If you have been stacking for a good few years now, i was wondering how much of an increase have you noticed in the amount of newcomers and you views on it. also: I only got into it after watching/reading on how bad things could get as paper money goes down the toilet. But why did you, was you well aware of of the economic crisis?
I've been aware of a pending crisis for over twenty years. Nobody wanted to know about it till now but the symptoms have been present for a very long time. It's only in recent years that other people are starting to wake up. Certainly the advent of the Internet has been an epiphany in the distribution of information and has certainly made many more people aware of their environment. I am often found saying that paranoia is a total awareness of ones' environment. Get in early, I always say. I have only been stacking PM's for a short time BTW. A bit over one year.
Be very careful following the herd. Fiat was collapsing and the world was coming to an end so best pile into PMs. Lots of advice on this forum and great excitment as silver and gold steadily rose dramatically. Predictions coming true, USA and Europe in deep SH*T, etc. Stock market rose dramatically as PMs plunged. Had I invested in the stock market I would be 30% up at least today rather than 40-50% down on metals. Lesson to us all !
+1 Absolutely! We do still live in the un real world and must continue to play the game while the music plays. A matter of having contingencies but being diversified and cautious. Very good point my friend.
"Had I invested in the stock market I would be 30% up at least today rather than 40-50% down on metals." Probably correct, but in 3 years you will look back and laugh. OC
There is a continuous chorus of people making hopeful predictions about silver rising soon enough. Silver is a hedge against fiat, IMO. It is nice to have some, but fiat markets were 'nearing a catastrophe in 2002' as I recall. The decades pass by, just as the calls do.
I've been into silver since my first purchase in 2008 ($13 AUD per oz). At that time my father-in-law told my wife I was crazy. When silver reached the high $40s my father-in-law told my wife I was just lucky. Two weeks ago my father-in-law made his first silver purchase (3kg). I never gave him any advice on gold or silver.
Don't listen to forum opinions is my advice - especially price forecasts They are worth exactly what you are paying for them If you have sound reasons that make sense to you and your circumstances, then buy, otherwise don't
Out of interest klacey, from what sources did you first get this info?...mainstream?...or did you have to hunt it down in alternative media after you got worried? I've been in this so long, I haven't got any perspective anymore on whether the mainstream news has shifted.
The system will not collapse but THEY will steal everything not nailed down, either by 'bail-in' or inflation. So make sure your 'wealth' is actually nailed down .
If i remember correctly i was watching some random youtube videos and noticed 'in recommended to you' a bunch of the impending US dollar collapse videos. At first i completely ignored it, i mean who could believe a super power like USA being in trouble. Then more and more showed up so i had a look out of interest and ive never looked back. I dont think anyone can say what will happen, but i sure feel better knowing a got a few options if all goes to hell. Personally i dont think silver will hit the highs some are saying it will. But i do believe its safer and more likely to get me more then putting it into by banks hands.
The internet has indeed been a blessing. I am new to SS but sites like this will only get busier. I don't predict a massive fiat crash but have started to spread my investments as a form of protection that more people will do in the future. Investment or hobby the shiney stuff has to be right for you if your parting with hard or easy earned ca$h.
I've been in silver since the late 80's. Its difficult to tell how many people are "in" the silver market now. Its only the last 10 years or so with the internet people can start to communicate more broadly with others about investments. These days you click on a website, buy a kilo of metal, transfer from your bank account job done! I remember going into my local branch with my passbook, taking out cash then catching the train into the CBD to buy silver or gold ! The ease at which people can now buy (and sell) precious metals in my view must mean a greater % of people are investing compared to say the 1990's. But also remember that in the 1970's and prior people recognized the value of gold (and silver) more widely because many people were still alive who had been through the Depression etc or had escaped europe after WW2 etc and they knew gold and silver were bedrock investments. So my view is up until the mid 80's a higher % of people would have been invested in gold/silver then the crash in prices coupled with a generational shift meant a decline in the % of people investing in PM's and its probably not until the last decade that that decline has reversed.
If we would take an amount ounces / dollars basis instead of people, there are some figures available that give us a clue about how 'big' the silver market is relative to 2000, I calculated that some months ago: http://forums.silverstackers.com/topic-35357-mundus-argentum-page-3.html post #55 Conclusion was that the silver market 'investment' part was in 2011, being the peak year average of $35, measured in dollars, 59 times bigger than in 2000, while the monetary base was 2.2 times bigger than in 2000. About 1 annual world production is stockpiled so far. Stocks that will be sold over the next years/decades. If the mining+recycling supply would grind to a halt, the stock suffices for a year. If it would drop 10% every year of the next decade, it suffices to fill the gap for 10 years. IF its current owners are willing/needing to sell over these periods. A production cost (due to general price inflation/taxes/confiscation/whatever kind of theft) increase of equal %, means the same. Also, in the aspect of 'investment' pool money going around hunting the most promising products/markets, what is out there, with a better outlook? Stocks sit on record levels. Bonds are based on government debt being paid back, something that seems to be an eternal problem, and is 'safe' only if economy is able to produce more at the same cost. My opinion is that the latter is the key here. In the 1980's 1990's there was a huge production improvement. Technology, large scale operation, worldwide markets, bigger and bigger production tools/machines, organisation, time schedules, alot made possible by the 'computerisation' and networking. What is out there today, promising a same-magnituded progress? Usually, crises pop up in periods between these large improvements. There are some promising technologies as of today (shale gas, 3D printing, nanotechnology) but can these really allow for bigger production using the same resources/cost? If the limits have been hit for a longer time or even forever, then existing fiatmoney is bound to lose purchasing power at an ever increasing rate, no matter if it happens overnight along a confiscation/devaluation/bank failure or gradually as all-around price increasings.
Pirocco,i've read many of your past posts & they are all well thought out and logical. What I don't understand at the end of your conclusions you keep buying silver anyway. Am I to believe that you are basing it all on not missing the next run up & think it's coming before the 20 year wait on the last one?
I'm afraid your country doesn't have 20 years to sort things out 20 years ago you still had some industry to speak of and a big but manageble national debt Now everything you buy is made in China and your debt is growing by a trillion dollars every year You are at zero interest rates and printing money It is the end of the game Something will break well before another 20 years is up
