Stockpiling supplies and forming survival strategies for various disasters provides your family with a sense of confidence and security. However, deciding what supplies to invest in is a challenging. An excellent investment for the future, whether disaster strikes or not, is silver.
Choosing Precious Metals
Investors without an eye to future disaster will point to paper investments as the most advantageous, whether in actual dollars or in stocks, mutual funds, or CDs. Should society collapse, however, the funds in digital accounts and certificates in a portfolio become worthless.
The dollar is only useful in trade as long as “society” agrees it has value. Precious metals, on the other hand, have a proven historical track record for maintaining their value. Gold and silver are worthwhile in times of plenty and hardship. When confidence in the economic systems falter, the value of these metals rises even more.
Silver vs Gold
Gold is pushed as the investment of choice among preppers, television commercials, and popular fiction, but silver deserves its own serious consideration. Gold’s greater value does mean a lighter and smaller amount will be worth more than the equivalent in its counterpart, but in terms of barter, this is not necessarily an advantage. Smaller amounts in silver will be far more practical to trade for food and other necessities. It is also easier to obtain in various forms. The greater the numbers of industrial applications means that it is more prevalent and versatile in function.
Options for Buying Silver
There are four basic options for investors:
- buying certificates of ownership
- purchasing stock in companies that mine the metal
- derivatives
- buying in a variety of physical forms
The latter is the only form suitable for preppers purposes. There are various forms this type of investment can take. The first is collecting items made of or containing the precious metal, such as flatware or jewelry. Items of sterling silver, which are usually stamped with the letters ‘SS’ or the number 92.5 for the percentage of its weight, are the safest bet for collecting silver objects.
Both precious metals can also be purchased in bars, which are easier to store but less convenient to use. Tenth ounce bars strike a happy medium between the two, particularly with silver. Mint coins are tempting to new and less experienced preppers, but their cost may outweigh their value in the metal itself. The most worthwhile means of investing is generally considered the form that sounds least valuable, junk silver. This refers to coins with silver content but no particular value to collectors. Their main worth is in their metal content rather than condition or rarity of the coin, so their cost is low and they are easy to come by.
Once the decision to invest is made, preppers should be aware of several considerations. The Internet offers good prices and is a convenient source of coins, rounds, and 1/10th ounce bars, but buyers should take care to choose reputable dealers. And finally, deciding how much to personally invest needs to be made wisely. This will vary among preppers. Trying to keep a healthy balance between necessities and the means to barter for more is vital to proper prepper planning. The best reasons to invest in silver coins are their practical use for bartering, their value both in good times and bad and how simple they are to obtain.
