Saving money on glasses
Ok well this is a website I was asked to take a look at that I now can truly endorse as a very cool resource for “cutting costs” which of course is 50% of our wealth building formula here at CutThatBill.com. So what is this Great Discovery: www.ZenniOptical.com? It is a website called ZenniOptical and they offer a full single vision pair of eyeglasses as low as 8 dollars.
Now I have been to stores advertising lost cost glasses in the past and found that they low priced ones were what we called BCGs or “birth control glasses” back in the army. In other words they made you look so bad that no one would be interested in you. This is not the case with ZenniOptical. They have a huge selection and I even found memory titanium frame for between 10-30 dollars with lenses. If you wear glasses then you realize how good these prices really are.
I have decided to get a pair of these just to have as a back up for if something happens to my glasses or if I just briefly misplace them, I have been known misplace things a time or two.
Lee Iacocca launches new site and snubs Ron Paul
I recently listened to the audio book version of Where Have all the Leaders Gone by Lee Iacocca. The book was pretty good and quite insightful and while Lee has quite a few views I think are bad ideas (raising the gas tax for one) he also has a lot of good ones. The biggest point was that we need more people to pay attention to the political process specifically the younger voters.
In the book he went through all the front runners and left Ron Paul out, not sure when he had written the book I let that go. Yet in the book he talks about setting up a website for the 2008 election where people can rank the canditates on his “9 C’s of Leadership”. In December with very little plubicity that site was launched. You can find it here, http://www.iacocca.com
While I was able to let go of the Ron Paul omission in the book the fact that he now basicly owns the internet for the 2008 race makes his exclusion from the listed candidates unacceptable. To be fair Ron is not really excluded you can and should rank him, he is just hidden from the initial view.
And just who is listed on the main score card!
Joe Biden - Dropped out
Bill Richardson - Dropped out
All the rest included I can’t argue with their inclusion, nor do it it is only Ron Paul’s exclusion while Biden and Richardson are included that tweaks me.
There is a solution though, if you want to make sure Ron is ranked to this,
1. Go to Iaccoca’s Rate the Candidates Site and set up a free account.
2. Click the confirmation email and log in.
3. Click on rate the canditates and while you are doing it in the left margin you will see a link that says, “score more candidates” click that and about a dozen more will show up. Then one from the very bottom you will find Ron. Rank him and any others you wish.
To me Ron is a much a candidate as anyone right now, 10% in Iowa, 8% in New Hampshire and massive support online. It is clear to me that Iacocca must have something against Ron Paul as there is no good reason to exclude him from what is a pretty cool Web 2.0 website while including Biden and Richardson both who are not even in the race!
Now the irony, while there click on “view aggregated score card” and guess who is number one anyway? Ron Paul and who is number two, Alan Keyes who I also think is an outstanding leader! Will such exclusion never end. Anyway I would ask you to consider getting an account at Lee’s site and ranking Paul and the other candidates because the idea is an excellent one.
One more suggestion. There is a link on the score card page to request inclusion of candidates. Please send a NICE but firm message to Iacocca asking that Ron be included based on his campaign and good finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire and pointing out that two candidates they currently display in the default have dropped out may not hurt either.
Filed under Politics | Comment (1)Thoughts on gun ownership and the second admendment
I am going to be brief on this post and just tell you how I feel and what I think about it along with what the Constitution and its authors actually said.
First you have to understand what the “Bill of Rights” is all about. Many of the authors of the Constitution did not want a “Bill of Rights” as they were afraid any right not included might be infringed upon. Believing that such a list could become justification for future restriction upon right. As in “it isn’t in the Constitution so it isn’t protected”. You see you and I are not granted rights by the Constitution, no it simply protects what is seen as a “God given right” to all humans including those around the world, not just Americans. Such is the nature of being a “shining light on the hill”.
In other words our founders believed all men had the right to arms and did not grant anything, they only sought to preserve that right from tyranny. Next I am tired of the crap about how the 2nd Amendment applies to the “national guard” or other such nonsense. While the “militia” is mentioned in the Amendment the “right” is bestowed upon “the people”. No one doubts what the clear words of “the people” means in the other amendments so why would we doubt it as it is used yet again in the second Amendment.
Further one of the very authors of the Constitution, George Mason stated, “”I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials.” Yes the only people the founders did not see as protected by this amendment were “a few public officials” in other words the government is excluded in favor of “the people”. Understand in this Republic we are not “granted rights” or even “granted privilege” by the government, we grant privilege and power to the government at will and at will we are empowered to remove it. Sound like “revolutionary language”, hell it should the authors were all revolutionaries and considered traitors by the British because they sought and were willing to die for liberty.
