How To Buy Scrap Silver?

Am I a smart individual to buy silver and work hard to buy more silver?

• I'm 16. I'm currently finishing off my first year in community college, then I'll transfer to the University of Washington to acquire a Aeronautical and Astronautical Science degree. I've read many books about gold and silver, my family really likes gold (they're asian) but they do not care about silver. I've been putting a lot of my attention on learning about silver and buy silver rounds. Now, I have near 10oz of silver in hand, I'm currently selling on ebay and doing anything that I could possibly do to buy more silver, then I'll focus on survival items (I already got a lot of magnesium, a 1300lumens flashlight) and emergency food when I have the funds avalible. Is what I'm doing smart or am I just an idiot? should I put my focus more on community college (I have a 4.0 currently though), please help?

• Answer:

  To work hard yes, to invest yes, to buy silver no, to buy survival items particularly perishables no. I'm not sure about silver's prices but from what I hear, it has been lagging behind that of gold. Take a closer look at gold. In the 80's 30 years ago, it reached a high of $850 an ounce and then fell to above $300 an ounce, it is now about $1,700 an ounce. An ounce purchased thirty years ago at $850 and ounce and sold today at $1,750 would've given you a return of 2.33% per year when inflation was 4.5% per year. An ounce purchased thirty years ago at $300 an ounce and sold today at $1,750 would've given a return of 5.95% per year. During this time frame, the stock market gave returns of 18% to 22% per year. Investing in Coca-Cola would've given you 12.5% per year over those years despite the recent economic problems. If silver is trailing gold then how could it have been a good investment? Survival items are low probability high gain items that are almost certainly not going to be needed. Look at the St. Petersburg Paradox for low probability high gain events, it simply isn't worth it to invest in survival items. If you are in an area that floods, you may want an axe and a hand charged flashlight in the attic in case you get trapped there, perhaps a blowup dinghy, these are permanent items so their cost is amortized though the dinghy may rot away ( a cheap canoe would be better ). If you are in tornado alley, a root cellar could be useful for some vegetables. An end of the world survivalist is really playing against the impossible. I've been through hurricanes and the people who bought the MRE's just regretted eating them before they ran out, what was useful were the regular cans of soup and rice that you already had for daily eating, filling a bathtub served quite well for water and simply waiting a day or two allowed the power crews to cut through the trees over the roads. If you're a smoker, you have no need for magnesium, if your neighbor is a smoker, you have no need for magnesium, if you use a butane lighter to start your BBQ then you have no need for magnesium. Survival items should be items you use everyday whenever possible not something purchased for survival. Where's your magnesium now? How long would it take to get to it? If you want to keep something of value for a disaster, invest in funds within your tax shelters like a 401k or IRA. When you go bankrupt they don't take those away. When someone sues you, they can't sue for those. When something really goes wrong, that's what you'll have to bail you out not gold, silver or jewelry.