I get asked a similar type of question to this often so think the investors age needs to be considered. Have the below suggestion of percentages of Gold holdings to Silver based on age: less than 25 = 0% Gold 25 to 30 then 10% 30 to 35 then 20% 35 to 40 then 30% 40 to 45 then 40% 45 to 50 then 50% 55 to 55 then 60% 55 to 60 then 70% 65 to 70 then 80% 75 to 80 then 90% over 80 then 100% Gold Not sure if this answers you question? Point being IM A BIG AG LOVER but even I have no real concrete date before the explosion so prefer to provide conservative percentages for wealth protection over pure profit.
That's interesting Ag, but I disagree. I garnish some of my son's wages (21 years old) and tell him I'm buying PM's for him. I've told him just to stick to gold only, it's purpose: wealth preservation for when he needs it in the future. It's kind of the opposite theory to yours. I view my theory simply as: a double mirrored clumpy bell shaped curve thingy with bars according to age. My way of reasoning is earning capacity is greatest in our middle age once we've worked for 10 - 20 years. Therefore you should be looking to store as much of your earnings in a wealth preservation asset early and late in life when access to high income is less likely. Leave the risk taking for when you have an established core position and can afford it the most. Now that idea flies in the face of conventional financial advice I know. Another point is that once a position in gold has been established, you will still be buying gold as you age rather than just silver because you don't want to be diluting your initial position by just purchasing silver in order to make up it's % allocation of the total stash. If I can use an analogy to describe my point of view, young people should not buy flash cars, they should wait until they're older. Same with a flash house. Kids should establish themselves before taking on greater risk. Same with boats and houses, not women though (or blokes if you're a girl) - if you get a good one early, snag em. These figures are just random and of course it makes sense that at certain periods in your life you may not have any gold or silver because the market is crap and some other form of asset may be more beneficial eg cash. But if we view PM's as being the best source of wealth preservation than we could agree a position in gold is imperative. It's graph time!!!!!!!!!! PS I'm aiming for 120% but haven't reached it - don't know why the 120% line is there.
Butch, your topic heading talks about a ratio...but your question seems to be about a total number of ounces. But a simple answer to both is...whatever you're comfortable with. I'm not being cryptic either. You'll find as you stack that you'll just get the feeling you're too heavy in 1 area and need to balance that out. Only you can find that mark...and it'll come through experience. It's different for everyone but one thing I will suggest (and I'm sure there'll be members here that disagree, but) if you're early in your stacking, don't do metal swaps to get your stack in balance. eg, If you're short in gold, don't swap out your silver for it. Always accumulate. Spend all your effort and energy on aquiring more.
Regards mmm...shiney! thoughts on allocations. Sounds nice and some logic behind it - however, it would imply for the Stacker who is starting out to acquire firstly a position in gold ?! So the minimum amount required per transaction for a reasonably priced gold coin would be aroudn $180 for a Half sov or something aroudn 1/10 oz gold size. If one is starting out, i would always recommend 'organic' beginnings with SILVER first, and to not be venturing into gold in any form until at least 1 kg of silver is acquired. After the 1st Kg of silver to slowly start with gold coins under $200 a pop. Of course, those who when they make the decision to enter the market of precious metals go on a spending spree of $2500 or more at once - can make gold purchases from the 1st transaction. But with silver, one learns to walk firstly before they run or dance.
It's hard to say what's a good ratio because the sentiment changes all the time. When Silver was having its crazy bull run I was fretting about having too much Gold and not enough Silver. Now I'm glad I have Gold and wish I had more Gold, less Silver since Gold is going crazy. I believe it comes down to personal preference, stack what you want however you want, at the end of the day it's yours
Thanks mate :lol: Different horses for courses. Agree, life is for living but if you're smart with your earnings, life can be for living throughout your whole life. And for your kids when you're gone. The times they are a changing. We grew up in different times, just like our grandparents did, our kids will probably have to grow up in an environment more like our pappy's pappy or even our pappy's pappy's pappy. My pappy voted Publican, and his pappy's pappy voted Publican. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kngBtoylIVM[/youtube]
Well, I'm fairly young... (<25). I stack both Gold and Silver, but have Silver stacked more as it's more affordable. Although I have more Silver than Gold, I firmly believe that Gold is the more stable investment. I also believe that both will shoot up in the not to distant future. If I had the money, precious metals portfolio would be : 80% Gold 20% Silver. Currently I'm approximately 80% Silver 20% Gold
In my mind I can't really justify buying much gold based on the current GSR. When that GSR is approaching its natural ratio as it is in the ground then I'd be interested in swapping the vast majority of my silver for gold.