My point is you and every other American has an absolute right to keep and bare arms and more I believe the founders saw it as a civic duty to do so. Think about how you were told in school you should vote simply because you are fortunate to have that right protected and due to that fact you should vote in order to protect that right. Well, how is gun ownership different? If you don’t own a gun the thought of someone taking guns away may not bother you. Go buy one, get trained on it, be safe and understand the empowerment of not waiting 10-30 minutes while your home is being invaded and the lives of your loved ones is in jeopardy. Do that and then think about a law taking that gun away from you. It will change the equation.
So do I think everyone should be able to own a gun? Not exactly I think that anyone who has not taken an action to warrant giving up that right should retain it. Just like jail, you have a right to freedom, steal from someone, violate their right and you loose your right and go to jail. So prohibiting felons, the criminally insane and clearly nuts individuals from getting guns makes sense. Anyone else should be permitted to quickly establish their identity and buy any gun of their choosing.
I also believe it is your civic duty as a healthy adult American to own a gun of some type. If you have no experience first take a course and learn safety and proper use. Then spend time once in a while at the range and know how to use your gun effectively. The more of us that do that, the harder to take away our right it will be for our government. Further let me ask you what would happen to our crime rates if say 80% of home owners had guns, knew how to use them and were willing to do so?
I am a big believer in concealed carry too but that is another post. So what does this all have to do with building wealth, cutting costs, etc. It has everything to do with it. Proper planning involves “protecting your assets” and let me ask what greater assets you have then,
- Your Home
- Your Family
- Your Health
- Your Possessions
It is a sad state that there are vermin that will take these things away from good people but there are many such scum in our world. In your home a gun in the hand of a properly trained adult can protect those things. Either that or dial 911 and wait! That option isn’t good enough for me, I worked hard for what we have, I love my wife, I love my son and anyone that threatens them by entering my home unwanted has a very good chance of leaving in a horizontal position. I make no apologies for that and neither should you.
I just thought it was a good time to point some of these things out. I am amazed how many people think we are “granted rights by our constitution” or by the government. No one is “granted” a right, a right by its’ very nature is inherited and should not ever be taken away from any man unless he violates the rights of others.
Just remember the law that a right left unused is often lost doesn’t just apply to voting.
Filed under Politics | Comment (1)My New Hampshire Predictions
OK the other day I made a series of predictions on the New Hampshire primary in my what are you doing in 2008 post. Some I got right, some I got very wrong. Lets review….
Republican side
1. Rudy does awful and everyone says it doesn’t matter. - Got it dead on!
2. John McCain wins and his national numbers rock because people are lemmings. - Got it dead on!
3. Mitt Romney does OK and comes in second and they say it is over for him. - Got it sort of, Romney did come in 2nd but the media has held off saying his campaign is over. - Where I went wrong, the republican base stayed with Romney in New Hampshire and only a 4 to 1 break for McCain in independents that voted republican gave McCain the victory. I am not sorry about being wrong here, Romney to me is a much better choice then McCain.
4. Ron Paul does far better then the 8% the polls say he can expect. Comes in third and gets ignored again. - I was wrong he got almost exactly 8% which still put him right in the mix with the other candidates but he did not do as well as I predicted. He did however, largely get ignored by everyone but Fox News. Why? Backlash for the debate the excluded Ron from! Where did I go wrong? I gave the concept of freedom in the minds of New Hampshire voters to much credit. Honestly this concerns me for our nation.
There were really 6 predictions there I got 4 of 6. Not all that bad and I don’t pretend to understand New Hampshire primary voters.
On the Democrat Side
1. Barock wins by 10% - Wrong and the rest of my predictions hinged upon this. Barock lost, I was wrong.
2. Hillary gets slammed and the media runs to her defense. - Wrong, clearly missing number one blew this for me. This is another place I am happy to be wrong. I don’t want Hillary but I think she is easier to be for any republican and her economics while disastrous for the U.S. economy are still better then Obama’s.
3. Edwards does ok in 3rd but the media talks about how that is “hope for his campaign” even though there are only four Democrats in the race. Idiots. - Got it spot on but this was no real big prediction.
4. Bill Richardson gets a clue and drops out. - Another easy one and Bill is “making an announcement at a press conference today”, wanna guess what he is going to be saying.
