-deep breath-
-cracks knuckles-
First off, I'm a believer in having a nice chunk of precious metals in your portfolio. YOU can trust FRN (Federal Reserve Notes) all you'd like, but they ain't backed by nothing thanks to Nixon taking us off the gold standard in the early 1970's. FRN's only have worth because the government SAYS they have worth and because the population BELIEVES they have worth.
Precious metals, on the other hand, have historical and intrinsic value. They are limited to what's in the earths core, they cannot be fabricated from nothing, they take effort to mine, and with the rise of computers there is an ever increasing demand for them as they are used inside chips and gadgetry and such plus the traditional other uses such as jewelry and coinage. Precious Metals, or PM's, include Gold, Silver, Platinum, and Palladium. Sure there are others you could invest in, such as copper, but the weight to value ratio is such that you'd be buying it in tons and that's a biotch to try and store.
So, why do I suggest silver?
Several reasons.
First, because historically, the silver to gold ratio is 15 to 1. That means, 15 ounces of silver buys you 1 ounce of gold. Right now, the ratio is
78 to 1. The market is long overdue for a major correction, and there's been tons of talk for many years about when that will occur and why it hasn't yet. And it mainly has to do with market manipulation that I won't go into because I don't fully understand that well enough to give my own take.
BUT. We can expect a correction, which would move silver from $23.11/ounce to $120.80/ounce. Ca-freaking-ching. There's your investment. We saw a slight correction back in 2020, where silver went from $17/ounce to $25/ounce-ish. It's stayed around there ever since.
Second, because unlike gold, which is high value for small bits, it would be impossible for the government to pull a silver confiscation similar to what that FDR pulled off with gold by Executive Order back in 1933. Where he made it illegal for civilians to own gold. (By the way, back then gold was around $20 an ounce... now it's $1812/ounce... so think about the inflation there in a single generation.) 13 years later, Harry Truman did the same thing. So it can happen. If you want to read more, here's this.
Gold Seizure
Third, say things go to pot. Economic collapse level. You can't walk into a grocery store and buy a loaf of bread with a 1/10th ounce gold piece. (Worth $181.20 in normal times.). But you can walk in with something called 'junk silver'. Junk Silver is essentially, old US Mint coins that were made from silver. Best rule of thumb, is any dimes, quarters, half-dollars from 1965 or earlier are silver. You CAN walk into a grocery store with a Roosevelt silver dime, and walk out with a loaf of bread. (Worth about $2.12 right now. Again, notice the inflation. In 1965, this coin was worth 10 CENTS... now it's worth over two bucks in 56 years...)
That's why I ALWAYS tell people, buy junk silver. It's easy to buy in rolls, a $5 roll of dimes is worth about $106. You can buy a couple of those a month and start having some peace of mind if things ever get bad, or the stock market ever tanks, or China calls in our debt, or if you just want to HIDE your money from the government. And it's pretty much universally accepted by anyone 'in the know' that pre-65 coinages are made of silver. You don't have to worry about breaking out some mint piece of paper proving that you're not ripping someone off. Because it's already printed by the US Government.
And by HIDE, I mean, buy your PM's, pay the taxes, and congrats... it's now off books. The Government will never know that you've got $100k worth of money tied up in mason jars buried in your back yard. It won't be taxed yearly, if you die and want to give it to your kids, it won't be death taxed to nothing, etc.
I don't feel like I did a very good job with this. But that's the jist.
I probably could have written out a single post for each point, but I think you got it.
If you want to know more, go to survivalblog.com and google 'silver' or 'gold'. There's a ton of information on why it's a good idea to keep some.
