Is now the time to start?

[r1lee]

For $500 worth I would have suggested go have a gamble on a mining stock and see what happens in 5 years. But you likely legally can't do that at your age.
Go to a bullion dealer in your city and get some silver.
The choice is bullion bars (say x 10oz, but just over $500) or 1oz coins like Kookaburra's.
The coins have more potential to gain in 5 years, as bars will always sell at spot.

I'm with Silverdj here, I think the best option would be to buy a mining stock. Especially since you said it's an investment in which you want to unload in 5yrs. The silver mining stock would appreciate much more then the shiny metal.

If you are going to stack, I would buy bars or coins as close to spot as possible. Since you're from the US, I would consider jmbullion. They usually have pretty good deals on 1oz er's at $0.79 above spot.

 

[BuggedOut]

As much as a mining stock might be an attractive long term investment, there is always the chance it will go to $0.

I think that would be a particularly bad first investment experience for someone of 14 years. At that age I think the most important thing is to learn. Gold & Silver is a good place to start learning about commodities and spot prices without too much risk. Whatever gold/silver is bought is guaranteed to still have value in 20 years time.

 

[SilverDJ]

As much as a mining stock might be an attractive long term investment, there is always the chance it will go to $0.
I think that would be a particularly bad first investment experience for someone of 14 years. At that age I think the most important thing is to learn.

And what better way to learn that lose all your money and then research why it happened.
Not hard to minimise that risk though.
Can always put $250 a piece into two shares.

 

[scrooged]

As much as a mining stock might be an attractive long term investment, there is always the chance it will go to $0.
I think that would be a particularly bad first investment experience for someone of 14 years. At that age I think the most important thing is to learn.

And what better way to learn that lose all your money and then research why it happened.
Not hard to minimise that risk though.
Can always put $250 a piece into two shares.

Yep. Reckon I'd rather be holding 961 PLS shares over the next twelve months than 20 oz of silver @ spot.

 

[BuggedOut]

Really?

I think if I lost $500 when I was 14 I'd have been devastated. That's a lot of money for 14. We are talking formative years here and it's the sort of thing that'd put someone off the stockmarket for good - especially if there was controversy surrounding director activities (as there often can be)

The lesson I would probably have taken from it would be to go back to buying video games.

 

[Bigjohn]

Congrats on starting out! Yes, it's a good time. At this point, it's a way to save money for you so make it fun. You have to buy what YOU like, then it will be fun.

Where abouts are you in US? I am on the West Coast

 

[BuggedOut]

Yep. Reckon I'd rather be holding 961 PLS shares over the next twelve months than 20 oz of silver @ spot.

Maybe for you, but how old are you? Do you have any kids of your own?

You can't seriously be recommending a highly speculative, high risk mining stock to a 14 year old newbie!? C'mon man.

 

[scrooged]

Yep. Reckon I'd rather be holding 961 PLS shares over the next twelve months than 20 oz of silver @ spot.

Maybe for you, but how old are you? Do you have any kids of your own?

You can't seriously be recommending a highly speculative, high risk mining stock to a 14 year old newbie!? C'mon man.

I have 3 children. Hard to recommend silver to any of them.

My eldest is off to Vietnam for 2 months in November, thanks to GXY and BYR.

 

[SilverDJ]

Really?

Yes, really.
The odds of two separate shares going to zero in 5 years is quite low. The odds of them going up in the new mining boom that is already happening is more likely than not.

I think if I lost $500 when I was 14 I'd have been devastated. That's a lot of money for 14. We are talking formative years here and it's the sort of thing that'd put someone off the stockmarket for good

Ok, so he puts the $500 into silver and most likely it goes sideways. What does that teach him after 5 years? it teaches him that metals suck, provides no dividends, and are a pretty poor and boring investment vehicle.

If he put the money into shares I think he's going to learn a lot more. Just doing the research to pick the shares is worth the price of the investment in terms of knowledge. What do you do with silver, just buy it and hope it goes up, what do you learn from that?

Even better learning is to start a business of some description.

Let's face it, $500 for an investment is not much, might as well use the money to education and learn about stuff, that's where the true investment lies.

 

[SilverDJ]

Yep. Reckon I'd rather be holding 961 PLS shares over the next twelve months than 20 oz of silver @ spot.

Maybe for you, but how old are you? Do you have any kids of your own?
You can't seriously be recommending a highly speculative, high risk mining stock to a 14 year old newbie!? C'mon man.

I have 3 children. Hard to recommend silver to any of them.

Me too, although mine are a bit too young to do that year, but if they were teens, yes I'd be encouraging them to save, but I'd also be encouraging them to start their own business. I started my first business at 14.

 

[SteveS]

I don't think he asked, "What's the best way to invest $500?"

He's already decided to buy PMs and I say "Goodonya". He strikes me as a very level-headed young man who has done a fair bit of research already - he found this forum all by himself after all.

So, given he wants to buy metal, and has asked experienced metal stackers what he should buy..........

I chucked in my 2c early on.

 

[scrooged]

I don't think he asked, "What's the best way to invest $500?"

True that.

