How safe is your money and savings?
Hello friends!
I'm sure, by now , most of you have figured out I like to have some creative writing attached to my photography, my topic tonight will be geared towards economic energy storage. My photo display will be silver in various form. I know this is more of a crypto world but I don't have any bitcoins to photograph yet( I know, I know don't say it!! I'm just being silly and starting off with a bad joke...hehe).
As a disclaimer, I'm am not a financial adviser or have any expertise or education in the field, these are just personal observations and not advice or investment strategy.
What is money anyway? Is it your local currency or dollar? Digits in our bank account accessed by a little plastic rectangle?Majority of the population (at least in the developed world) seems to think so. I have to admit, although I use these methods as much as everyone else, numbers printed on a piece of paper holds as much credibility as seashells or tulip bulbs. Toilet paper is probably of greater value. Thankfully, more and more people are waking up to the same reality and are taking steps to protect themselves and their long term savings from our fast devaluing dollar.
shot 1/60 sec. f/8 40mm , ISO 400 , no flash
I have a half decent pension plan with my employment so I had never given it much thought and felt my retirement years would be secure. As I watched the American sub-prime mortgage bubble of 2007-2008 collapsing on itself , it got me thinking "how sad for the hardworking Americans that got duped into taking more debt than they can afford or bought the associated stocks with their retirement funds and lost near everything" being Canadian, we were not affected to the same magnitude but with similar policies it really was just a matter of time. It got me questioning the integrity of the banking system as a whole and it's future. I'm glad I did!! It's a very sick system meant to rob you of your hard earned economic energy in the long run even if you are a saver. With the fast creeping inflation, what seems like a healthy sum is most likely to be worth next to nothing in 30 years from now. I knew I had to prepare myself with a plan B just in case, but what? How can I protect myself and maintain the purchase power of my savings?
shot 1/60 sec. f/8 40mm , ISO 500 , no flash
The more I researched the history of money and weeded thru the doomsdayers and self-proclaimed silver guru claiming that precious metals will shoot thru the moon in the near future, I realized that gold and silver had been the most stable currency for a few thousand years and our dollar only really started to devalue as it was slowly being separated from the metal standards over the last century. Since it's total separation, for us in 1967, the value of the dollar has been eroding away at a fast pace and comparing today's value of a pre 1967 20$ bill against 20 silver dollars of the same time period really drove the point home. If one had kept 20 silver dollars, it would be worth around 300$(Canadian $$) in silver content today meanwhile the 20$ bill is still just 20$. Not because silver is worth so much more but because our dollar is worth so much less. Another observation is the price manipulation with the use of "paper" gold and silver or futures contracts, there is no way for an average joe like me to know just how badly manipulated it is but in history (at any given time prior to the early 1900) the average worker earned an average of 1/10th of a troy ounce day's wage all the way back to Roman soldiers. What is that worth in today's figures? around 2$. The historical mining ratio with gold was 1oz gold/16 oz silver. Gold is currently floating around 1600$ and silver 21$(CAD) making the ratio 1/76 really? are we mining that much more silver compared to gold?? nope. the current mining ratio is closer to 1/9.
shot 1/60 sec. f/8 40mm , ISO 800 , no flash
In this crypto world, you can hate on precious metals all you want but it appears to me silver is having a " back up the truck" sale, possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity. When the banking corruption unravels, it's going to be messy and likely too late to take part at today's prices, the bigger question is when will it happen? I don't think anybody really knows or can accurately predict the dollar's demise. Silver does have some impracticality, I don't see myself going to the store or crossing borders with my backpack full of silver, it's a bit cumbersome. I also doubt I would ever send a bar of silver to an ebay seller in exchange for goods, I suppose that's where crypto currencies will shine in the future. Day to day purchases, international or long distance money transfers, traveling, easily divisible etc... Cryptos have a bright future ahead, as long as you pick the right coin or token.
shot 1/100 sec. f/9 40mm , ISO 400 , no flash
Moral of the story, don't rely on the dollar and protect your wealth. If you still think government, central banks and wall street have your best interest at heart, you might want to re-evaluate that. Storage of wealth can be anything that is not attached to such entities. With the rapid expansion of credit backed money printing around the world , it is just a matter of time until we need a wheel barrow full of cash or a trillion dollar bill to buy a loaf of bread.
shot 1/200 sec. f/10 40mm , ISO 400 , no flash. All images taken with Nikon D7000 paired with Nikkor 40mm macro lense.
What do you think of precious metals?
What is a good storage of wealth to you? leave your thoughts!
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Interestingly, I have been having this conversation witb my husband recently. We have a little gbp saved up and don't know what yo do with it. Do we invest in precious metals? do we invest in land or property? do we invest in a pension? or simply put it in a savings account in the bank for 'safe' keeping? It is a dillema as the past few years have taught us, banks cannot be trusted.
As i said in my post , i am not qualified to give financial advice so give it much thought before you decide. One thing I can tell you, with the "bank bail in" and relatively flat interest rates popping up everywhere, your dollars are probably safer under your mattress than in the bank ( please don't do that lol) My fiance and I gave it much thought and we are spread out a little all over. first, pay off all debt and credit cards if you have any .We keep 6 months worth of living expenses and a bit extra ( some in the bank some physical cash in a safe location) in case of emergency or job loss along with a supply of dry goods and other non perishable food . Anything pass that we convert in hard assets. We chose silver because of it's potential for gains and it is also an industrial metal and easy to sell in a hurry. Affordable property can generate passive income or used to grow food, not a bad choice but may be difficult to sell in a crisis/hurry if you need cash now. We have pension plans but remember it is still attached to the banking system and will devalue long term with the dollar. We are also entering the crypto market. Do your research and make an informed decision on what fits your motive or goals the best.Don't put yourself in a position where you would have to sell in 6 months or a year because buying has small premiums and selling will cost you a few dollars below market value of precious metals. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify.
great advice, thank you!
I agree that this is something we should all keep in mind, when planning for the future. Devaluation of the fiat currencies is bound to happen, so just ignoring it seems rather silly.
Yes it does seem silly, maybe it's a case of denial , maybe social conditioning from the establishment to convince us to use their system. It's not the first fiat system the world as seen, it's far from a new concept and they all crashed an burned. I don't see this one being any different.
nice post ,thanks for your effort :) .
i will be happy if you check free courses which i post, like :
haha Life is short , we must use our time wisely
thank you for stopping by!
Interesting what you say about the mining ratio's. I wonder if that is because it's not cost effective to mine more silver even though it's fairly readily available given the relatively low value compared to gold. Remember I mentioned the 70kg gold nugget was the largest ever? Well the largest silver nugget was 840kg! A ratio of 1:12. I'm not sure what that tells us though. I think it's a good point you're making though and will give it some thought.
the thing to keep in mind between gold and silver, most of the gold ever mined is still in circulation, it just changes hands or transformed into something else. Silver has several non recoverable industrial applications and new technologies require silver( solar panels , electronic gadgets, medicine, synthetic fabrics, the list goes on) We have been using silver at a deficit for most of the last 20 years (except for 3 of them) Silver is cheap right now and still being mined as a byproduct of other metal mining operations but the ore is of less quality than it once was. Don't get me wrong , I am very much a fan of gold as well! I suspect more gain % on silver. And also not cost effective to mine silver on it's own, several silver only mining companies are struggling.
You are a wealth of info... cheers :)
haha thanks, I read too much :)