Gold and Silver for Investment, or for Insurance? (Don't Forget Bitcoin)
I have learned about many of the problems of the world like the monetary and banking systems in place. I had some money and wanted to make sure I didn't lose the purchasing power of the money I had if the CAD began losing value in an economic crash I saw looming in the future.
I ended up purchasing some gold and silver in 2015 and 2016.
Was I buying gold and silver for investment to make money?
Or was I buying gold and silver as insurance against the fraud of a monetary and banking system we have?
Personally, a bit of both, since I was hopefully buying it at a low and it would rise in price, meaning I could sell some for a profit if I needed money. But primarily it was to insure my purchasing power. Gold and silver are time tested stores of value. When fiat currency goes down, gold and silver will be going up.
At first I also had the opportunity to get some BTC for $325. I didn't like the unreal, intangible digital currency model, as the banksters and globalists want a cashless society to control all flow of money through banks. Bitcoin was something that could be used for the same purposes. Plus it's electronic only. Gold and silver is physical, and can't be lost in a digital corruption of sorts. Who knows what could happen. If the shit hit the fan, maybe the power infrastructure would fail and no more computers, etc. to get Bitcoin out of.
But hindsight is 20/20 as they say, and Bitcoin is a better investment to say the least, having seen it go above $3000 this year, when in 2015 it was $325 when I first looked into Bitcoin. I ended up getting some Bitcoin at $600, but didn't manage to keep much as digital money seems to carry less responsibility in my case, and I lost it by convincing myself to do trading for altcoins and forex. What a mistake. Hindsight again ;) Speculative, deceptive and manipulative money games are not for me. I'll stick to the grounded work of creating something that others might want -- such as content -- and try to earn that way. Earning money by making something is better that making nothing and just playing money games ;)
But back to the point about gold and silver as an investment. I still have my gold and silver, holding it as insurance. I haven't sold any of it yet when I needed some money, opting instead to sell some BTC. Bitcoin has a certain level of trust for me, but it's new and a volatile, who knows where it could end up and how controlled it can be at some point.
But for now, Bitcoin is the less restricted form of currency there is. Gold and silver is manipulated, most of it is owned by the ultra-rich. The same could happen to Bitcoin as they could easily buy in and own up most of it. Is BTC already being manipulated like gold and silver... probably, but I don't think to the same extent.
Gold and silver is a good insurance against fiat currency fluctuations in the long-term. Compared to crashing fiat bubbles or hyperinflation, getting gold or silver will pan out in the long run as an insurance store of value. I has always survived and retained value over time. One ounce of gold can buy the same raw material now as in the past, adjusted for inflation over time.
For the short-term, it depends when you buy gold and silver if you can use them as a way to invest and make money by reselling it. You can play the ups and down of the market. But using gold and silver as an investment to make money is more risky. Buying and holding precious metals throughout an economic crisis will mean that you retain or gain purchasing power during and after the crisis.
Gold and silver should be worth more than it is right now, according to the reality of the monetary system that is propped up with belief, faith, loyalty and trust from people to keep the fantasy alive. Paper stocks and other market manipulations keep the price from putting down the fiat currencies of the world.
If you have gold and silver, hold onto it. I would say the same for Bitcoin. But if you need money, you need to make a choice. Gold and silver is time tested, while Bitcoin is new and doesn't have a track record like gold or silver. But Bitcoin gives monetary freedom from the control of the current banking system. It could very well be the money of the future, but we don't know how governments and regulations are going to impact it's future.
Cryptocurrencies hold the potential to tear down the old monetary system, unlike gold and silver. Riding Bitcoin or crypto into the future can possibly be the greatest investment to make. And also the greatest insurance as a store of value to retain the purchasing power of fiat currency that will plummet at some point when the music stops and the bubbles pop.
Have you purchased any gold or silver?
Are you using metals or Bitcoin as an investment, or for future insurance protection? Or both?
Gold was a Buble, Bitcoin it's a Buble. When it come to Gold, most people doesn't understand when it started. It's why I did my reasearch and you can see all here.
-> https://steemit.com/gold/@vedernikov/was-gold-rush-predictable-or-it-matter-of-chance-and-luck
Lately I use the same chart to predict Bitcoin drop and was successful.
Gold for investement it isn't smart..I have also, another blog...where I show, how investement in divid. stock was much more "winning" than gold. And wait gold for 10 000$...would take something like over 60years if I remember ...
As assraunce...sure, but that it. Holding gold...you loose money every month (in negative cashflow).
