So much is possible if you have 50 years to do it in. Young people always think they are going to be young forever. It don’t work that way. One minute you’re struggling to make it through high school and the next minute you’re retired. Say I had bought a 1 ounce silver bullion coin a week starting when I was 21. I could have sold them for $62,400 this past week (2,080 coins at $30 ea.). Say I had just bought 1 a month, at the average cost of $5.75. That would be $14,400, for $5.75 a month! Precious metals of course just being 10% of your investing. And that’s just silver. What if you had also bought 1 ounce of gold a year for those 40 years? 40 ounces of gold at $2,000 an ounce is $80,000 for a really modest investment. Gold for many, many of those years was at $250 – $600 an ounce. Only in this past year did it shoot up to $2,200.
And that’s for just precious metals you only put in the price of a Starbucks for. True our own government has screwed us when it comes to savings accounts (we used to get 4.5% risk free), but other safe investments do exist. Probably the 2 best being S&P 500 index ETFs, or a dividend reinvestment plan monthly contributed to that is paying 4%. Just $300 a month is a million bucks. With employer match you’re looking at 2 million. Part of the thing with the coins when it really kicks in, is with that longer time frame of a child, 60 years. Yeah, imagine if you start buying bullion coins when your kids are born?
[Man, some things never change. Having dealt with both coins and guns, I can tell you there are a lot of shady characters in both businesses. The first thing I realized today, coin shops don’t post their prices! An honest business if it was built on spot pricing (prices that go up or down according to the commodity reference point) would post the spread for each item. It wouldn’t be all this verbal shit that changes depending on what mood they’re in, or who you are, or what day it is. So there were no changes, no bait and switch. Buffalo’s were this, Maple’s were that, American Silver Eagle’s were this much, bars had this spread, etc. An honest business would post the spread. Chester’s in Ames changed the spread between when I called on Wednesday, to when I went to the store on Saturday. I hadn’t been there for a dozen years specifically for that reason. And even with new management they’re still doing the same shit. So I’ll never go back there. It never seems to occur to them, “You know, if I was honest with people, I’d have repeat business!” That has to be better than just gouging someone once. The best prices from what I can see in central Iowa is at Coins Stamps & Stuff on Hickman in Des Moines. On the gun side the one you want to stay away from is that shyster in downtown Boone called Lindy’s.]
Iowa life 