Yes, for the reasons I explained. Lots of logic mate, I'm good at logic. And chart making. Yes it's a slow train. You can't have what you desire immediately, you have to work at it, or get a high paying job. Always building and trying to retain security before speculating. Thucy, I don't understand your use of the word "organic". According to your theory a kid would save $1000 say, buy a kg of silver and then they can buy as much as gold as they can afford? Why the 1kg pre-requisite? So what you're saying is, if you've got enough money, buy a kilo of silver and nearly an ounce of gold from your first purchase if you wish. Yes but the price of silver is volatile. Not good to be establishing a wealth base with a product that is unstable. "You walk where the ground is cool but dance across the coals" - Guru Shiney, 2011.
Wow the above was an interesting read...not religious but remember a Bible story where 5 blind men all describe an Elephant. Each description was completely different to the others yet all had the same 'source' to work from... Truth be you could follow any of the above and walk away a winner - which is better is up to the individual I guess and time to decide. Mines stated but I don't follow my own advice I can be reckless or risk whatever with my own money but always become risk adverse with others hard earned.
Organic buying... in my view, is when someone decides to start buying precious metals and than they start from the first steps. A few silver 1 oz coins, and than an oz by oz, till they reach 1kg roughly in silver ( from all those smaller purchases ), it would be strange for someone to 'dip' their toes into PMs with the 1st purchase being a 1kg silver bar/coin - unless that someone is loaded and the 1kg silver is less than 1/6th of value of initial transaction. To start collecting gold coins, id always recommend to start of with buying of silver coins firstly - unless again, one is loaded and doesnt need to 'bother' with silver and initial steps. i started from 0, and was buying a silver coin here and a silver coin there - and havent had larger purchases til maybe feb of this year. and never had any free/available money till i discovered silver. it has thought me lots,..
I don't understand why you would start buying silver first if you want to end up with gold. Makes more sense to just buy gold.
I've always thought a good starting goal should be whatever you need to live off of in bad times for at least a year. Like if you need $25,000 to get by for a year, your goal should be at least $25,000 worth of gold (in present dollars). That way, you have a really solid safety net if your bank account or job gets wiped out by an economic crisis.
There are pretty much 2 ways to buy metals. the fast and the slow way. Fast : I have $5k or more sitting in a bank account and i choose NOT to have my wealth continue sitting in a bank account - so i go to a dealer and end up buying metals with the lets say $5k Slow: Money is tight, i got bills to pay and stuff and i choose to start buying precious metals. But hang on, i can only set aside $100 per fortnite - in this case one starts buying SILVER coins - so fortnite after fortnite one keeps buying Kooks, 66 50 Cent pieces, etc After one has accumulated at least a 1kg of silver in this way - one should try to swap some silver for a gold coin ( currently and in this environment - id always recommend that gold coin to be a Half Sovereign, - nothing fancy, not those minted in Johannesburg, but the cheapest one available- so u trade 4 Kooks & 2 50 Cent pieces for a Half Sovereign. AND STILL CONTINUES to buy silver. If the strategy is to buy every fortnight, or every month - THAN what would be bought ( gold or silver ) depends primarily on the size of the purchases - to buy anything decent in gold ud need to look for Half Sovereigns ( easy to find for arond $185 for 0.1177 oz agw ) or to look for smaller Mexican coins ( 2.5 Pesos is 0.0602 oz agw and costs aroudn $90 - but smaller availability than Half Sovs ). One should aim to have some gold and silver at all times, even if you are exclusively a GOLD bull or a SILVER bull. Id recommend to hold smaller exposures in the Platinum and the Palladium group as well - . As time passes and individual ratios change, than one should perform sensible trades and increase total oz. But just buying silver and NEVER trading some for gold, and expecting to trade the silver for gold when its 16:1 is a suboptimal strategy - it has to be Even if the GSR started to drop 44 40 35 30 25 . . . and i were a silver holder- id be trading on the way down ( even if i believe that eventually they will meet and 'settle' at 16:1 ) so at 35 - you trade 1/10-1/6 th of silver stack into gold ( lock some of those profits in ) and at 30 you trade above + 10% of silver stack into gold. but to watch the GSR fall for example from 44 to 20 in the next 4 months ( an example only ) - it would be foolish for the silver holder to still be entirely in silver and keep watching the GSR to be at 20:1 and to CONTINUE to wait for 16:1 and than swap it - Because - there are OTHERS who also have plans to swap - so if its 20:1 you will have ( 95% of other silver holders ) who are thinking, the GSR is coming down, only a few more points and il go to swap it for gold at 16:1 , and than when its lets say 18:1 - ud have a large number of silver holders ( both in physical - and more importantly in paper going to swap it for gold ) which would create a 'mini-stampede' from silver to gold - which will throw the GSR of course which means the 16:1 wouldnt be seen in another few months. DONT EVER WAIT TO DO SOMETHING AT THE SAME TIME EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT - it will just raise the prices too much and any equity gains will have been gone in the price rises. This recent run up in GOLD SPOT would have been a lot more interesting had silver stayed around $34.80 where it was on tue nite - and a lot more silver would have been traded into gold.
