Investing in gold and silver for preppersSurprisingly there is a lot of debate about investing in gold and silver for preppers to stockpile for any SHTF event or economic collapse, I can’t tell you how many times I hear “you can’t eat gold.” While this might be true in the literal sense, you can turn gold and silver into food and other supplies.

Keep in mind, I’m not talking about a short term disasters, in these scenarios precious metals will only be as valuable as the demand is, if no one in your area wants gold or silver it doesn’t matter what the going rate is.

I’m also not saying that it should be purchased instead of other supplies, it should be purchased in addition to your other preparedness needs. Food and water could be in very short supply and it doesn’t matter how much gold you have if there is nothing to buy with it or nobody wants it.

If you do decide to invest in gold and silver make sure you have all of your other bases covered first, make sure you and your family have the basics down and can survive for at least a month without any outside assistance before you even think about purchasing gold or silver.

In this podcast we talk about the what, when and why of purchasing gold and silver, as well as why it’s a good investment in your future regardless if nothing happens at all.

Play

Think about it, when you are dead and gone your family members are going to come in and divide up your belongings. Who is going to be happier, the person getting the year supply of food storage or the person getting the gold and silver?

Let’s say you are still alive and kicking but you are living on social security, wouldn’t it be nice to have a little something set aside to add to that. And let’s be honest, who knows if we will even get social security when the time comes…I’m not counting on it.

To me investing in gold and silver is one of the things we can do like becoming more healthy, even if nothing happens during our lifetime we have set ourselves up to live a better life, and that’s what prepping is all about.

It’s Money in the Bank

Cash in the bank is not yours: Imagine that you felt a recession coming on and you decided to withdraw all your money from the bank, imagine that hundreds of other people were doing the same thing. This is when that banks go on “holiday” meaning they do not let anyone withdraw money.

This excerpt from alternet.org explains what happens to our money once we GIVE it to the bank…

“Although few depositors realize it, legally the bank owns the depositor’s funds as soon as they are put in the bank. Our money becomes the banks, and we become unsecured creditors holding IOUs or promises to pay.”

Information like this makes me want to take every penny I have out of the bank and stuff it under the mattress, but that is just not possible, and it’s not very smart either. Having large amounts of cash laying around the house will open you up to the possibility of theft, and with the ability to pay just about any bill online it’s far easier to plug in your credit card number on a website than to send a stamped envelope like the good old days.

You still need cash: Remember, we are talking about a long term event here, and even if the economy tanks cash will still initially hold some value. Let’s say that there is some sort of grid down event that causes and economic crisis, The plastic we hold in our wallets or purses will be useless, the ATM’s will be useless and we will probably have little luck withdrawing money from the bank.

Having a few hundred dollars (or whatever you can afford) on hand will literally be the difference between you being able to purchase what you need and standing there helpless wondering what to do next.

I always carry a small amount of cash in my wallet just for this reason, as a matter of fact the same bills have been there for over 2 years now.

Gold vs Silver

The one obvious advantage to buying silver over gold is that it is more cost effective for most of us. Right now gold is about $1200 per ounce, while silver is around $17 per ounce.

Another advantage of investing is silver is that if and when the SHTF it will be much easier to make a purchase or trade with silver because of its value, a very small amount of gold is worth 7 times as much as silver.

This would be like taking a $100 bill into a gas station to buy a Pepsi, the difference is that is a SHTF situation if they can’t make change and your starving you will have to figure something out.

The one major advantage to investing in gold is that it will gain more value than silver over time. Speaking from a purely financial standpoint I think that gold is the best (or safest) investment you can make if you have the means to do so. This article from LenPenzo.com goes into detail about how much you should invest.

The Next Not So Great Depression

One question I had while writing this article was what exactly happened to the price of silver and gold during the great depression of the 1930’s? From what I could find gold skyrocketed in price while silver was a little slower to react.

Keep in mind that during the great depression owning gold was illegal, although I’m not so sure how many people actually turned in their gold.

We all know that the financial system we currently live with is not sustainable, and because the corporations and banks care more about the bottom line than our livelihood we need to take control of what we work so hard for.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Even if the economy doesn’t go down the tubes there is still the possibility of cybercrime or identity theft which could drain our bank account overnight. This is the same reason we don’t (or shouldn’t) store all our food in one place, if someone comes in and takes it we still have a little stored away and we won’t be completely hosed.

