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Gold and Silver Are Real Assets

Gold and Silver Are Real Assets

January 16, 2023

When I was 12 years old I starting mowing lawns for money. Quickly I found this activity financially rewarding and physically demanding. My best friend Mike and I had a good thing and we often discussed what are other ways to make money and ways to earn better returns than simple passbook saving accounts at bank.  We both had collected postage stamps as a hobby and enjoyed the history and fun of finding something worth value we paid very little for it. The same shop that sold and bought stamps (Deckers) also had gold and silver in various forms.  Our curious minds asked questions and learn and we studied and bought a few coins. We learned more than we realized.

Gold and silver were real assets and had value for metal content as well as unique coin year and type.  We would also call another coin dealer across town (Tom's) and compare pricing on various items. Interesting lesson we learned was about "arbitrage" or the buying and selling same asset in different market. We found that often we would buy coins bulk silver pre 1965 and that sell same coins periodically across town for a profit. We would gather up money go buy at one shop and drive on bikes with bags of silver to the other shop and often could make more money than mowing lawns and this worked for a while but then the shop owners figured out what was going on and got their prices in line with each other.

In college I learned that when the Fed prints money it changes the value of money lower as more of dollars on street worth less and less. At the same time watching gold and silver and other commodities they tend to hold their value or increase in value while printed dollars decrease. Not just gold and silver but other useful assets work to fight inflation as well.  Construction equipment purchased for excellent price will hold value as well for both materials to make go up in value but the unique value of how it can be used in business. 

In light of massive printing of dollars over the past couple of years and rise of inflation for nearly everything- consider adding some gold and silver to your financial holdings.  One other reason to own some gold and silver is when we look at countries around the world that collapse those holding assets like gold and silver suffered much as harm than those holding currencies. In 1971 the US was taken off the gold standard and put on the "petro dollar". If each American had some baseline of silver holding maybe 100 ounces then banking system would be put on notice that another asset class could replace them and act more responsible. Remember The Federal Reserve is a private central bank and not our federal government of We The People.

When you do decide to venture into buying some gold or silver look for companies that have millions of transactions and high ratings not buying in dark alley from a stranger selling you on great deal.  If you would like to discuss your situation and some other reasons I especially like silver at this time then reach out to me.  This article is not to endorse any gold or silver dealers and written to have you think about our currency and inflation and what are prudent assets to own. Gold and silver are real assets.

Common question that pops up are these two 1) what are the advantages of gold over silver? of course gold is more expensive and easier to store as takes up less space. Over the past several decades the ratio price of gold to silver is typically about 15:1 ratio meaning gold has usually been priced 15X the price of silver.  Currently the ratio is off a lot so many say silver is better priced based on the historical ratio. 2) next question is where do I buy gold or silver? Most metals are purchased online and in past coin dealers were the main source of access to buying and selling metals. Do your research to find metal providers with lots of happy customers and good ratings. When you buy metals I would recommend you have it shipped insured and tracked with notification to your cell or email. One last consideration for making silver more attractive right now is the demands for technology uses of silver compared to mining and available above ground silver should support higher prices for silver.