So how did I blow it so bad expecting Obama to slam Hillary? I commited a cardinal sin and believed the polls with out knowing more about the landscape of democrats and democrat voting independents in New Hampshire. I must admit I am not strong when it comes to understanding how liberals think, like Michael Savage I believe, “liberalism is a mental disorder”.
Well South Carolina is the next place everyone will really be looking at. On the Democrats I am not ready to pick a winner but I do think it is do or die for Edwards. On the republican side look for a shoot out between Mike Hukabee and Fred Thompson. I will make some predictions and go on the line with them in another few days.
Filed under Politics | Comment (0)What are you doing now that 2008 is here?
Don’t worry this isn’t one of my “get your financial butt in line” posts, well mostly not. I am just wondering what everyone is up to in general, like what you are watching on TV, etc. Personally I have been enjoying Celebrity Apprentice quite a bit. Check out this video showing what a snake that Omarosa is. Got to be one of the biggest sleezes known to man in my book. To me this is why so many people are looking to build a business of their own, to buy a business or just to find some way to be independently employed. I mean who really wants to deal with a corporate environment that has far more then its’ fare share of Omarosas.
I have also started out on a diet. Last year I elected to not go Elk hunting because honestly I was afraid I might die somewhere alone on the mountain. The last time I went I had a great but tough time. I came home with blistered and even bloody feet and was sore for a week. Back then old CostCutter was in much better shape. This year going out into the unforgiving wilderness alone seemed like a big risk. Since I am way to young to give up that type of life I am getting back in shape. Who knows, perhaps when I loose my weight I will come clean and say who I am.
Additionally I am breathing some new life into a few of my businesses with some creative ideas and looking to hire a few new creative and talented people. The search for talent is really tough right now, I just listened to this podcast on the shortage of talent in the market today and I have to really agree with the guest speaker. While real estate investing today seems to be a buyers market there is no question that in the talented and skilled employee market it is a sellers market. If you are good, have a proven track record and can deliver then today you call the shots. If you are in the market for a new position and are not finding a lot of opportunities I recommend you get in touch with a good executive recruiting firm.
On another note all together I really think the 2008 presidential race is off to an interesting spin. Ron Paul still seems to be shunned by the media despite basicly finishing in a three way tie with 10% of the vote while Rudy was at only 4%. Typical!
Today we focus on New Hampshire, I predict the following for the republicans.
1. Rudy does aweful and everyone says it doesn’t matter.
2. John McCain wins and his national numbers rock because people are lemmings.
3. Mitt Romney does OK and comes in second and they say it is over for him.
4. Ron Paul does far better then the 8% the polls say he can expect. Comes in third and gets ignored again.
Such is the stupidity of our media and the political process.
Moving on the the Democrats - Hillary has had a break down practically coming to tears because she was asked how her day was mostly because Barock Obama is now surging in New Hampshire and she is on track to loose again. Of course the news is making a huge deal of Barock’s massive support. His followers indeed love him, they laud his speeches and vision yet the news people can’t seem to find a single supporter that actually knows his position on any of the big issues. America, please wake up, support who you want but for the love of God know why you support them.
My personal view I think Hillary is a disaster for this country as our President, her health care plan, tax hikes and some other policies will only serve to make worse a recession that is flat out coming to hit us hard over the next few years. That said Barock is worse, he want to tax more, spend more and make government even bigger and more intrusive then Hillary. However he can speak very well, avoids the issues and is very likable. This is why Hillary is in trouble, even her supporters realize Barock is going to be harder for any Republican to beat and are picking the best candidate to win in November.
I personally think Hillary is unelectable and if she looses the primary (which I predict) Barock is probably a 2 to 1 favorite just in odds to win the presidency. In other words a Hillary loss in the primaries is bad for the republicans while her victory would be very good indeed for them.
My predictions for the Democrats in New Hampshire are as follows.
1. Barock wins by at least 10% of the vote and we hear all the liberal papers cheer how it is finally time, “for an African American president”. When the country has been “ready” for a long time and we are all really tired of being called racists in subversive ways by the communists running our press.
2. Hillary gets slammed, perhaps even damn near ties with Edwards. This is spun as the “end of Hillary by the right” and some how a “right wing conspiracy” or “anti women” thing by the left. The left leaning media will hold out all hope for Hillary and talk about how New Hampshire and Iowa “don’t really matter”. Of course they really don’t it is just that the media just spent the last 30 days convincing us how much they do indeed matter.
