Including Gold & Silver In Your Retirement Portfolio

People buy and sell gold and silver for many reasons. Here’s why you may want to include actual metals in your portfolio.

Threat of Natural Disaster

It’s good practice to have currency in your emergency kit. In the event of an earthquake, flood, hurricane, or tornado—or even a prolonged power outage, you may not have access to the money in your bank. Most people store cash for this. But what if there’s a fire? That cash is gone. Gold or silver may melt, but that’s OK. Precious metal is still worth what it weighs.

Paper money, even in a safe, could turn to nothing but ashes. There is no insurance for paper money. It will just be gone. But as you go through the ruins, the precious metal is still there—its value is retained.

And, in a different kind of emergency, how long does it take for an insurance policy to pay off or unemployment to come in? When you have gold or silver, it is a liquid asset, easily accessed money.

Covid Or Crisis

Crises walk hand-in-hand with uncertainty, which prompts people to buy, but also may cause one of the reasons for selling. During Covid, our store remained open because some people who have gold or silver lost their jobs and needed to free up cash.

We knew there would be people who had some gold or silver set aside and they might need to sell it. One woman came in once a month with a one-ounce gold coin. That’s $1,900 a month and she’s able to live on it.

Devaluing Of Our Dollar – Inflation

Our paper money is token currency. It used to represent gold or silver, but now it just has value because we have all agreed to trade goods for it. Today you can’t spend U.S. dollars in most countries. Our money as no intrinsic value.

People with a bleak view of the future are using this as an insurance policy, a safety net, against a dangerous future.

Investment

Like real estate, the value of precious metals fluctuates but has steadily increased over time. Some choose to buy it, wait for it to increase and sell. It’s high now.

In 1980, a guy came to our store with three bagfuls of half-dollars that were minted when silver was used in our coins. He just found them in circulation over the years. The face value was about $3,000. He waited until silver was up and then brought them in. We paid him $90,000 for them and he bought a house.

Another person we met had inherited about $600,000, and his friend at the time told him to buy gold with it. He listened to his advice, and he’s glad he did. That $600,000 is now worth $3 million.

Ease of Transaction

Buying is easy. Walk right up to the counter and tell us how much you want to spend. For those outside of our area, we are happy to consult with you via phone or email. You should pay for gold or silver with cash or a personal check. We maintain a consistent inventory of gold and silver in a variety of forms.

Selling is easy. Bring in what you have and we can both see current rates on the live feed in the shop. You can count on a fair and honest payment on the spot.

Transporting is easy. A gold coin worth $2,000 will fit in your back pocket as easily as a quarter. If you are being evacuated, or you need to be inconspicuous, gold and silver are on your side.

Storing is easy. Depending on the reason you bought it, precious metal can be stored in a bank box, a home safe, your emergency kit or buried in the yard (you would be surprised how many people make treasure maps!)

Questions?

We invite you to ask questions here and we will post answers in the comments below so others can learn as well. We are happy to discuss your individual interest or needs by phone. We can be reached at (909) 792-2511, lauren@coopscoins.com, www.briggsandcoops.com.

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Through her speaking and writing, Lauren encourages people with her heartfelt messages and practical presentations. She is the author of The Art of Helping – What to say and Do When Someone is Hurting.  Lauren and her family are active in both church and community choral groups. She and her husband live in Redlands, CA. They own Briggs and Coops Coins.