Hoarding Silver In 1964 Was An Awesome Investment...kinda

The same, former McTaco's.

I like so many toppings, they usually need a second flapjack to close it.

More expensive than Toxic Bell, and worth every cent.

I think he meant $1000 face for $3,616.80

SilverEye... your statements are true a lot of the time but there are other times when they are not. Example: anyone who bought gold 11 years ago has gained over 500% on their investment since then. Yes, they have to sell in order to realize the gains but they are there, ready to be harvested. None of the stock averages came anywhere near that, although a few individual stocks did really well too.

As to volatility, PMs have plenty of that too. Gold prices over the last 3-4 months have been at least as volatile as the US stock market, if not more so.

Personally, I never see PMs vs. stocks as an either / or question. For me, both are part of a well-diversified portfolio. I also like other asset classes, such as real estate, commodities other than PMs, and some utilities.

Ed_B - What I am talking about is wealth preservation. As in, work an hour today and do your best to make sure the value of that work is preserved across time, not making nor losing value. If you buy silver/gold with your paycheck today, it will buy your roughly the same number of meals now as fifty years from now, or the same amount of housing, or clothing or etc. as it does now. See the Big Mac Index for what I mean. Short term it will vary. Long term it equals out.

As I tried to explain to my wife, imagine if one of your great grandmothers 100 years ago set aside a stack of 10 silver dimes for you so you could buy 10 loaves of bread when you needed them as a young mother. And another great grandmother put aside one dollar bill into a cookie jar. That dollar bill would be worth one dollar and get you half a loaf of bread, but that stack of silver dines you could sell and still buy ten loaves of bread.

Don't dump all your money into precious metals, but do buy some.

Yes, I am aware of that and also what it means. My comment was directed at the fact that there are times when wealth is not merely preserved via PMs but expanded. I believe that we are now living in one of those times and have been since about year 2000. Last year, gold was up about 15%. This is better than inflation, so anyone who bought gold at the beginning of year 2011 didn't just preserve their wealth but actually gained some wealth. Hopefully, this trend will continue for a time.