3. Edwards does ok in 3rd but the media talks about how that is “hope for his campaign” even though there are only four Democrats in the race. Idiots.
4. Bill Richards gets a clue and drops out.
So what are you up to in 2008? What do you think of our coming elections?
Filed under Politics | Comment (0)More on investing in copper pennies
Heck why not one more post about pennies. Yesterday I did a pretty long post extolling the virtues of pre 82 pennies as a simple and small investment. Again I want to restate this isn’t a “way to get rich” but it is a really cool and fun little inflation hedge and about as risk free and low cost as any form of investing has a right to be.
Anyway I found a really cool little resource that reinforces my point that 95% copper pennies that are still in circulation are a pretty hot little item to set aside right now.
The site is called CoinFlation and I have put it into my book marks so I can always find it in the future. One of the coolest tools is a coin melt value calculator that tells you the exact value of coins when you melt them down. They have two calculators one for silver coins (pre 65 dimes, quarters, halves, etc) and one for coins currently in circulation. To give you an idea of how “valuable” pennies made prior to 1982 are. I decided to run all the comparisons at a 100 dollar face value. So lets look at some of the out of circulation silver coins that you can’t find today out side of a coin shop, some of today’s other coins and their “real value” and then compare them to the humble copper penny. Of course this is “raw
- 100 dollars face value of silver dimes, silver quarters or silver half dollars is worth $1017.81 at today’s current metal prices. They are all the same because each represented a fraction of an ounce of silver as in 1/10th, 1/4th, 1/2 ounce etc. So these coins represent about a 917% return of investment just in metal value for those who had the forsight to pull them from circulation in the 60s, 70s and for a bit of the 80s when they were still around.
- Now if you took 100 dollars worth of today’s quarters you end up with about $18.33 in raw metal value or an 81.7% “instant loss”.
- How about 100 dollars worth of today’s pennies (anything minted after 1982) you get a whopping $58.80 in raw value or a 41.2% “instant loss”.
- What about 100 dollars worth of Kennedy Half Dollars? Everyone loves those right? Same formula as the modern quarter. Melt em down and you get $18.33 in raw metal value or an 81.7% “instant loss”.
- What about the nickel? There is a lot of copper in a nickel and it is a thick coin so it does ok. Try a raw value of $113.75 or an instant return on investment of 13.7% Perhaps storing nickels ain’t a bad idea either?
So how does our humble penny add up against all this? Today’s metal prices for copper and zinc put the value of 100 dollars in pre 82 pennies in raw metal at $193.61. That is easy math an instant ROI of 93.61%! Sure the penny isn’t currently holding pace with those old silver coins and it will never catch up to them. As copper goes up you can bet silver will to. Yet that is my point you can’t just go around picking up a dozen silver dimes a day any more but you can pick up a good amount of pennies from prior to 82.
Sure even with copper at say 5 - 6 dollars a pound you would need a lot of pennies to be worth even say 10,000 dollars. Yet just think about it, each day you sort and toss some into a jar. Painless and foolproof, what do you have to loose other then a bit of space?
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (1)Double your money in the metal market with no investment
Ok, hold on, don’t get to excited. Indeed I am going to tell you exactly how to get an almost immediate 2 fold return on your money. I am also going to show you how to do it with out spending any money, hiring a broker or even with out doing any paperwork. However, I have to tell you right up front you are not going to get rich with this technique.
In fact this technique is first and foremost fun to do, second it is designed again to program you mind in how you think about words like “money” and “value” and finally last it is about actually making/investing money.
Now that big lump to the left is a chunk of raw copper. Copper has skyrocketed in both price and demand over the last ten years. Copper is used in countless industrial activities and as countries like China, Indonesia and India continue to modernize the demand will continue to grow and often to out pace production capacity. This issue will be compounded by the boom in coal, gold and silver. Consider that you are a mining company and you are choosing where to go and what to do next. You can either mine coal which is far easier then any metal or you can mine silver or gold which is worth far more then copper. Or last you can mine copper which is profitable but if you had the option what would you mine?
Great! So how does this help you double your money with out spending it? The answer is in the humble penny. Currently and since mid 1982 all U.S. pennies are made from mostly zinc with a copper cladding, basically a zinc coin with a very thin layer of copper on the outside. Such pennies are worth damn near nothing from a metal stand point. However, any penny that is older then 1982 is 95% copper and 5% zinc alloy. What does this mean? Let’s do some math.
