Given the past week’s events with the financial crisis and the resulting downward pressure on the dollar, I thought it would be helpful to list 8 reasons why you should buy silver. 

In today’s economy and for the next 10-15 years, silver is a great investment.  The declining value of the U.S. dollar illustrates the worthlessness of paper currency.  Obviously, in order to achieve wealth, the goal is to acquire as many dollars as you can.  But we also have to protect ourselves against those dollars losing their value. 

Thus, we should put some of our wealth in commodities that hold their value.  Moreover, we should look for commodities that we can exchange in the global market without sacrificing their value. 

The U.S. dollar fails on both these fronts (especially if the government moves forward with this bailout).  But items such as silver, gold, and oil do not.  Silver, for instance, has many benefits.  Here are various reasons why you should buy silver: 

1) It is very cheap.  Right now, silver is worth $13 per ounce.  (In 1980, when adjusted for inflation, silver was worth about $122 per ounce.)  By contrast, gold is worth almost $900 per ounce.  Sacrifice next Friday’s night out, and you can buy several ounces of silver on Monday morning.  Do that twice a month, and in a year, you will have approximately $1500 invested in about 90 ounces of silver.  That’s a good start. 

2) Silver requires a minimal time investment.  Unlike other investments such as stocks, businesses, index funds, or real estate, you do not have to dedicate much time to silver.  When deciding which stocks to buy, you have to research the companies in which you want to invest, and you have to analyze the potential for those companies to increase in value. 

When deciding whether to buy real estate, you have to educate yourself on real estate investments, evaluate the local market, determine whether a  particular property has income potential, inspect the property, perform a title search, manage the property, etc. 

With silver, however, you just have to finish reading this article, buy it, and hold it.  You don’t need to research it any further.  You don’t need to manage it.  You simply hold onto it, and pat yourself on the back.    

3) Silver is in demand.  Unlike other precious metals like gold, (which people put away or hoard), silver is consumable.  Various industries use and require silver.  It is used in electronics, cutlery, jewelry, tableware, electrical applications, rear window defrosters, etc.  That will not likely change in the near future.  Basic economics dictate that, when something is in demand, it has value.  Its value is even more precious when you consider my fourth reason below.

4) The amount of silver in the world is limited.  Experts agree that silver stockpiles are decreasing.  Thus, under basic principles of supply and demand, the less silver there is, the higher its demand (especially considering #3 above), and the higher its price.

5) The U.S. will probably not take action to strengthen the U.S. dollar.  Moreover, the entitlement mentality that is holding the U.S. hostage (as evidenced by this $700 billion bailout) will likely prevent the government from taking the necessary steps to restore the value of the dollar.  Thus, as investors, we have to take actions into our own hands.  We must invest our wealth in inflation-protecting commodities like silver.

6) Silver is easy to buy.  You don’t have to buy silver and put it in a safe deposit box, nor do you have to buy silver coins.  Instead, you can buy silver as an exchange-traded fund.  The iShares Silver Trust (SLV) was created on April 21, 2006.  You can buy this fund and trade in silver as if it were a mutual or index fund.  Moreover, if you have a pension, you can hold silver in that pension by buying into the iShares Silver Trust.

7) The public is still oblivious to silver and its value.  That is understable because, in part, people don’t really know how to buy silver and gold and hold them.  That means that, by reading this post, you are ahead of the game. 

If and when the public realizes that the U.S. dollar is as good as toilet paper, the movement towards precious metals and valuable commodities will begin.  By then, you should be firmly entrenched in this asset class and looking forward to the subsequent rise in prices when the masses start buying silver.

8) Warren Buffett loves silver.  If you are still skeptical about silver and have not changed your mind even after reviewing the seven reasons I listed above, there is one last fact you should know.  The Greatest Investor of Our Time–Warren Buffett–apparently holds an enormous amount of silver.  Enough said.

If you want to read more about investing in silver and how to buy silver, check out these books:

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed.  You can also subscribe by e-mail and have a copy of each new post automatically delivered to your inbox. 

If you like this post, please bookmark it: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Propeller
  • Digg
  • Technorati
  • Reddit