Having some cash on hand and investing in gold and silver is a great way to keep your money out of the hands of these greedy bankers.

It’s also harder to spend gold and silver than cash. You can use your credit card just about anywhere these days without blinking an eye, but with precious metals you need to exchange them for cash first.

This is basically diversifying your funds, just not the way the financial advisors will tell you to. These “financial guru’s” want you to put your money in the bank because that’s how they make money, but if the economy crashes this imaginary money will all be gone.

Remember that if you can’t touch it, it’s not real. At some point this unsustainable economy is going to crash and all of our money out there is cyberspace will just disappear, while gold and silver rarely go done in value.

Where to Buy Precious Metals

Gold and silver scamsWith all the scam’s and unscrupulous brokers out there these days it can be pretty intimidating trying to figure out where to get precious metals. There are a few options though that will help us make smart purchases and not throw away our hard earned money.

In Jim Cobb’s book The Prepper Financial Guide he mentions pngdealers.org PNG (Professional Numismatists Guild) is a nonprofit organization composed of the world’s top rare coin dealers, paper money and precious metals dealers and numismatic experts.

We use JMBullion from time to time and have had no problems. We have no business relationship with JM Bullion we have just been happy with our purchases from them and they also have an A+ from the better business bureau.

Purchasing gold and silver online from Amazon or eBay is a crapshoot and do this at your own risk. We have purchased small amounts of junk silver from eBay and been lucky so far, but this is only for small purchases. Also remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Junk silver are coins minted in 1964 or earlier, most junk silver coins contain 90% silver.

Pawn shops & local jewelers: Sometimes pawnshops get a bad rap, and sometimes it’s for good reason, if you find a reputable pawn shop you could take advantage of others misfortunes. Make sure you know their return policy and take your purchase and have it checked by a local jeweler, Junk gold and silver in jewelry can look real but is just gold plated.

Local jewelers might also be able to point you in the right direction when purchasing gold and silver as well, just make sure and do your research before making any large purchases.

Contest Winners & Extras

100 Episode Prizes full You WinIn the beginning of the podcast we announced the winners of the 100th episode contest, we have a couple of extras we want to let you know about.

Lisa’s Prepping A to Z books are free today on Kindle, so far she has A,B,C and D finished. Click here to get yours.

Half Price Membership!

Until Friday at midnight we are offering yearly and lifetime memberships to the Survivalist Prepper Academy at half price.

Click here to take advantage of this offer before time runs out.

Congratulations to everyone who won and thanks to everyone who entered! If you haven’t already make sure and subscribe to our email list to get updates about the next contest. Just use the “new to prepping” link at the top of this post.


Dale
Dale

Survival and being prepared should not only be a passion, it should be a lifestyle. The definition of a prepper is "An individual or group that prepares or makes preparations in advance of, or prior to, any change in normal circumstances, without substantial resources from outside sources" Like the Government, police etc. I don't believe that the end of the world will be the "end of the world" I believe it will be the end of the world as we know it now. You can also find me on Google Plus and Twitter

    5 replies to "Investing in Gold and Silver for Preppers"

    • Ian Maley

      Good write up Dale – good use of ‘Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses’
      Thanks Lisa, Just downloaded your books.

      • Dale

        Thanks Ian, I didn’t know who that was…now I ave to watch it haha

    • Truett Latimer

      You might look into buying some copper rounds. They will come in handy if you only have to buy something that only cost a few dollars. Also you would like The Prepardness Podcast. Especially the ones with Jeff Benett.

    • Milissa

      Thanks for a great podcast. I have been listening for a month or two. I really appreciate your “Everyman” advise. My husband was laid off and unfortunately we had to use all our savings on a major medical emergency just before that. It is hard when everyone is suggesting thousands of dollars in preps when you only have an extra $25 a month to spare. I just bought my first silver eagle just 3 weeks ago.

      I have been searching for silver quarters also. Thanks for the great tip about the car wash quarters. I might be wise to have around a lot of change. I have been reading a blog by a fellow that went through the 2001 Argentina crisis. He said when paper money became almost useless people mostly used coins. Thanks again again and many blessings.

    • Mary Lee

      I like the suggestion of buying copper rounds. Thanks

      Great podcast, Dale .. thank you

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.