Step one - When you look at pennies that are made from 1981 back they are heavier then today’s. In fact there are 146 pennies to a pound. Yet we must consider that such pennies are only 95% copper so 1.05 x 146 = 154 pennies make one pound of pure copper.
Step Two - 154 pennies even those from 1981 back are “worth” in currency a whopping $1.54
Step Three - Copper is currently trading at the time of this writing for $2.84 per pound. Hence 154 pennies are “worth” $2.84 in raw copper and copper is a commodity you can actually sell it for very close to the current spot price.
Step Four - Calculation of our return by simply dropping an 1981 or earlier penny into a “special” jar or container is as follows. $2.84 - $1.54 = $1.30 of “profit”. Now take you profit of $1.30 and devide it by your “initial investment” of $1.54 and you have a “instant return of investment” of 84%. Not quite double but as soon as copper goes back over 3 dollars a pound (which analysts believe will be quite soon) and you are at a full 100% return.
We should also consider that copper was trading for about 60-70 cents just 20 years ago and you start to realize just how high your “return” can be if you just start tossing all you pre 82 pennies into a jar for the next twenty years.
This is a great project for adults and kids alike. The bad news is again you are never going to get rich with this and in fact copper will have to go up to say 6 bucks a pound before you will really be able to “cash in” pennies in any real volume. The good news though is there is no doubt that over the years that will happen and because we are talking pennies not many people are making an effort to store away copper pennies.
In 1959 the U.S. stopped making the “wheat cent” and while most of those have been horded away by collectors from 1959 to 1981 100% of pennies produced in the US are 95% copper and virtually no one have really collectively valued them at anything more then one cent. That is 22 years worth of pennies still traveling around in circulation which means their are hundreds of millions of these pennies out there being spent every day. I always drop my pre 82 pennies in a jar and about 1 out of 5 tend to be pre 81’s. Over the years that is a lot of pennies.
So why do this? I mean save 4 dollars a month this way and you make about 4 in return and you have another 400 fricken pennies to deal with right? Short sighted my friend, the key is you don’t do very much to earn that return and most people are making less on their interest bearing savings accounts a month in America. All you do is follow my advice and “spend cash” and each day go through your pennies and drop any 81 or earlier examples into some special container. How much easier can “investing” be?
Just consider if in 10 years you had 15,400 pennies or $154 bucks. Those pennies if copper is at 6 bucks by then will be worth about get this, 600 dollars. Retirement money? Heck no! Just another little store house of money. Additionally while I never get to concerned with numismatic value because of how highly subjective it is there is another opportunity here.
See first let me warn you if you are currently thinking of buying 200,000 or so pennies from a bank, sorting them out and melting the older ones don’t do it! The U.S. Government will frown on that and possibly make you wear some silver bracelets and break a few rocks for a few years. Such activity is illegal for now anyway. Yet as copper keeps going up (and it will) sooner or later the mint will begin to “retire” the old copper. That is a nice way to say they will take the pennies out of circulation and harvest the copper for use. Of course the government is free to do that. This will make a lot of these 60s ad 70s pennies harder to come buy and add some numasmatic value to them as well.
That is many years into the future but let me ask you this. How cool would it have been if say your grandfather started collecting 1964 and earlier silver dimes for you when we stopped making them in 65? For about 10 good years it was easy to pluck silver quarters, dimes and half dollars from circulation. Today it is very rare to find one. I happen to own a huge pile of such coins put away for me by a very smart grandparent. This led to my love of silver in the first place. Today we have the opportunity to start doing something like that for our children, their children and possibly their children’s children. What would 100,000 Indian head pennies be worth today?
There is more at work here though tied to the production of pennies and the metal price. Do you know why 1982 was the year that the penny changed to a zinc core? In the early 80s all metal prices spiked for a while and even then a penny was worth more as copper then as a penny! So zinc was a cheap alternative and coating it in copper kept the penny looking like well, “a penny”.
Today though even zinc is rising in price and it costs about 8/10ths of a cent in raw metal to make a penny. That is before production costs, etc. This means the US Mint is Loosing Money to make pennies. Additionaly so long as people spend cash we can’t get rid of the penny we have to have something in order to make change of a dollar with. I predict therefore that the days of the humble Lincoln cent are numbered! The easy solution is to come up with coin made of something perhaps even cheaper then zinc and make it smaller too.
