If you came into a bunch of monay today, what would you do with it?

[HoyaGuru]

2 hours ago, ZRPMs said:

Hadn't noticed your in America sorry.

Great that your debt free. You will benefit from no Vat or sales tax on your silver, so silver is perhaps a bit better to purchase where you are rather than here in the UK. Then if you can get a 5% discount on top your on to a winner. I'd still grab yourself some of your low premium sovereign gold such as your American eagles but check on the premiums as they can be a little high. I believe Canadian Maples are good ones to get also in the US, premium wise. Some pre33 gold might be nice for you but I think the premiums might be quite high for you. Have you checked out Yankee stacking on YouTube. He has some good regular chats with an old school coin store guy and the things they talk about are defiantly more relevant for people in the states. I'd still add a bit to the emergency fund and get yourself a treat. 

Yes, been watching probably 5 or 6 hours of videos a day for the past month trying to learn all I can, saw plenty of Yankee Stacking's videos so far. Not sure about gold at this time, most of the research I've done tells me to buy silver more than gold right now. Once I get a nice bunch of silver in my safe, I'll start looking into gold. I've seen a lot of videos saying that silver will likely go up in price faster than gold, and if that happens, it would be a good idea to trade the silver in for gold, but I'm not even close to that point yet.

[Bigmarc]

1 hour ago, HoyaGuru said:

Yes, been watching probably 5 or 6 hours of videos a day for the past month trying to learn all I can, saw plenty of Yankee Stacking's videos so far. Not sure about gold at this time, most of the research I've done tells me to buy silver more than gold right now. Once I get a nice bunch of silver in my safe, I'll start looking into gold. I've seen a lot of videos saying that silver will likely go up in price faster than gold, and if that happens, it would be a good idea to trade the silver in for gold, but I'm not even close to that point yet.

How many hours of YouTube do you think it would take for me to reach 20 years of stock trading? 

[HoyaGuru]

18 minutes ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

@HoyaGuru  What is the real world cost of buying silver in the US?   spot + (what dealer premiums and taxes is there)  

Been checking every 2 or three days, here's today's breakdown at good old Walmart (spot price right now is $23.42):

1 oz round = $32.66, premium = $9.24/oz.

5 oz rounds = $134.45, premium = $3.47/oz.

10 oz rounds = $262.90, premium = $2.87/oz.

20 oz rounds = $523.80, premium = $2.77/oz.

1 kilo bar = $831.72, premium = $2.45/oz.

No tax, no shipping cost. This is the first time I've checked where the cheapest for each weight is in rounds (except for the kilo), usually it's bars for most of them.

[tpcob303]

So if its 20k, I would buy a omega seamaster diver 300 or a speedmaster moonwatch or datejust 41mm blue dial, the rest would be be gold and silver coins, britannias and sovereigns some proof some bullion. 

[Aldebaran]

For me, definitely sovereigns - special reverse 🌞

[Bigmarc]

What's the crack with watches at the moment, what am I missing?

[tpcob303]

39 minutes ago, Bigmarc said:

What's the crack with watches at the moment, what am I missing?

While we have the time on our phones, it's also nice to have a nice watch maybe for special occasions. We don't always need to buy coins as people also collect watches as well and while I might be stacking gold and silver many mint releases don't interest me unless I bought them as bullion as I don't want to pay the proof premium so saving the premium and buying something else for myself my choice is a nice watch as an alternative. 

[HerefordBullyun]

I'm in this camp

 

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

1 hour ago, Bigmarc said:

What's the crack with watches at the moment, what am I missing?

The whole world has gone gay

[Silverlocks]

20 hours ago, HoyaGuru said:

Imagine you had a nice windfall, you hit the lottery, you were a beneficiary in someone's will, whatever, and today you received $20k you weren't expecting. What would you do with it? Now, since I'm asking this question on a website called The Silver Forum, I'm guessing everyone is going to say buy silver, but what exactly would you buy? All bullion? Some bullion, some coins? Would you make a deal with a retailer and buy 20k worth at one time, or buy a small amount each week? Or, would you buy stock in  silver mine? I'm interested to see the different strategies.

I'm kind of in this situation (unfortunately it's not $20k, but it's a nice chunk of cash), and trying to figure out what to do with it. I've been trading stocks for 20 years, just got into silver a month ago, and I'm liking actually having something tangible in my safe, instead of a bunch of numbers in my stock program.

Contrary to what the name might suggest, TSF members trade in lot of gold as well.  Tax law in the UK makes silver a bit inefficient to stack if you're not careful, so the environment is a bit different from that across the pond.

In America the tax environment is much better for silver stacking than in the UK, where VAT on silver adds a fair bit in the way of transaction costs if you're buying from a broker.  Also, I don't think the US has anything local equivalent to TSF that I'm aware of, so the majority of the peer-to-peer sales market goes through Facebook, Ebay or Craigslist.  These are a lot more fraught than TSF, which is probably the safest peer to peer market sales site in the world.

In the U.S., silver works fine for stacking, but keep an eye on the premiums you're paying.  Consider a mix of 10 oz bars, 1kg bars and tubes of 1oz coins such as Krugerrands, Maples or ASE's (Brits also, but less popular over the Atlantic).  These are the most liquid on the secondary market.  Make sure you have a handle on your exit strategy, which is just a catchy phrase for 'How am I going to flog my PMs when the time comes?'.  Do your homework and make sure you have a decent idea of what a good price for various items is.