PS: I was in the buble, bought at 15 ad 18 silver, solded day before the dumping at price of 49$ , 50% , and other 50% at 35$. After that , I saw how many people start to get in when I was out... it was like "god arive"
Thanks for the feedback, I agree, gold is just for insurance in cash shit hits the fan for me. I should have sold at the top these past 2 years lol.
never tolate to sell :) well..at soem point it would be just a waste of money...keep it, it's still nice to look at. I think the real mistake, it's 1- people put all money in gold...like all they money in Bitcoin and stress about, because they have no exite strategy , only hope. ( Same for stock..etc...). If you buy gold, and short "ETF" , when gold go down, well.. then you play smart.
Excellent article! Thank you.
My 3 cents. I think all financial investments are a poor form of security. I feel like we would be much better off investing our time and financial capital equitably in building all 10 forms of capital! If there were to be an economic crisis, gold, silver and money would all be next to worthless. If food distribution channels and energy plants were to be disrupted. People would starve, freeze and it would be disastrous. No amount of money can buy you food if there is no food to be bought. That is all to say about the security of mediums of exchange vs the security of other forms of capital.
Having a food forest in your own backyard provides way more security than gold or bit-coin (though I also have a fair amount of both :) )
Correct, but why would there be no food market with millions of farmers?
The question is, if you can pay the farmer with something he is willing to accept.
I always hear you can't eat gold and silver. True, but the same applies to paper money ;-)
The fragility isn't necessarily in the availability of food. It's the vast transportation network that runs it (all depended on oil). If everyone was getting food from a local farmer, then there would be zero cause for concern. I'm not saying mediums of exchange are worthless, I'm merely pointing out how fragile our current system is for meeting needs as vital as food!
Suggesting we design systems that are not dependent on mediums of exchange (and vast fragile networks) for meeting our basic needs. And delegating these mediums for helping us meet our wants and nothing more.
All the while decoupling mediums of exchanges with stores of value...
Simple things ;)
Absolutely. Having land to survive with seeds and people to cooperatively maximize survival optimization, is always better. Food forests take years to develop, but it's well worth the time to invest in future generations. My ideal future is food forests everywhere. If there are people living in an area, there is a food forest covering all free space. I just need to find people of like mind and morality to get that going, or earn all the money to do it myself hehe. Thanks for the feedback.
Absolutely!!! Your vision sounds a whole lot like mine. I'm actually gathering people of like mind under a system to do just that (and more). In the future we'll see some ISO's (initial seed offerings) for collaborative food forest efforts, and 'seed funding', to promote rare plant production ;) I just released a proposal for creating a new society, you may be interested in. I'm looking to build on our initial team and to get this project going. If you're interested, check it out. We may have a very similar future.
Our NeighbourGood
In your ideal future, what happens to people living in cities?
Steemy McSteamFace - A Steam inspired dark-coloured skin for Steemit
You still have cities if you want, but I would say more space for self-sustaining food supply. We can grow food not lawns, redo streets, more public transportation routes to access more area instead of heavier travel above ground. For any changes, people's mindsets have to think differently and see a better future possible.
Cities are amazing! They are actually far more sustainable than suburban or urban contexts! I was involved(created) in a design in Christchurch NZ to redo a spot of land in a city, it was to have a higher density than the surrounding city elements with no waste and utilities and food produced on the same plot. It's amazing how inefficient we are with space. Look up tiny homes to see how people are able to better maximize space and utility with proper design.
Once we relied on physical energy than we discovered oil and we now rely on fossil energy. Next evolution is mental energy with the information age and proper design. :)
Cities are the future! Greener, better designed cities that is :)
Yes, better made cities. But it's still nice to be spread out, rather than crammed. A tiny house with some land is better than tiny apartment in city :P
Oh I agree, my personal preference is leaning towards what I have and am going towards. A homestead, in a collaborative village environment. However, a functional system would apply to all contexts, cities and rural alike!
There's a lot of potential crammed in cities!
Yes, holding gold/silver as well as Bitcoin and perhaps one or two of the other cryptos with large market cap, such as Ethereum, Dash, or Litecoin are about as good as it gets in terms of financial insurance. Maybe a bit of cash on hand too for emergencies.
Since war and revolution often accompany economic crises, it is also a wise idea, if you can manage it, to have either a homestead in the country and if possible a 2nd passport or residence in another country. People often forget about that part. Apparently at the end of WWII there was unclaimed money and gold in Swiss vaults sent there by Jews who were smart enough to get their valuables out, but unfortunately didn't act in time to get themselves out. I know this is tough to think about but it's important. There are also places that have many US and Canadian expats such as Panama, Ecuador, where the cost of living is much cheaper so even if there is no revolution or war, these are places where peoples' retirement funds may stretch a lot further, affording them a better standard of living. Puerto Rico is another option, although in my opinion it's too close for comfort to the US, but it may work out great for some people.
