Stop in for a cup of coffee

Mopar Tim said

Ddaddy said
I have a friend that told me 6 years ago that he was putting a large portion of his investments in Silver. I warned him against it. He was convinced to was a great investment and put 90% of his money in it and has kept it there. He insists it is a long term play.

He bought in at $16.15. Now over 6 years later, it is at $16.43. That’s a about a 1.7% return over 6 years...brilliant.

He would have done better leaving it in his checking account.

I have an opposite story to that. When I was working during college, I had an old man tell me I should invest in silver and gold, which at the time (2005/2006) were around 12 dollars per ounce per silver, and under 600 per ounce per gold. I told him he was crazy, that there was no need to do that. Then when the recession hit in the fall of 2008 thru 2009, Gold went to over 1400 an ounce and silver spiked to over 40 dollars an ounce. That old man no joke cashed out his silver and gold and bragged about making a 250,000 dollar profit. Want to know how much I lost in my public employee retirement fund? Over 60%, equaling over 8,000 dollars. Do you know how hard it is to have saved that much money in 2 years working for the state making 11 bucks an hour? I was not happy but oh well.

The thing with precious metals to me is that having SOME money in them isn't a bad idea. They are a decent hedge against inflation mainly. That said, I would not rely on them for a long term retirement type plan. But if you can get in when they are low and wait it out a few years for the next recession, which comes around about every 10-15 years, at which point historically, precious metals sky rocket briefly, then you stand to make some good gains.