Both... To be completely honest my answer is the same as a lot. I get a gratifying feeling out of buying silver. It helps that it's an investment but I mainly do it for collection purposes.. If I'm going to put my money somewhere there isn't a much better place I could do it
Return of sound money, hedge and cause its pretty. Speculative gain is a potential upside if it happens but is irrelevent.
It is better than putting Fiat in the bank, when I retire I will have a big pile of silver. I am betting on the long term.
I figure pms are better return than money in the bank. It also makes saving money feel like shopping. Plus its always good to.have something set aside for a rainy day.
Silver is Shinny when you polish them. I love shinny stuff especially 999 Ag. Buy them while its still cheap.
How about this ....How could a billion Chinese and 1 billion Indians , Russians , Turks be wrong. They are all buying Precious metals. Out of Canada's 25 million 2012 1 oz Silver Maples sold I would be shocked if somone told me most of it was still in Canada . I would think that majority of it has emancipated East. China imported 800 tons of gold for the 2012 Calender year and rumour has it exported ZERO.
Hmm, yeah I was thinking of that, but PM's are very volatile, if you keep your money in your bank, you won't lose it (well unless the bank shuts down). For PM's, if you wanna check out, there is a chance that you'll lose money.
Think of PMs as analogue money. Fiat currency as digital money. Sure PMs can go up and down in value, but there is always demand. Doesn't matter if its investment of industrial. someone wants it, sometimes more than others but its never worth zero. Where as fiat digital money is either trusted or not, currently the world has entrusted the federal reserve to provide the world reserve currency therefore it currently has tangible value at a ratio to real assets that reflects this trust rather than any real ratio of value. The moment this fiat currrency loses this trust the value evaporates instantly. Not quite to zero but it might as well with the distance the decimal point can shift virtually overnight, thus currency such as USD are only a store of value in a did hightail sense. It's either a one in which case use it, trust it, spend it; or a zero in which case you good luck getting anything tangible for it. I find when I view differences between money and currency like tis holding too much cash feels like holding a raffle tickt where the best possible outcome is I win the value of the ticket back.
theres a chance youll lose money in every investment in Canada where I live bank interest rates are less than 1 percent so if I put my money in the bank Im guaranteed to lose between 1-5 percent due to inflatipn and fees. Until I find a better place to park my savings Im happy with where Im at.
there are no safe heaven for fiat these days. Even in the bank there is no Guarantee by any government.
A young customer came in today, we talk about shit every time he's in, he's only 27 but widely traveled and has a trade behind him as a well as a high paid mining job. He has an investment house which sees him about $400/month in arrears after rent has been paid, lives at home and is considering traveling again and asked me whether in my opinion he should save to travel or save to de-leverage. He asked me because as an aside I muttered something about an imminent economic collpase or the 4 horses of the Apocalypse or something (I shouldn't mutter aloud). I hate giving my opinion to people I know ( I haven't got a problem here because I know no one) which can be viewed as advice coming from a grey-haired man. Anyway, I didn't mention gold, I didn't mention silver. I said save 3 months worth of bills and put it into a bank account and leave it there. Then save to go traveling again. In his position with no family, an investment mortgage and a high paying job in an industry on a knife edge and the travel bug real bad, silver and gold are not going to help him. Cash is the buffer at the moment and it has to be kept in the bank (with the exception of your "get out" stash).
Travel is good definitely but how come you think buying one of the most undervalued commodities in history (silver) won't help him?
Hmm, I'm somehow like him, I'm only 18 and still a student and I don't have much responsibilities (paying rent, bills , etc.)