Great advise for the uncertain future that looks bleak once the reality of our fantasy living hits.
We've got a bunch of silver buried, for insurance. Bought in at between $20-25, but once the SHTF the artificial manipulation will stop. I posted a video this morning about cryptos that explains in simple terms to novices like myself the advantages of owning crypto and why. They of course are trying to sell their videos and when they made it Bitcoin was at around $1000. They say they'll list the top 4 but only do Bitcoin... it's easy to figure the other 3 even for a tyro like myself... 2)Ethereum 3)Dash 4)Steem.
Nice, bury it :) I got some at around $16-$17 US. Digital currency is something indeed. I have little of those top 4 (but ti's worth the most), and a few others.
I'm kind of waiting for my Steemit nest-egg to grow a little more... I'll be a dolphin soon then I can start skimming a little off the top to play with.
I thought you meant insurance insurance at first lol.. Yes gold and silver should be worth more.. Silver should be worth a lot more I think.. And in the event of a crisis they will both go drastically up.. I was thinking I would get a little silver, a couple thousand lighters, and then just start stacking up bullets. Those 3 things will keep decent value in the event if a bad currency happening. I have just dedicated sooo much time lately into the crypto space. I already have 15 years of food storage ready. but realistically it will probably go bad before I need it, bah!
LOL! Yeah I prepped at one point in 2008 or so. But the crash didn't come, just more inflation of new bubbles to keep the fantasy going. So prepping is a bit annoying in that respect. I ended up moving back to the city :P As long as people want to believe things are great, they will support all the "reforms" that prevent us from hitting bottom for the first time in decades in order to reset us to the equilibrium of reality. Silver is like 70x undervalued compared to gold alone even now.
It can't bubble forever though. And I feel sorry for the people living in the cities when that happens really. I hope it never does. But I see how the fed operates.
And ya that's why I'm thinking silver is the better one than gold right now. It's so far off it's historical average..
I like toast 🍞
I like meep
Both good insurance and investment though as you said, "Gold and silver is time tested". Since cryptocurrency isn't well known here where I live, a logical choice for me would be the tangible metals. But it's looking more likely that cypto is the next monetary system so it's also a good to get a foot in there at least. Can't really say much about crypto yet as I'm a noob at that but gold helped tide over my family on several occasions. On a side note, another good insurance/investment would be land. Tangible and can be converted into something useful if one has the patience to work on it.
For sure, land is the best really. But it can move easily be taken over with a majority of people (if the shtf) since you can't take it with you.
So true. Acquiring land also means you have to be able to safeguard and develop it. Otherwise, it's likely you'd find people squatting and eventually claiming it as their own. Happens a lot to inherited lands. Never mind if you have a land title. There are still process with which you have to go through to get them to move out peacefully and in such a way there are no violent clashes (which is less likely especially if they've been there for years)
Great point there @krnel. I'm a business student in college and I can tell you, crypto is coming up high with a massive boom and will end up being the best form of investment and insurance very soon.
@kayceesuave
Nice, lucky you being early to get in on it too, and early in life hehe.
Couldn't agree more ive been stocking up on gold and silver and cryptos for awhile now
Nice! Keep it up if you can hehe.
Buy sound money if you can hold for a while and don't do margin
From a stealth perspective, I find gold/silver to be more stealth to exchange for fiat currency than bitcoin.
Example: You can buy/sell precious metals for cash in person without registering for any site or showing ID (depending on amount)
Things are trickier for bitcoin, but most of the time you will need to register for a website to exchange your fiat for bitcoin.
From an investment standpoint, bitcoin is obviously one of the best investments from 2014 - present day. However, Bitcoin could be cracked by quantum computing one day, and if that happens the value of btc will tumble far greater than we've ever seen.
If the Quantum issue is resolved I would have no issue holding bitcoin for the next 5 years+
Good points overall. I've used paypal to bank and cash in person for selling BTC. Haven't sold any metals yet.
Quantum is not the big issue to bitcoin that many make it out to be. The proof of work algorithm is exchangeable. This has been debated once because of ASICS but ultimately the ASIC method was given the favor. If the encryption should ever be cracked, there is a direct need to change the PoW to quantum resistant, and it will probably happen immediately.
If Bitcoin is ever cracked I see no reason why the value would not go to $0. I just hope the issue is addressed before it is a real issue.