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Hello All,
I have some basic questions and don't want to seem crazy, but here is my situation: I am married and want to begin a retirement portfolio. My husband does not trust ANYONE with is money and definitely doesn't trust the government or the long-term value of the dollar. I had initially thought about just starting out with a Roth IRA in CD's and/or mutual funds but he is resisting. He is more interested in just purely investing in actual silver because it will hold value regardless of what our world turns into. Anyone out there who can recommend or stand by a decision to plan for retirement by only investing in silver? I don't mean investing in stocks, but by actually purchasing the silver. I still want to get into an IRA, but have to win him over. Just curious if anyone out there has actually made their retirement possible just by buying precious metals, and what the pros/cons would be. Also wondering how to convince someone completely wary that an IRA is a good thing- or if it even IS a good thing. Hope this post doesn't sound quacky, but it is a real issue for me!
Many folks are talking about a coming huge devaluation of the dollar and hyperinflation to follow. Inflation or hyperinflation is one way a profligrate-spending government can inflate away the planet-sized debt it's created.
Silver in fact is probably a good stealth investment. I've considered picking up some for us also. Other metals such as nickel and copper--you probably don't want five tons stored out back, though--also show promise as their use continues to increase. Platinum and gold are also rising steadily.
I am not an expert on metals or investing, though. And who knows where the situation will be when you guys need to tap into your stash. Is that 10, 20, 30 years out?
I am very very skeptical of trusting anyone. An aunt died recently, she had taken care of the estates of several family members who died including her mother. She made the mistake of putting everything into a trust, with a lawyer.
All lawyers cannot be trusted. This lawyer did not IMO perform due diligence and not every jot and tittle was included in the estate. So off to probate it went.
Needless to say, the lawyer and the probate officer and any other hacks they hire such as their buddy the accountant etc. will make out nicely on this probated trust.
But I seriously doubt this was what my aunt wanted.
It's really not paranoia, there are so many con artists working off the real working people now that it pays to be triple-redundant careful. After all, some fairly bright and successful people trusted Bernie "jailbird" Nadoff for years.
Silver, gold, platinum, nonhybrid seeds, ammo, classic cars, there are lots of nonstandard investment items out there that IMO are worth a second and third look.
Thanks, Dwatted wabbit, for that very thoughtful and well-written response! To answer your question, we are about 30-35 years away from retirement. I will do some more research, and hopefully get some more responses, but after the small amount of research I have done already, it seems like it is a sound idea to invest in something tangible. Thanks again!
Not a bad idea at all, in fact smarter then any of those in cash or the market not based on physical goods. There are also ETF that trade primarily in precious metals.
The problem with silver is that there are costs related to storage and safe-keeping, and the metal does not do anything except hedge against inflation. Certainly, one should have some metals as a part of a portfolio, but if The Big Crash ever comes, how will you convert that silver into food?? If I own a farm near you, I would want something tangible in exchange (eggs, chickens, shoe repair, bullets, ballet classes). Hmmm, silver bullets maybe?
If I owned a company with a global reach -Coca-Cola, for example- I would not have to worry too much about inflation or currency-exchange-rate fluctuations. Why not? As the price of raw materials goes up (due to inflation), companies can pass those costs on to consumers, many of whom will be getting increases in their salaries (also due to inflation). Thus, the investor in solid companies keeps up. And, as my company grew in sales (due to population growth and increasing incomes around the world), the earnings will grow and, thus, dividend payments to me, the owner.
But, since I cannot afford to spend US$billions on buying Coca-Cola, I became a partial owner, by buying the stocks of similar, solid companies. (I do not own KO; just an example.) And, since my companies have a global reach, the movement of the US$ relative to other currencies will be hedged. When the US$ drops in value, companies earning other currencies have an increase in revenue in US$ terms.
Everything is cyclical. Soon, gold and silver will be in bubble territory, and people will start talking about dot.com companies again. Or flipping houses. Or junk bonds.
So what is a solid company? That is for another thread.
As you can see from the chart, had you bought silver in 1979, you'd still have less than you paid for it 30 years ago..
Silver is like any other commodity or investment, it goes up, it goes down, and needs to be bought at the right cost in order to make it a good investment. While it will never go to zero, neither will just about every other investment available.
Disclosure: I'm not saying silver is a bad investment, I truly couldnt tell you because its not a market I follow, I'm just trying to point out that it indeed goes up and down and doesnt always "hold its value"..
Thanks for all of the replies- we also have a healthy stash of homegrown food, guns, ammo, etc, this was more a question for investing in the long term for retirement and how we can go about it since I am interested in a varied portfolio (IRA, CD, etc) and my husband doesn't want to invest anything in the market or put our money in someone else's hands. I am trying to find some sort of ideas for how we can save anything for retirement and somehow meet in the middle with conservative investing and at least some return on our investment. This is all completely new to me but I know that we need to start saving, just not sure how to go about it. Thanks everyone!
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30 years out
