I used to tell myself that my collateral tied up in gold and silver is just like money in the bank. Sure i'm not earning interest but it is pretty much as liquid. However, I recently had to stare down the barrel of having to sell some and really thought about it. I realised that I had a few months to wait until I could safely say I had owned it over a year. (capital gains concerns). So I found myself recanting this belief. However once you have pm's over a year old you can probably juggle what you sell and claim it being a year old maybe.
IMHO your perspective is wrong. First of all I consider PM's as a PPP Purchasing Power Protector <- at the moment, obviously they weren't always protecting Your PP but at the moment they do. Secondly LONG term investment. If You want liquidity I'd say go for ETF's So are they like money in the bank? No, they are not, there is some resemblance obviously but thats all, just a resemblance.
