I Am Working On My Future !

Just a few tips. One, don't believe you can't make money on investing - its possible, but its not going to happen quickly.

Two, know what to buy. For example, Canada puts out these great silver coins every year, known as the Wildlife series. They sell for a high premium on ebay - for the current years one (The grizzly), you'll be paying anywhere between 10 and 20 dollars over spot. However, if you are looking for some kind of silver that will make you a little bit of money, it would be wise to buy these. Why? Well the coins are limited to that year. Meaning, next year, grizzlies won't be produced - a new animal will replace the grizzly. The wolf coin, which was last year, is now selling for anywhere between 60 and 100 on ebay. You can assume this will happen this will happen to the Grizzly. So I suggest you buy some of these wildlife coins, as I think they are a good investment into silver.

Three - utilize ebay, but don't rely on it. ebay is a great place for bullion selling and buying if you can use it wisely. When you want to buy on ebay, do it during the early mornings in the middle of the week, or very late at night any day. Browse silver rounds on ebay at 2 or 3 am in the morning, and you'll be surprised how you can get them cheaper than the ones you saw at 7pm. Why? Simply because people aren't bidding on ebay at 2 in the morning...theyre sleeping.

So ebay can be a great tool to sell and purchase, if you are wise about it.

And finally, remember to have fun. Buy coins that interest you, and expand into the foreign world. I love the Pandas, the krugs, and maples. Don't just buy to make money, buy to enjoy.

I like the idea Rbethell11 on the grizzly's and seems like Hock recently said I should get some....

I have not branched into the Canadien wildlife series yet, but not due to dislike, just so much out there. I figure I will get around to them eventually, but you post makes me think 10 or 20 grizzly's now is not a bad plan at all added into the stash.....

Good advice from everyone, also my 2 cents I buy silver to protect some of my dollars. One thing I think is do not buy over one ounce bars or coins as if the time comes that you need to spend these for food ect it will be very hard to chip a piece of silver from say a 1000 ounce bar but allot easier to pay using a silver dollar or dime.

Just my thoughts when I started buying silver.

I have a small amount of gold I purchased some years ago sure wish I would have bought more gold now.

In my opinion I would never buy gold at these prices now and get silver over gold as more people can afford to buy it is you have to sell it.

Paying extra to buy PM on credit is all wrong. If you don't have the $ to buy for cash, you have other aspects of your finances that you need to work on first.

It's bad enough that you have to take a hit when you eventually sell your silver, let's say $5 an ounce seller's markup. Adding another $2 to use CC, a buck for shipping, and then monthly interest charges because you can't pay the card off, and you're already behind the for 30% or more before you are where you'd be if you put the money in the mattress. Worse, if you're operating that close, something will come up where you have to sell, and you're 30% or more behind.

Unless you can get great deals on craigslist or similar, save your money up until you can buy $1000 at a crack, so you're not getting eaten up in shipping.

I want to touch on something that so far that no one has mentioned. In one of your posts you stated that your 401k was not going anywhere so you cashed it out. Are you aware that when tax time rolls around if you under the age of 59 1/2 ( which I assume you are) you will be penalized 10% on all your withdrawals plus you will also have to pay the taxes on that amount also. ( There are some exceptions to this rule, but mostly they deal with extreme hardship.) Also, in most 401K plans, you employer matches a certain percentage of your contributions, plus you are not paying taxes on your contributions. Your employer match is basically free money.

I don't want to sound like I'm lecturing you, and please don't take it personally, but your investment in PM is going to have to appreciate substantially to make up for what you have already given up.


As far as your 401K going nowhere I agree that in the last couple of years with the economic problems worldwide, most investments have not done well and many people have lost money. You sound like your a young guy who is trying to do right for his family, but you can't look at investing in the short term. There will be bad years that you will have to stomach. I have invested through ups and downs of the bull markets in the 90's, the dot.com. crash,and the latest downturn. Some years I made money and other years I lost a lot, but, in the long term, I came out way ahead.

I cannot tell from your posts if you are investing in PM only, but if so, putting all you eggs in one basket is risky and inadvisable. Any investment advisor will tell you to diversify your investments, being more aggressive at a younger age and becoming more conservative later when you will want to start using the at money. PM should be a part of your portfolio along with stocks, bonds, CD's and even real estate.

If what I just wrote is not new information for you, I apologize because again I don't want to sound like I am lecturing. But I do hope that what I wrote makes some sense to you.

I agree completely, which is why I buy on-line from reputable dealers and use a personal check to do it. I do not use a CC for buying PMs. It takes a few more days to receive the PMs but that is not a problem.

Other responders have mentioned some very good points about 401Ks. I had a 410K plan for 23 years. I funded it to the max every month. I also nagged my wife into contributing to her 403B plan at work and to a pair of IRAs for both of us. I could not get her to sign on for a Roth IRA, though, so funded hers and mine from my own salary. Because of all this AND a very helpful stock market, I retired at age 55 with plenty of money to live a long and comfortable lifestyle.

It is my belief that the 401K is the greatest wealth creation engine ever created... and it was basically an accident of interpretation. Ted Benna was a benefits manager for a private company and he is the one who convinced the IRS that section 401(k) of the IRS regs applies to everyone who works for a private company. That was back around 1979-1980. The IRS agreed and the number of 401K plans literally exploded.

That said, these are not auto-pilot plans that can be forgotten until retirement time. They should be reviewed quarterly and then rebalanced yearly. The investments should be well diversified and employees should lobby their employers to make sure that they are, that good investment choices are available, and that the fees are minimal. Used properly, they are a powerful tool for retirement planning.

To be of maximum benefit, though, the employee needs to acquire the necessary knowledge. Reading a few books on 401K plans is usually a good start. I read several of them and took some good info from each of them. Anyone can do this, IMO. The real question is... will they?

Yeah, it was neat to watch though, he said "See that is the silver black at the top", as he looking into the pot, then poured it into a mold, simple rectangle. Then he dumped it in water after it hardened, and removed and carved in T & A for Ton and Andrew, lol....