Gold & Silver as Investment

[Woodogg]

In an attempt to slowly steer away from fiat currency for retirement and investment purposes I've started filling my safe with silver and gold bullion and coins.
With our current monetary system being so corrupt and volatile, I kind of see this as a freedom of currency, relatively safe from inflation.
There seems to be an interest in moving away from the Fed dollar with people using Bit coin and local notes like the Colorado rocky bucks or whatever it's called but I never hear people talk about precious metals as currency anymore. Is there a reason for this I don't know about? I feel like it's safer than crytocurrency due to it not being prone to technological mishaps. As long as you can protect your physical assets, that is. Once the FED is (hopefully) abolished, what will we all do for currency?
Anyone else in the gold and silver game? I'm pretty new at this and was also wondering what tax implications there may be, if any. Any strategies for growing your physical stack cheaper than just buying bars online?

[Magnaniman]

The problem, as I see it, with gold and silver as an investment is its volatile nature.  It's a market that is very highly manipulated, with massive reserves that could be dumped at any time to destroy the value (diamonds are even worse in this regard).

I really don't know anything about your situation, but, generally, I encourage people to invest in their own well-being and self-sufficiency before investing in things that only have monetary or trade value.  For instance, owning land, tools, reliable vehicle(s), guns, ammo, efficient appliances, and similar items seems much more pragmatic than metal that you can't really do much of anything with directly.  If you feel that you have that stuff taken care of and you want to do some small-scale investing, you might want to consider setting up a small solar farm.  If you're on the power grid and hook up your collectors, you can eliminate your electric bill and, possibly, start receiving a small check every month instead, depending on what state you live in and who your provider is.

Another thing to consider is an investment in self-improvement.  Martial arts, blacksmithing, first aid/CPR, wilderness training, and tactical firearms training courses are a few that interest me.  These pursuits are somewhat practical (potentially), they let you meet people, and they're fun.

If you have money to throw around, you could also invest in some sort of business.  Your own, perhaps, or someone else's.  I'm not really telling you to go play the ponies on Wall Street, but there are plenty of good, smart startups that you could support and also see a return on investment from.  Crowd-funding is a very awesome form of investment, for instance.  It's definitely more of a gamble, but there are opportunities for shrewd people with some extra money.

That's my two cents, anyway.  I don't think it hurts to have some gold and silver laying around, but, again, I'd only be interested in that if all of my other needs and desires were squared away first.

[Woodogg]

I do get where you're coming from. Self sufficiency is always athe a forefront. I also have a lot of interest in survival, firearms, etc. I have the BOB'S ready for my family with my little minuteman setup. Ive been cpr and first aid certified since I was 17 (32 now). I'm always trying to pick up on some new, sometimes odd skills. Recently I've become pretty proficient in lockpicking and it's already came in handy.
I really do like the more involved homesteading stuff as well, but sadly, I rent. My GF and I plan to buy property eventually but it's just not in the cards right now. Once I do you better believe I'm going solar.
This was more about alternatives to traditional saving methods like 401k, etc. And a freer monetary system.

[Woodogg]

I'm always posting from my phone. Please excuse any grammatical, structure or spelling errors. 

[Magnaniman]

I'm always posting from my phone. Please excuse any grammatical, structure or spelling errors. 

Two points deducted for not using the Oxford comma.  haha!

Seriously, though, I think one of primary goals of being an anarchist and being generally prepared is being adaptable.  Use the options that are available to you.  Dollars exist now and they are, currently, working.  I don't think you should feel obligated to divest yourself from dollars as a matter of principle.

The only argument I can think of to keep you from doing that would be for fear of some sort of market collapse or dollar collapse.  In that event, I think we'll all have bigger problems to worry about than how to save money.  You can't eat gold. (actually, you can, but it doesn't do anything for you nutritionally)

[zenturtle]

I don't think I have ever seen such a succinct list of appropriate things to invest your time and money in to than what Magnaniman shared, that is spot on advice. 

To go more along the lines of what Woodogg was trying to touch upon:

'This was more about alternatives to traditional saving methods like 401k'

I have thought about that considerably.  I was always very anti establishment until I got a job with a company offering me 401k, stock buy and vested stock options, and all sorts of ways to invest my pay.  I never though about it and was always against the idea thinking that a 401k would not be worthwhile use of my money. 

I turned off the 401k after the first weeks paycheck needing the money to help pay for diapers and rent and such.  Shortly after I started buying silver every month or so.  I built up a reasonable collection over the past 3 years.  However one of the things I always hear in financial discussions is the word 'diversify'.  I think what's more important than having a huge pile of cash, silver, food, stocks, bonds, medicine, guns, or cryptocurrency, is to have a sizable amount of all of the above. 

If your first thought is retirement and you feel as if the world is a stable place and there will be no need to prepare with food and bullets, then go with silver, some long term stocks, some cash from around the world, hell, even turn on your 401k (which I did just recently). 

If your first concerns are that war is imminent and civil unrest is only an EBT outage away, then invest in food, water, medicine, first aid items, lighters, etc. 

If you want to be prepared for all possibilities do all of the above. 

One last tidbit, since I turned on my 401k I look at everything in percentages.  I no longer say 'I am going to save $50 every week.'  I say 'I am going to invest 1% of my pay in silver this month'.  So what it comes down to is that I put 1% of my pay in to 401k, 1% in to stocks, 1% in to silver, I allow myself another 1% for frivolous eBay spending on 'collectibles' (this is to calm my inner child of course) and the last 1% in a savings account.  Right now with my current financial burdens I can only afford to 'save' so much, but as I get paid more that 1% automatically grows with each annual raise.  Then once I reach a certain threshold where I can afford to do so I will go up to 2% or 3 % on each item. 

This has been my strategy, everything steadily grows and I still occasionally purchase additional food to store, water barrels, seeds, first aid items and other such preparedness products that I can fit in the nooks and crannies of my apartment. 

[Magnaniman]

Great advice, Zen!  "Diversify!"  Diversity is the key to adaptability.  Adapting to change is one thing, but you also need to be adapted to the way things are.