You might also want to consider some gold.  In the UK, tax legislation has a big play on sovereigns and other UK legal tender, which is not the case in the U.S.  Eagles and Buffalos are probably the easiest items to buy and sell there, but come with a premium for this.  You can get some of that back when you sell, but do your homework about what an appropriate price to buy is.  Also, Maples, Krugerrands, Brits etc.  You might also want to consider gold bars, but they tend to be targets for forgery so (a) can be difficult to resell and (b) place you at some risk of buying a dud if you're not sure of the provenance of the item.

In my opinion, prefer fractional (sub-1oz) coins over 1oz coins if you want to sell peer-to-peer on the secondary market, particularly 1/4oz.  They are much more liquid.  However, they tend to come with high premiums so you need to keep an eye on what you're paying and what a fair sale price is.  

Another possibility is pre-1933 gold.  $20 coins are quite large (just under 1oz) but tend to have low premiums unless they are rare mintages.  Unfortunately, $5 coins, particularly Indian heads, tend to go for a substantial collector's premium (mintages were quite low compared to $20 coins) so you will have to do your homework there.  Unlike the UK, where the sovereigns hit a nice sweet spot of liquidity and were manufactured in vast quantities, $5 coins weren't produced in such large numbers.  You're probably better off looking at $20 coins if you want pre-1933 gold, and modern 1/4oz bullion coins if you can get them at a decent premium.

Please note that I'm a lot more familiar with the market here than the U.S. market, and these are just my observations from halfway around the world.  You will need to do your homework.  Also, consider capital gains tax shielding vehicles such as IRAs there (which work similarly to ISAs or SIPPs here, although I think the allowances are smaller).

Edited August 23, 2023 by Silverlocks

[GBStacking]

21 hours ago, HoyaGuru said:

Imagine you had a nice windfall, you hit the lottery, you were a beneficiary in someone's will, whatever, and today you received $20k you weren't expecting. What would you do with it? Now, since I'm asking this question on a website called The Silver Forum, I'm guessing everyone is going to say buy silver, but what exactly would you buy? All bullion? Some bullion, some coins? Would you make a deal with a retailer and buy 20k worth at one time, or buy a small amount each week? Or, would you buy stock in  silver mine? I'm interested to see the different strategies.

I'm kind of in this situation (unfortunately it's not $20k, but it's a nice chunk of cash), and trying to figure out what to do with it. I've been trading stocks for 20 years, just got into silver a month ago, and I'm liking actually having something tangible in my safe, instead of a bunch of numbers in my stock program.

I'm currently experiencing a similar situation, once solicitors, estate agents and a million and one other people get their act together. It's not going to be a particularly large amount, but will require more than just chucking in my current account. I'm not sure of the exact amount yet, but the plan is splitting between some income bonds, shares ISA and topping up my sovereign stack as this is CGT exempt. Obviously this is UK focused, so I'm not certain how easily this would translate across the pond. But you do have the advantage of no VAT on silver, which makes diversifying a metal stack much simpler. My (totally not any form of financial advise) would be pop it where it's most tax efficient whilst still having a nice physical holding that can be enjoyed and passed on as you may see fit.

[HillWalkerDundee]

I would buy a piece of land for hutting.

[HoyaGuru]

Thanks everyone, I'm 58 years old and I feel like I'm back in high school with all the studying I'm doing lately on this stuff. I appreciate the posts from everyone, please let me know if I make any faux pas out here and ask the wrong type of questions. Still waiting on my new Capital One Walmart credit card in the mail, which will give me that 5% cash back for anything I buy off of Walmart's website, hoping the cost of silver doesn't go up too high before I get it, looks like it went up 90 cents since yesterday. That 5% cash back will cut my premium more than 50% for the next year, so I'm planning on getting as much silver as I can. Kind of holding off on gold until I feel like I have an handle on the silver, I have a lot to learn about silver coins first, I don't feel comfortable buying them yet, I don't know enough not to be taken advantage of, it all seems pretty subjective to me at the moment.

[Silverlocks]

@HoyaGuru - this stuff is not rocket science, but you do have to do your homework.  Get a handle on the secondary market - find the FB trading groups in the US and spend a few weeks keeping an eye on them to see what stuff trades for.  Maybe keep a spreadsheet and correlate it with spot at the time.  That should give you a sense of what a reasonable premium for various items is.

Gold is easier than Silver if anything, as the numismatic proportion of the premium is much lower than silver.  It tends to trade much closer to the actual metal value of the coin, at least for bullion (proofs and rare coins are a different beast).

The other item you need to have a handle on is your exit strategy, which is just a way of saying 'How am I going to flog this if I need to raise money?'  You can sell peer to peer, which requires more effort and a bit of risk, and some work to establish yourself in the market.   Coming into selling on the secondary market cold with no track record and an urgent need to shift thousands of dollars in silver is not a good combination, so it does pay to trade a bit just to get the hang of it and establish a reputation.

Alternatively you could sell back to a dealer, which is low risk but you won't get as much.  You can take quite a bath selling silver back to a dealer if you've overpaid for it, so it's worth getting a handle on the secondary market.

[KevjustKev]

Pay off the 20 odd quid I owe on my credit card, good acoustic bass, a bass amp I can carry more than 10 foot, a good synth bass pedal, better PC for my music, beer, women, song and curry. Which would leave me enough for 1/2 Sov and 3oz's of silver

[gji25]

i would invest it into a south american spud farm ( vat free ) somewhere like bolivia for example 😁