is something you are born with, but Wisdom is a different story. That needs to be acquired. There are no short cuts.
Good luck Tinpot

 

Did you mean to say "improperly" here?

 

When it comes to investing there's really only one thing you need to know - Exter's Pyramid. All wealth is built around tangible assets. They can rehypothecate derivatives of derivatives and loan the same garbage around a million times to puff up balance sheets, but this creates no real wealth.

What it comes down to is are you an investor or are you a trader? If you are trading then all these questionable financial vehicles will do just fine for the time being. If you are investing, best be sure you are holding real wealth, and all real wealth comes from the land, whether metals, minerals, gemstones, timber, soil for crops, houses, etc. with rare art being the exception although that still comes from human creativity, and is ultimately only valuable as long as there is a collector's market for it. The commonality being that real wealth is always something that you can hold in your hands, not a piece of paper or an account telling you that you have wealth somewhere else.

401K's are just the financial system's method of forcing you to let them use your money how they choose, which in part goes toward the goal of suppressing the prices of tangible assets so that their puffery looks more enticing in comparison.

 

If I may, I'll explain why I got started in bullion investing.

I was 25 years old in 1997 and I really never had much other than a low paying job, car and apartment. One day my boss sent we to get change for the till and said get 100 1's. on my return trip I was thinking that if that stack was all 100's that would make 10,000, which seemed like all the money in the world. I used tat spark to set out and save up that 10k and in no time I had the 100 100's. To me that meant security and I couldn't think of a jam that that kind of money couldn't get me out of.

Fast forward ten years......turns out I never got in a jam and although it felt good to walk the earth with some cash sitting around, it was a mistake to have it sitting in the safe that long. One of my buddies, Duke, who is a member here commented on this story by saying "if you would have bought gold with that back then, you would have over 50k now. Instead, now you have like 7k in buying power". I learned the hard way that nobody invests in "cash" and unless I'm actively buying something it should be stored properly.

So yes, now I hold some cash in PMs as they are liquid if I need money fast. For what I refer to as my "personal" SHTF scenario. I worry little about what the world will do, as I have little control over that. I need protection and security for things like death, divorce, job loss, relocation, deductibles, lawyer etc. Along side of traditional investments, I don't hear about this benefit enough, is that metals are a private investment. The sale of stocks, MF, real estate, 401s have timelines, penalties and structure that can make getting your money difficult. That, to me is worth the fact that metals may not be the worlds best earners.

I'm just a simple guy and dont know it all and I break it down into small parts, am I missing anything here guys?

 

All wealth is derived from tangible assets in the sense that we live on planet Earth and are physical beings. Beyond that, a lot of wealth has been created and preserved through intangible industries such as software, technology, communications, and even insurance. Many tangible wealth industries could not survive in present form without them. And tangible assets are subject to loss too. Houses burn and depreciate, land can be confiscated through war and law, soil wears out, mines deplete, timber burns and is subject to damage from insects and disease. In a very real sense, the universal law is one of deconstruction. Is any of this relevant? I doubt it. Fortunes can be made and grown from providing services as well as from owning assets.

 

You're not missing anything, but you've set very low goals for your self. You have about 25 good earning years left and if you stick with PMs the whole way through, your retirement may not be as pleasant as it would be in other more conventional investments. So I would keep PMs as part of the portfolio [as I have done], but I would not fear other investments just because of privacy. It's the way the game is played, and you are no more likely to have someone steal, say, common stocks from you as you are likely to lose PMs through theft, fire, etc.

 

This statement is just not true on sooo many levels and that is all I will say about that.

 

Cloud, Yes, Along side of other investments. One can continue to pay off the house, business debt, IRAs, and other investment schemes as that is spreading out the bets/gamble, PLace Your Bets!!! But when I earn an extra 100 bucks say, why not put it aside in some 90% until something practical is needed. Private because when you sell traditional investments everyone has their hands out. Selling an eagle at your B and M, coin show, etc is usually a cash deal and nobodies business.

 

Well, it is actually my buisness if you sell silver for a profit and then do not report the income. Just because you can get away with it does not make it legal. You OWE tax on the profit. When you do not pay your fair share, I need to pay more and that is how it becomes my buisness.

We have been down this road before on CT. Selling Silver "under the table" as we might say, does not alleviate you of your responiblity to pay income tax on any profits you may have realized. So making it easier for someone to break the law is not an valid reason to invest in silver.

 

When I got out of school, I aspired to have a tax problem because that meant I was earning and investing successfully. Living hand to mouth selling junk silver to make purchases isn't an attractive lifestyle to me. Besides, investing is a lot of fun -- an interesting game that isn't too hard to win. It's only gambling if you haven't done the homework, as is buying PMs with the expectation of continuous gains. And I'd rather stay on the right side of the law rather than save money and worry about it.

 

Insurance is a ponzi scheme, by the letter of the definition. Software, technology, etc. is not wealth. It may have value, but for something to be wealth it has to have value because of its inherent properties. Knowledge may be power, but it is not wealth, it's just zeroes and ones.

 

I guess that's all you can say about that. Quantify or fail.

 

No it isn't. look up Ponzi scheme

No one said it was. (but I am not saying it is not) The statement was Wealth has been created through these intangible industries. This is without question, true

Did you just make that up? My Funk and Wagnall says no such thing

Knowledge has nothing to to with ones and zero's

 

Then we'll have to disagree on the definition of wealth. I guess Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are not wealthy by your definition. As long as you define wealthy as ownership of things and not a condition, your definition is too limited to be of practical use in my opinion.

Insurance is not a ponzi scheme. Policyholders are offloading risk for a fee, and hope then never have to collect. In a ponzi scheme, players try to extract more than they put in. Ponzi schemes always fail in short order. Many insurance companies are more than 100 years old, a testament to their soundness.