Silver vs IRA

[muddywings]

Did a quick search, didn't find much so I thought I would ask in here.
I've been putting my wife through school the past few years so the investing has gone to $0 and even had to dip into savings, which is what it is.
She'll be finished and employed in a few months so I was thinking of how to restart the investing. From a prepper standpoint what are people's thoughts on buying silver coins for long term investment. I was thinking she could do the IRA thing monthly as I bought gold/silver coins to stockpile.
Any advise out there?

[JohnTRourke]

Don't know much about silver or gold, hoping to learn, but.................

If you can't stand over it with a rifle, you don't really own it. I think Cyprus, Argentina, etc all clearly show that. They are going to steal the bank accounts, they are going to steal the retirements.

remember, a deposit in a bank is a loan to that bank. You are not being paid for that risk anymore (seen interest rates lately). Might as well keep it at home in the mattress. Safe Deposit boxes are worthless, the US has already stolen what's in your safe deposit box once (back in the 1930's), they'll do it again.

5000 dollars worth of gold and silver is a lot smaller and easier to move around than 50 $100 bills. Just saying.

[Wulf202]

Precious metals over the long term are not real investments they're simply a hedge against inflation or massive devaluation of the USD.
If you sell high and buy low then it's a real investment. If you just hold onto it forever it does little but maintain it's power to buy something, but that's still good to have.

If the company she goes to work for has matching 401k that's instant 100% return (or whatever they match) assuming it's vested. A low risk fund with company matching is a safe way to gain money.

The classic strategy with 401k is high risk at a low age and decrease your risk as you get older hoping for lucky huge gains to offset the losses. However if you get high risk during a crash you loose it all.

I switched to real estate for long term investment, however I have a level of experience in that area.

My advice based on my losses is go with what you know and understand. Don't trust the classic strategy.

[ChunkyMonkey]

Precious metal is asset... To invest is to bet your asset for a gain. Wulf explained well, especially the very last part.

The next question is how much risk are you willing to take?

[muddywings]

Well, I'm mid-30s, she's early 30s starting new career. I'm ex .mil now .gov and will be buying back 12 years of military service to count towards .gov retirement. When I was in, my retirement plan was do 20 years and invest in the IRA to the limit. I got out earlier than planned.
I'm sure the wife will have a 401K and will max that like I plan to do with FERS.
I guess, I'm thinking beyond the 401K and .gov retirement, I can start maxing the IRA again or buying silver/gold. I'm thinking of 50/50. Let my wife just do the automatic deposits into an IRA and I'll buy coins every few months.
401Ks, FERS, Social Security, IRAs could all be useless down the road. I guess what I'm looking for is if I'm sitting there at 70-80 y/o with a pile of silver and gold (and no kids) will the silver and gold be worth having and selling so I can cruise around the world or something. I'm sure best reward would be stocks and mutual funds. I think I'm just thinking out loud and looking for validation that it would be a wise idea to have some lying around. (along with ammo!!!!)

[Great-Kazoo]

AMMO

[JohnTRourke]

AMMO

my ammo is up more than 4x from less than 10 years ago
Ain't no stock done that.

plus, nobody gets their fingers and steals it 1, 2, 3 percent a year (government, bank, mutual fund, whatever)

[Wulf202]

my ammo is up more than 4x from less than 10 years ago
Ain't no stock done that.

plus, nobody gets their fingers and steals it 1, 2, 3 percent a year (government, bank, mutual fund, whatever)

yea right. What's japan air at? I wanted to buy it when it hit a penny a share a couple of years ago.

[hobowh]

Nothing wrong with silver or gold I keep about a 3rd in it knowing its real value is a hedge against inflation. If sometging does happen it will still have value where the retirement acct may not. Just remember dont put your eggs all in 1 basket. Coins are a target for theives of all kinds...

[Sawin]

If you've been waiting to start buying metals, you've probably been waiting for today. I think it's wise to start buying a little here and there... prices are down dramatically right now.