What Would Be A Good Investment In Numismatic Items?

I second that opinion.

Sage advice Sap.

Best thing to do is to keep educating yourself. Sap summed it quite well.

While I am lucky that a few in my collection have gone up in value, there are some that I bought at peak and are not worth what I paid back then. Just because a coin may be rare and low mintage, it is a dangerous approach to assume that prices will increase. There are some rare coins that I looked at over the years. Some that I have been chasing for a long period of time - while out of my reach, have actually dropped in value and that does not take account of inflation.

Like any investments, there are always ups and down. Even with precious metals, there can be risks. If you bought gold and silver at the peak of 1980, you would have to wait for at least 20 years for price to recover after taking account of inflation.

Rare high value coins and valuable artwork have absolutley beaten the stock market numerous times and were good investments. But you have to be rich to be in those arenas.

Just buying bullion gold has beaten the stock market some years. This is why some financial planners recommend people have about 5% or so of their portfolio in gold/silver for the bad times like the great depression. I bought silver back when it was under $15 oz. I bought gold bullion at less than $1,200 oz. It may not have done as good as my mutual funds but it's still doing fine, haven't sold any. Besides it's a lot more fun having/holding gold/silver than just looking at an annual investment report.

Collecting modern coins is mostly a hobby and not an investment in my opinion. Some money can be made buying selling them but you have to know what you are doing. It's like other hobbies golf, fishing, hunting, traveling, whatever except you still have some value in your coins to sell or pass on to family.

I did a little research a while back. According to my math from 1970 to about mid 2019 gold went up about 3,743%, the DJIA went up about 3,184% not counting dividends. Of course a person can pick any time period to show either stocks or gold did better.

I think it's wise for people to fund a retirement plan if they can, 401K, Roth, have some money saved for emergencies. But enjoy life, spend some money on things you like such as coins.

Don't start collecting

Dividend reinvesting is significant but not the major source for building retirement accounts, certainly not "felony" level for me not making an effort to calculate it, maybe a minor misdemeanor. Some companies don't pay dividends and those that do vary by how much, sometimes it's 1% or so. I have individual stocks that have done well and don't pay dividends at all such as Berkshire Hathaway B shares, Amazon. I've been investing in mutual funds monthly for over 35 years, started out young with what I could afford at the time, $25/month then gradually increased it. This is in addition to my employer retirement plan. I've been just a carpenter/painter but worked extra side jobs to get ahead. My wife is conservative with her money also.

I agree one smart way to build wealth is start as soon as possible and invest regularly.in mutual funds/stocks/bonds. There's other ways too. Start a business and work your rear off to try and succeed. Years ago a friend started buying run down rental properties, fixed them up one by one himself, now owns six of them making good income.

But to me it's good to have some gold/silver too for those who like it and can afford it. Some years gold has done better than stocks including dividends.

Late to the discussion.... Excellent summation, Sap!

Just make sure the dividends are "qualified" (i.e., from stocks you are holding a long time). That triggers the long-term capital gains tax instead of the short-term capital gains tax.