Wow. Look at what has happened to the price of gold and silver. Gold down below $1275, and silver under $20 an ounce. Nothing close to their historical lows, but both lower than they have been in 3 years.
Now, there are some people out there who make the purchase of precious metals a higher priority. I like to have some on hand, but I also have been known to do some profit taking off it. At one point, I bought a couple of 10-ounce silver bars, and then when silver rose to about $24 an ounce, I sold them, but I then took the money from those sales and put them into other...stable products.
I kind of look at long term planning the same way I do a stock portfolio...diversification. Metals are nice, but so are bullets, and medicines, and candles, and matches, and alcohol, and lots of other things. In this hierarchy, I see metals as a compact, convenient source of wealth...and gold is much different than silver. Both of them will have a use, but that useful period is when things are getting bad, not when they are already really, really bad. There will come a point where folks figure they can eat silver, or shoot a squirrel or bad guy with silver, and that's when the other shelf stable items have their uses.
But for now, silver is what's on sale, so that's what I'm buying.
Ohh!!. It's great time for investing on gold. The rates can be higher by the next year and i think this is the perfect time to buying gold coins.
ReplyDeleteI agree, with a bit of a reservation. I have been suggesting that gold and silver have been marshaled as hedges for the rich and for nations. If they, in large enough groups or collectively, find a better hedge, or make one, or simply need raw cash, and dump these instruments, the price will plummet. Just understand that these are okay, for a true collapse hedge, but aren't good instruments for "creating wealth". Their value is subject to want more than need. While the price is good, comparatively, I do believe they are still greatly inflated. Albeit, when the economic hammer comes down, and it will, they might be the only 'currency' still functioning to some degree, so will (may) be priceless (to obtain, but still of limited actual trade value). It's an iffy game.
ReplyDeleteI just warn people who think the 'value' will only go up. But then, you are a thinking man, and are tending to food stores and such, so... If I had something to spare I would probably buy silver too, I just wouldn't be doing it to get rich. Actually silver dipped to $20 before, rather recently, but India stepped in and bought the reserves China had dumped to dip the price, which brought it right back up. Proof in the pudding how fast prices can rocket down, and how.