I use other peoples money to pay down my debt, by the way of rent, hence creating equity and an asset owned by me but paid for by someone else, I also pay down my debt by the way of benefits provided back to me from the government by depreciation benefits, which are actually a deduction provided to me without actually reaching into my pocket. No body will rent my physical silver, they will just buy their own, the government wont give me extra deductions from my physical silver and my physical silver cannot be easily leveraged. Also the original poster asked what was a smarter way between the two, not a social or moral issue, sure my strategy may not be socially acceptable to you in the long term, but it provides a service/home for someone today, at the same time increasing my wealth much quicker than silver, in my opinion, with my strategy.
Easy decision really, purchase the inner city apartment with your million then use the rent to purchase silver until you reach a ton, then you have the best of both worlds.
The fact a lot of people I know could easily buy their own weight in silver shows how utterly undervalued silver currently is (compared to historic silver value). Would you rather buy under-valued asset silver, or over-priced real estate?
Thanks for the interesting responses, really opened a can of worms here. If I had the $1 million I'd pay off my mortgage, spend the rest on silver. Hold it till roughly 2020 and sell for a nice profit (hopefully the masses will have discovered silver and driven up the price well into triple figures), then buy some farm land and a tractor yeeeehaaaw!
Bit curious why u quoted me and posted commented something differently entirely lol Alas i was just cracking a joke A block of land would be proberly another great way of spending it.... Ive always fathomed the idea in the far distant future of buying a huge block and building a solar farm, selling power back to the grid and living off that as a passive income.. sorta like this ...
some good points in this thread on both sides of the coin.....and i agree silver is undervalued and that's why i stack it. however my income property brings in $15k/month that was purchased with a mere $200K 20 years ago. Rental income brings in the majority and the rest through two cell towers. My silver stack is steadily growing but i hardly look at it as a way to increase my wealth but rather just to maintain what i have and pass all Silver i own onto my son. The whole reason i started buying silver and gold is because i want to have hard assets aside from real estate that can be passed down to future generations of my family. At least i know even if my son cannot maintain the building to keep making the money it is making now he will still have a reserve of real money..ie silver for insurance purposes. Maybe if i bought in at $5/oz or $10/oz i would feel differently about silver but i am not in it to get rich....but on the other hand my real estate investments are my best ways to date for increasing wealth...to date i have not made a dollar on silver but again that is not why im in the silver game. Silverbulldog
As a real estate broker who specialized in farms & ranches, development, and commercial real estate for over 30 years in Colorado, I realize what a great investment real estate can be. I've owned a lot. Right now, I don't own any. I see real estate as having ongoing demand, but with so few able to qualify for loans to buy, and the business community being on the ropes right now, I think real estate is not a great investment - right now. Wait until the economy starts to really improve. (I don't think the 'feel-good' vibes going around right now are valid. This is an election year. Let's see what things are like this time next year) People I know in the commercial real estate business, and in the lending business, are saying real estate's going to be down another few years. Be patient.
The other differences of Silver vs. Real Estate, in my experience are: Because Silver is portable and can be hidden (okay, for you nit-pickers out there, silver can be reduced in size and weight by converting to Gold) - Silver (or Gold) can be made relatively safe from confiscation or theft. Imagine someone sees you have an office building or restaurant. Imagine they decide to sue you for some perceived wrong - or an ex-wife decides to clean you out. Or the IRS may up and decide you owe a bunch of back taxes. Your real estate is an easy target. Your gold and silver, not so much - especially if it's well hidden and you haven't run off at the mouth boasting to everyone about what you have. Silver (and Gold) are very liquid. If you need cash today, you can sell the silver. Real estate? You can sell it fast if you're willing to take a fraction of what it's worth. Just my observations.
Silver is portable with a one tonne ute - possibly build a little house on the tray with all those blocks You then have a mobile home, kick ar$e stack and live on the 'real estate' covered by your rego
I'm in the Marina-Management business these days (taking an extended leave of absence from commercial real estate). I've seen boaters who are retired and independently wealthy, touring the world from port to port in their larger sailboats. Many of them have stashed gold and silver - the only true International Money - aboard their vessel someplace. Yes, they have the credit and debit cards. But they have that truly portable 'cash' well hidden with them.
Just remeber u have to gove back building depreciation when you sell unless u plan on having it for 40 years lol
most likely in america as those sort of rental yields are un heard of in australia. Even if u spent 200k 30 years in australia on units. The mainatance and land tax would leave you with nothing. Ahh the benefits of living in a socialist country
You got that right. You and I ought to join up with John Galt, wherever he is! (Remember the book/movie Atlas Shrugged?
A great idea I agree, what I find really interesting is who sits on the board of this company and the $1.5M Govt Grant, so you reckon someone was not providing some helping hands somewhere. I am the least knowledgeable when it comes to politics, but boy that stuck out like a couple of you know whats Edit - Oh yeah the 30 year contract sounds good as well, while we are here.