Coins As Investments

Never said that stocks would not be a better investment.
But you do have a big "BUT" in those numbers.
Where $150 a month would be easy in todays dollars, not many were doing that much 40 years ago.

Then if you were picking your own stocks ... good chance you would not be able to make your numbers posted.

If you were putting into a SP fund. Depends on the fund managers, there were some bad years and some bad managers.

Many people only put into funds that they have through their company, not all those funds did the same.

As for the 200K+ that I know some friends and family have.
I have seen the coins .. and the receipts to what they paid. For example - 3 $1000 face bags 90% silver (2 bags dimes one bag quarters) paid $9600 for all three bags.
40 1/10thoz gold eagles $42 per coin. Many many rolls of
silver eagles $140 through $160 per roll. I even have rolls I paid $140 a roll .. in 1987.

What I was getting at .. is if a person buys silver and gold when it is low .. then many years from now .. you have the potential of accumulating a good amount of money.

The person that has the bags of silver .. plus hundreds of rolls of silver. Over the years I suggested that he sell the silver when it was high. He choose to keep it, it is more of insurance against hard times for him. If he had sold high and bought back when it was low .. he would have at least double what he has now.

It is easy to look back at the last 40 years and see what we should have done. Much harder to see what we should do for the next 40 years.

When the car companies took a big dip several years ago .. I bought a lot of GM and Ford stock. I bought a good amount of both. I lost all the money I put into GM. But the Ford that I bought at $1.97 a share, is right now trading at $13.86 per share, with a .50 a share dividend. If I had known then what I know now ... I would have put the GM money into Ford .. with more .. and yes that would be a better investment choice then gold or silver ...

In my stock accounts .. about half have done well. The other half are the ones most don't even want to talk about.

But I am happy with all the gold and silver coins I have bought.

Oh, for sure. And if we could see the future, I'd just buy a lotto ticket. All I'm saying is that based on pretty much any indicator you look at, index funds beat precious metals over pretty much any 10-15 year period you can sample. If you are looking for a sure bet for future growth, that's as close as you are going to get. I definitely think bullion (or rare coins) could be a great smoothing and diversification tool, but as a primary investment vehicle, I don't think I'd personally go there.

I do understand your point that the right funds have been a very good investment in the past, and should be in the future. If someone asked be about the best way to invest,
I think I would say, employer matched funds and Roth IRA's.

I know my lack of higher education really hurts my ability to express myself better. All I can say is what has worked for me.

My best investments, and those of friends and family, are ones where there have been a high drop in prices. That includes Stocks, Gold and Silver.

When a good stock, or silver and gold reach low prices because of a economic shift. Then buy as much as you feel comfortable buying.

The people I know did not accumulate a large amount of gold and silver from buying $150 a month, they did it by buying large amounts when gold and silver were low in price.

And as someone posted, company based funds and IRA's have a limit. Once you are at max on those investments then putting more into coins and PM's is a plus.

1. To me the number one goal should be to get out of the rat race. Have no loans, no house, car or credit card payments.

2. Create enough income to live on.

3. Then stay busy by adding to your net wealth.

Just three steps .... easy right ...

This discussion has me so fired up ....just transferred a good chunk of cash ...to buy more silver.

I guess I am going to be one of those ...whose percentage is out of whack...

I look at my coins and PM's as an investment but not for me, for me it's a hobby, but for my 4 kids when I'm gone. Right now it's something that I love and enjoy, the thrill of the hunt and completing sets that I want but maybe one day it will be a pay off for my children.

Oh, man. I LOLd and almost spit my drink out! I agree!

Thanks for the discussion everyone.

GR58, what silver are you looking for? I've still got a bunch of Canadian if your interested.

Personally, I don't believe in coins as investment vehicles. You're WAY better off investing in stocks/bonds. The only exception might be key date, slabbed coins. Those are good because they're always in demand and extremely liquid.

I've sold a lot of coins and I've lost money on most of them. If you retire with a bunch of common date coins, you'll quickly discover getting rid of them is a lot of hard work (mostly at cost or less) unless you're willing to dump the entire lot at a dealer who will likely want to pay you about 50% of wholesale.