How are your investments doing?

[riptides]

All cash now except for company controlled 401k plan. Looking for conservative hoardings... LOL.

 

[Hay Dude]

Last week I was able to sell all my precious metals.

Finally, I am out of that albatross.

Never again.

What happened? You should have made a killing!!!
I made 120% return on silver in under 1 year.

Albatross? WTFU talking about Willis?

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Last week I was able to sell all my precious metals.

Finally, I am out of that albatross.

Never again.

What did you pay for the precious metals?
What did you get when you sold them?
How long did you have them?

 

[RSKY]

I just find that I spend less, when I have to put down that wad of cash all at once. So, often I save 100%

I will not go in debt for anything that I don't have the money to pay off instantly. I could have paid cash for all three vehicles with no problem BUT I'm still earning on my investments while paying off the loans. That same fund that I took money out at $28 is now at $47 so the $50,000 in shares I sold two years ago would now be worth $83,000.

RSKY

 

[Snobdds]

What happened? You should have made a killing!!!
I made 120% return on silver in under 1 year.

Albatross? WTFU talking about Willis?

I made money, I always do.

The problem was getting rid of it. Exchanges don;t want to buy high priced metals. They will sell them to you at the high prices though. I had to hire a broker to sell the stuff and then pay him.

It's too hard to buy at scale in metals and then be able to sell at scale. It's a very illiquid market.
Yes you can buy 10 ounces at the local dealer and sell it pretty easily. But they don't have the ability to buy blocks of metal.

 

[jmc]

I made money, I always do.

Is that you, 5030?

 

[Hay Dude]

I made money, I always do.

Love the confidence, but admit I have made less than I wanted sometimes.

The problem was getting rid of it. Exchanges don;t want to buy high priced metals. They will sell them to you at the high prices though. I had to hire a broker to sell the stuff and then pay him.

It's too hard to buy at scale in metals and then be able to sell at scale. It's a very illiquid market.
Yes you can buy 10 ounces at the local dealer and sell it pretty easily. But they don't have the ability to buy blocks of metal.

Sounds like to me you bought large bricks of gold and naturally, less buyers wants those because few can afford larger pieces like that.
I bought decent quantities over the years, but never exceeded one ounce increments (Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, etc.)
I can sell those at 97-99% of value in 20 minutes. Market is extremely liquid in North Wilmington area.

 

[Snobdds]

Sounds like to me you bought large bricks of gold and naturally, less buyers wants those because few can afford larger pieces like that.
I bought decent quantities over the years, but never exceeded one ounce increments (Krugerrands, Maple Leafs, etc.)
I can sell those at 97-99% of value in 20 minutes.

They're called bricks but they are little 1oz bars in 100 oz increments that come in plastic baseball card like packages.

You can put 500oz to a box.

Those are hard as hell to sell.

 

[Snobdds]

Is that you, 5030?

Clever.

 

[Hay Dude]

They're called bricks but they are little 1oz bars in 100 oz increments that come in plastic baseball card like packages.

You can put 500oz to a box.

Those are hard as hell to sell.

Yeah that’s an unusual form of gold that less people want to buy.
Stick with the well known coins.

I know my buyer on a first name basis and like working with him. My bank is literally across the street from his shop. I walk out with a check always feeling like I got a fair deal.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I shipped a bunch of gold to a buyer back in 2010. It was something like $1,800/ oz back then which was a huge jump from around $800 in 1-2 years. I shipped something like 24troz. I was a nervous wreck, but all went well and I made my money. I really enjoyed the metals game around that time. I bought everything I could. I bought scrap, coins, and silverware. My dad bought and sold premium jewelry. I can remember climbing around in attics with a little old lady yelling up through the small opening in the ceiling "I think it's on this side over here..." Then I would come down with a couple of boxes of silverware. I messed up pretty bad on my first set and paid silver price for all of it, not realizing the blades on the knives weren't silver... I didn't loose money that time, but I didn't make any either.

 

[jmc]

We had a family hardware store from the mid 50's until 1976. When copper was added to silver coins, we started saving the original dimes, quarters, and halves that came in, throwing them in a drawer and rolling them up as they accumulated. We also saved silver certificates, before they became scarce. And Indian head pennies. I still have them all, the silver coins in their original, unopened rolls. Wonder what the chance of any of those coins now being worth more than their silver content? It would be a lot of work checking them.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

It would be a lot of work checking them.

I never even tried on mine because of that reason. There are too many variables to come up with a value on the fly. I just use melt value as a guide.

https://www.coinflation.com/

 

[MossRoad]

There is nothing wrong with debt if managed with some thought. Any debt I have could be immediately paid off by other funds that I have in savings or investments. And the reserve funds are making more return than the debt interest or in some cases the 0% loans. I have plenty peace of mind related to debt.

I look at it this way.... our home is paid off since 1995. Money that could have been spent on mortgage payments since then has been invested. House is secure. Future looks good.

 

[MossRoad]

We had a family hardware store from the mid 50's until 1976. When copper was added to silver coins, we started saving the original dimes, quarters, and halves that came in, throwing them in a drawer and rolling them up as they accumulated. We also saved silver certificates, before they became scarce. And Indian head pennies. I still have them all, the silver coins in their original, unopened rolls. Wonder what the chance of any of those coins now being worth more than their silver content? It would be a lot of work checking them.

I like the way silver coins clink compared to modern coins. Wife cleaned out the safety deposit box and there was a box of silver coins in there. Kinda fun to reminisce.

 

[Highlandr]

We had a family hardware store from the mid 50's until 1976. When copper was added to silver coins, we started saving the original dimes, quarters, and halves that came in, throwing them in a drawer and rolling them up as they accumulated. We also saved silver certificates, before they became scarce.

I think a lot of people did. I say that because while at university I worked at a gas station and it wasn't uncommon for 15-16 y/o kids to pay for their gas with silver coins and/or silver certificates. Obviously they'd raided their parent's stash. I guess it was a case of, "I'll buy you a car son, but you have to buy your own gas."

I bought them all at face value. Some years later I was made an offer I couldn't refuse for the lot. Probably shouldn't have done that.

 

[ultrarunner]

My contract as cafeteria cashier included keeping all the silver coins coming my way…

It was late in the game but a few came in each week…

 

[jmc]

I like the way silver coins clink compared to modern coins. Wife cleaned out the safety deposit box and there was a box of silver coins in there. Kinda fun to reminisce.

I feel the same way about the thunk of old baseball bats and golf woods vs the ping of their modern aluminum replacements!

 

[stucknutz]

Is that you, 5030?

LMAO

 

[DarkBlack]

Remember...If the money printer grows the money supply by 5-8% annually, if the S&P returns 9% annually, and inflation is 2-4% annually...a person actually sees their real worth decreasing by 2-3% annually.

No.
An increasing money supply may, lead to future higher inflation, but not always. In any case, you don’t add US money supply increase percentage statistics, to inflation, to proclaim personal net worth is decreasing. You’re double dipping your numbers there.
The rest of your numbers are very suspect too.