Since no vending machines take pennies there is no problem with changing the size of the penny. Don’t think it can’t happen either, they did it with the dollar coin. When sooner or later this change occurs it will be another numismatic bump in the value of all pennies and even more so to the all copper variety. So I encourage you to take the phrase, “save your pennies” with a new vision. Start plucking the little copper disks from circulation today and just put them away.
Filed under Personal & Home | Comments (3)The reason I invest in silver coins
I have already written a bit about my affinity in my post, What I Blow Money On, but today as a follow up to my article on investing in gold it seems like a good time to talk a bit more about precious metals before we move on. In addition I am going to provide you some of my own rules on buying silver coins.
First let me lay out my case for why silver is a good investment. Simply put all metal commodities are doing very well right now and will continue to do so. Heck even copper is getting rather expensive. Back in the 80s I remember copper going for about 70 cents a pound. Today it is hovering in the range of 2.80-3.00!
Many people see silver as a “poor man’s gold” and I think that is rather short sighted. First I don’t care if silver is ounce for ounce far cheaper then gold if you have 1000 dollars worth of gold or 1000 dollars worth of silver you are holding the same value. Now silver and gold are true brothers in my opinion and the price of one is indeed tied to the price of the other. While they are not completely pinned to one another and the Hunt Brothers debacle will skew numbers from the 80s and early 90s there is a strong correlation (precentage wise) to movements between the two. To get an idea of the correlation look at the two graphs below which cover 1997-2007…
As you can see again while not lock step with each other the two metals perform very closely to each other on the open market.
So why not just buy gold? Understand I am not saying to not buy gold it is just that I truly “invest in gold” I buy through my broker and I buy both actual gold, gold funds and stock in gold companies. I have nothing against doing the same with silver but I prefer to actually buy, hold, touch and own my silver mostly in the form of coins.
Why? Two answers….
First, because I love silver coins, they are history, they are beautiful and they are something material to me that I can look at and appreciate. In this way Silver Coins offer me something that 95% of my other investments can’t. Sure I can look at my stock certificates but there isn’t much fun in that. Most of my other investments are just numbers on paper then don’t have the feel, look and glitter of my coins.
Second, because investing in many different things and in many different methods creates diversity. The beauty of silver coins (at least of the type I purchase) have most of their value in the silver basis price. I can “cash in” anytime I want and do so with no paper work or government red tape. I can literally walk into a shop, sell my coins and walk out. Holding silver coins is like holding cash money with out the cancer of inflation upon it.
So what rules to I have for investing in silver? Here they are but understand these are no ones rules but my own. A few you really should follow but others are more about your risk tolerance and your personal view about numismatic values.
1. I do not belong to nor do I buy my silver in any kind of “club” or any highly advertised coin supplier. In particular Littleton Coins is among the worse places of all to buy coins. Their prices are generally 40-90% higher then local coin shops in my area. I buy from local merchants or only via mail order if the price is as good or better then local pricing.
2. Directly related to the above, I am not on any type of auto shipping or monthly arranged purchases. I buy what I want as I find it and as I want it. My silver investments are truely incremental investments outside of my conventional portfolio.
3. I never buy “junk silver coins” which are large unknown lots of mostly 1960s and older dimes and quarters. Most are worn so badly you can scarcely read the dates.
4. While I don’t buy junk coins I also don’t buy highly numismatic valued coins. In other words I never buy a coin where the bulk of the coins value is based on how “collectible” or “rare” it is. Such values are highly subjective and only represent a “real value” if you can find a buyer. Try buying a 200 dollar silver dollar this week and see what the same shop will pay you for it (with out a big jump in price) the following week. This is the one rule that I understand when others break, this is my personal preference but I have my reasons.
5. What I do buy are Silver American eagles as they are priced right about bullion prices. I also buy high quality but common Franklin, Kennedy and Walking Liberty Half dollars which are still quite affordable and made of 90% pure silver. My other big favorites are the more common Morgan and Peace dollars. These coins to me represent a nice mix and all are very affordable and most importantly highly tied in value to the silver basis.
So what is my advice? Well I think it makes a lot of sense to buy some silver over the years and just have it as a hedge against inflation not to mention an investment that remain liquid in both the best and worst of times. The beauty is you can buy say a 10-20 dollar coin just once or twice a month if you don’t have a lot of extra money to invest. Even that over the years can build a nice collection and a lot of real value. I personally buy between 20-150 dollars a month of silver and have been doing so since 1995. As you can see by the graphs in this article that has been a very good move.
Filed under Business & Marketing | Comment (0)