 

[thefinn]

I'd get a smorgasbord of silver coins for $500 and just hold them for 5-10 years. They will return profits one way or another.

Bars for $500? Stocks? Why would anyone suggest that when coins will value despite the price of the metal?

If he's 14 he has this $500 and no more, no income, so he gets 1 shot.

Coins that will increase in value. (I'd suggest at least a couple of those Chinese panda's).

 

[Silver_Dealar]

Maybe for you, but how old are you? Do you have any kids of your own?
You can't seriously be recommending a highly speculative, high risk mining stock to a 14 year old newbie!? C'mon man.

I have 3 children. Hard to recommend silver to any of them.

Me too, although mine are a bit too young to do that year, but if they were teens, yes I'd be encouraging them to save, but I'd also be encouraging them to start their own business. I started my first business at 14.

What business did you start? I'm a bit older than that and have a few coupla grand left over after buying silver, and I'm trying to think of ways to make it grow apart from bank account

 

[miniroo]

Yeah I agree that stocks is a great thing to learn on a small level at an early age, silver is boring as for a younger person.

I only just started in stocks but in a couple months i'm getting the hang of it.

A couple weeks ago I bought A3D for under 50c, I bought $4000 worth and sold them for $1.34 a week later, I made over $6000 last week in my pocket.
A few weeks before that I bought 800,000 of GMC @ 0.004 total $3200, I sold 300,000 shares two weeks later @ 0.020 for $6000
I still own 500,000 shares for free and doubled my money, in the next couple weeks it will go even higher and i'm selling when it hits 3c, $15,000 in my pocket, free!

I've bought and sold a few now, some I have taken a couple hundred dollar losses on but it's so much fun.
There's so much to learn and it's just fun, silver & gold is so friggin boring, it's something you buy when you want to store a bit of money away to do nothing but I can keep cash like that too, I have never made a profit on bullion because when I needed to sell I had to sell it for cheap.

Tomorrow I'm buying a stock that might double up end of the week, another $3000 profit I hope, if not I'm happy to own the stock.
My secret, Vibes, that's it, I just follow the crowd and go by vibes.

Another i'm buying a lot of is gonna be hot too, NOX, but I'm keeping quiet on that one because I want to get it cheaper.

Buying shares is easy through commonwealth online banking, just click and buy, click and sell, money in the account in 2 days.
if you don't feel good about a stock, flip it and buy another, I don't hang around long, more of a weekly trader and so far i'm up like $10,000 in two months with cash and free shares in 4 stocks.

Show me what can be done with silver, in the unlikely event it went back to $45, big deal, whoopie do.

 

[SilverDJ]

I don't think he asked, "What's the best way to invest $500?"

True that.

Sure, but that's not to say people shouldn't give their opinion on that choice.
Perhaps he hasn't thought about investing it in other ways?
Perhaps he hasn't thought about starting his own business in some way?

One of this questions was "2) My plan is to buy as much as I can for $500 and sell it in 5 years(If it is significantly more than what I paid. If not, wait until it is, another 2) Is this a good plan?", to which my answer is that's not a great plan, maybe consider other options.

 

[SilverDJ]

If he's 14 he has this $500 and no more, no income, so he gets 1 shot.

But the point is that the $500 could go toward something that produces an income.
Dividend yielding shares produce income.
Businesses produce income.

Good part is he pays no tax. Although with shares I'm not sure he's legally able to do that himself? But a hobby business, no problem.

 

[SilverDJ]

What business did you start? I'm a bit older than that and have a few coupla grand left over after buying silver, and I'm trying to think of ways to make it grow apart from bank account

Niche software.

Like I mentioned before, you can buy and sell specific stuff on ebay if you know the prices of stuff. Being in Australia is good because you can buy stuff from the US and then resell it here. Many Australian's are still scared to order ebay stuff from overseas, so there is opportunity there to resell stuff that is not easy to get locally. I've been doing that for a long time now, just for hobby really, not for the money, but I can easily double or triple my money on stuff I buy from the US, give a spit'n'polish to and then resell locally.
That's just one example.
The good part about ebay is that:
a) Ebay aren't obligated to report you to the ATO unless you sell more than $20k worth of stuff a year
and
b) You can easily argue it's a "hobby" income and hence not taxable.

 

[MusicalStacker]

Hello, all... THANK YOU ALL, SO VERY MUCH!

I have never thought about investing in stock/mines...

First, how can I invest (legally, if possible) in stock? <-- lol And second, where can I research prices/buy? Third, I might split in three- 200 to silver coins (pandas, libertads ;D , and ASE's), 250 to mines or stock (if stock, I'd want to sell as soon as it raises in price. then buy some more stock in different thing), and 50 to either self-funding my game/tech company( I program video games and sites) or ebay reselling. Any thoughts? How would you spend your money if you were in my place? I am putting together a combo of coins that i might buy now.

Sorry for long post, and Thanks again,

Music

P.S. I am willing to take a risk to make more Dollas. I really want to make a big game, or social network. (or just guarantee college) So stocks, mines, etc. names/suggestions to invest in would be appreciated!

 

[MusicalStacker]

Oh, and I am looking to start up a game co. so how can I?