quote:

At the end of the day hawking silver and gold is a business. They’ve been doing it forever

Yep, if the marketers in the metals felt gold was going to $3000 or $5000, or $10000, why don’t they just keep it then cash in?

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Gold and silver are up 21.3% YTD when measured in fiat dollars. Do gold and silver buy 21.3% more stuff of tangible value?

Hard to find a metric to determine that, since most transactions don't involve precious metals, but I do have one example. I've been trading silver to a local farmer for animal feed for years. It had been 3 oz of silver for 100lbs. of feed for as long as I can remember. Last fall and this year, it has been 2 oz for the same 100 lbs. So, in my statistically irrelevant example, the answer to your question is yes.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:
Your mileage may vary, bit I don’t think of precious metals as an investment. I think of precious metals (including lead & brass) as insurance.

This is the correct answer. But what are you insuring? I have insurance on my life, house and cars etc that pays me cash or replaces it in event of a loss. What other products have no counter party risk and insure me against loss of the dollar (purchasing value).

In other words value of gold/silver has. It gone up, value of paper dollars has gone way way down.

Echoing Rey's advice about a Roth IRA, definitely open one if you haven't already and max out contributions til you retire. That's one of the best investment vehicles we have now. Invest in solid blue chip companies that regularly raise their dividends. When retirement rolls around, you'll be very happy you did.

No real comment about the precious metals. I bought some silver quite a few years ago mostly for kicks and to have some cool coins and bars. I have only a tiny fraction of what you own. Never bought gold, though of course I wish I had now. But the stock market has been very good to me.

Thank you all for all your replies.

1. I do have a ROTH that I contribute to, 12.75% return YTD this year I believe. I'm thinking about upping my contributions to 25% of salary.

2. My "interim" retirement will be from 51~ to whenever I can draw from my TSP and SS. If SS is still a thing in 25+ years. During that time I SHOULD be at about 5K+ a month in pension.

3. I'll likely do contract work with the Agency 1-2 out of 5 years while living right next to NSA Georgia. That will keep my clearance active AND provide a 200-250K bump one in every 5 years. If I decide to split time in a better summer climate then I can do this in the years I don't work.

4. My medical is 100% free with a military retirement. It may not be the best medical with the VA but it IS free.

5. I can also do reserves for the interim which is about 500$ a month on average if it isn't my 2 weeks a year month. I don't know if I'll do this but it is an option.

6. I get 36 months, plus most likely an additional 36 months for 72 months of GI bill, this is based off my expected medical retirement. With this I can attend college for 72 months at E-5 BAH with dependents, which in Augusta right now is 1700$ a month, thats on top of my pension. So I'll likely be pushing 7K for 6+ years, with the contractor work mixed in. If you're asking what 51 year old attends college, GI Bill only requires 1 in person class per semester to qualify, the rest can be online. So $1700 a month for 2-3 hours a week of work is a steal. I can also use this for technical trades, which I might do. Agriculture, firearms, 3D printing design would all benefit me while snagging that FREE income my service earned me.

7. I'll be living 100% debt free, no house, no land payment. Just telephone and car insurance. Internet, some electricity and water, etc. But pretty low monthly expenses. If you don't count the ammo

Again, the precious metals are purchased with what I WOULD have spent on firearms in the past. In addition to these I've secured brass, bullets, powder, and primers for roughly 20K rounds. 50% .223, 20% 10mm, 10% 308, 10% 9mm, rest mixed variety I shoot. This is all on top of my factory ammo that I don't shoot anymore. About the same total amount, just in different ratios. I feel this too is a wise investment. Some of the most recent 7K WLP primers I got for 50$/1K. That seemed like a steal until I saw the original sticker for $15.80/1k. Talk about an investment.

Right after Gulf War 1, I was in the UAE and bought 2K worth of gold bars. Then on the way back from tour 1, I bought another 2K in Qatar. When it hits $3000 an oz, I’ll cash out.

quote:

Originally posted by P220forever:

Did you mean $2,510?

Corrected! I wish it was $1,510...

If the left does continues to "win" elections I would guess firearms, ammo and precious metal ownership will be outright totally banned. The use of any of it for trade value will be rendered useless as the penalty will be too harsh.
It is one thing to have arms & ammo if you will fight the overlords but I don't expect gold, silver, ect to have much value for the common man. Firearms can protect you from people seeking to take your personal food/survival stock pile but if your stock pile is too large the new govt will have already taken it "for the good people".

Quote:My medical is 100% free with a military retirement. End quote

I would expect that to disappear, any medical would be single payer crap that exist in the other socialist countries.

I don't see any way SS can survive with the govt giving to all the illegals flooding this country. Same with welfare.


I can only hope that it will never happen but the better plan is to do everything I can to prevent it.

I have a pension, 401k, SS, and currently health insurance to take care of myself if we start returning our country to the way it was designed to be. Owning gold, ect will justbe some thing else I would be a target for.

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
... but I don't expect gold, silver, ect to have much value for the common man...

Have to agree to disagree on this one. Thousands of years of history has taught us that gold and silver has always had value to man, common or otherwise, under myriad forms of government. This value is intrinsic. Our founders recognized this when writing Article 1 Sec. 10 limiting States rights, by stating that, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts…” Governments can do what they want but, they will not negate this value.

Silver and gold are finite resources and will always have some utility or value after governments and their monetary policies cease to exist.

A lot of the value of gold and silver depends on industrial uses. So if the economy crashes and nothing much is getting manufactured, particularly electronics that accounts for nearly 50 percent of annual silver production, the price of silver will fall. Then, people may dump their silver into the market when they're in dire need. That will depress the value as well.

It's a good idea to have some gold and silver. Primarily relying on it isn't a good idea. The Hunt Brothers sure did give silver trading a go until the SEC got hold of them.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/...ii/S2405851322000459