How Much Gold And Silver Do You Need? (Calculation Breakdown)

Welcome to the Precious Metals Bug Forums

Welcome to the PMBug forums - a watering hole for folks interested in gold, silver, precious metals, sound money, investing, market and economic news, central bank monetary policies, politics and more.

Why not register an account and join the discussions? When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no Google ads, market data/charts, access to trade/barter with the community and much more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Goldhedge

GIM2 Refugee
Moderator
Messages
17,124
Reaction score
10,523
Points
288
listen at 1.5x

How Much Gold And Silver Do You Need? (Calculation Breakdown)​

20
 
2227.gif
 
OK I have the global gold supply, both above ground and known/proven deposits at 8,160,000,000 oz and the current global debt at $324,000,000,000,000 so the FV for gold is $39,706 an oz. The current gold/silver ratio is 90 so divided by 90 leave silver at $441.17 an oz. which means silver is still a huge bargain right now even in the area of $37 an oz.

So right off the bat buy silver. And not just any silver but transferable silver too, "which is fricken boring cause I want to collect"

But...since I'll most likely be dead by the time this melt down occurs I guess I can still keep doing what I'm doing. Spending about 80 to 90% of what I'm spending on bullion. I guess I'll go order more junk silver now and honestly I'm tempted to pay the tax freight and pull cash out of a deferred account and really load up.
 
Another opinion. Interesting vid, some interesting pics but, if you prefer, you can listen in one thread, play around the forum in a different tab. Hedging / strategic positioning are the subject matter. Not a how to.

"Ray Dalio Reveals: The Truth About Gold & Silver You Must Know"​

Jul 30, 2025 #treanding #viralvideo #fyp
Discover life-changing financial wisdom in this powerful motivational speech by billionaire investor Ray Dalio. In this talk, Ray breaks down how much gold and silver you should own, why these precious metals are essential in uncertain times, and how to build lasting wealth. 🌟💰


16:50

Timestamps:
0:00 – Introduction 🌟
1:05 – Why gold & silver are important 💰
3:15 – Ray Dalio on economic uncertainty 📉
5:30 – How much gold & silver should you own? 🪙
8:00 – Diversification & risk management 📊
10:15 – Building long-term wealth 🔑
12:40 – Lessons from history & inflation 📜
15:00 – Final thoughts & motivation 💡
16:30 – Conclusion & call to action 🚀
 
^^ Dalio suggest portfolio allocations of 15% gold and 5% silver.
 
Mine is closer to 50/50 but then again I dont have the cash to buy a lot of gold. But already I'm making up to $500 a coin bought earlier in the year. Whats everyones thoughts about buying at todays prices ? $3,375 for a coin is not an easy thing for me. Thats it.

Best off buying by the kilo. The checks in the mail.

And so it goes, this thing of ours.
 
Last edited:
... Whats everyones thoughts about buying at todays prices ? $3,375 for a coin is not an easy thing for me. ...

An ounce of gold will always seem expensive. It's always valuable. If you want to increase allocation to gold but at a more accessible entry point, I'd suggest looking at the fractional gold deals bullionexchanges.com has under their "gold at spot" deals. 1/4 troy ounce gold at spot is a good deal (IMO).
 
Au 60%
Ag 10%
Pt 10%
BTC 20%
Boy it must be nice to have that kind of ready cash. To have that kind of ration I'd have to dip heavily into deferred accounts that are doing very well, which kind of defeats the purposes of diversification. Even worse, Uncle Sam would steal their 20%.

Furthermore the gold/silver ratio, and call it what you want, is back up to 90 oz of silver to 1 oz of gold which makes a heavy stack of gold kind of irresponsible or even unobtainable for most.
 
AU 70%

AG 20%

Cash 10%
(this includes saleable property, such as autos, tools, desirable electronics)
 
by spot $ values
AU 53%
AG 44%
PT 2%
PL 1%

no other assetts included just valued in todays spot $s against each other, have always tried to balance at 50/50 for the last 40yrs au/ag but runup of AU has skewed the percentage so i slowly continue to add AG but will probably stop soon
 
Last edited:
I get a pension, both civilian and military, that repays me for all those decades of rolling the rubber down ghetto streets always one bullet away from being retired permanently. So I am indeed fortunate being American and this is the money I use for PMs. Over all, stocks, property, cash reserves, PMs probably make up 6% to 8% of my worth. Certainly not rich but then again I dont have to eat out of Alpo cans.

Again, thank you America. It was an honor defending you and my gratitude for all you have done for me will always be appreciated.

Ive served in 3'rd world fascist crap holes under Martial Law where the individual has zero rights and I never forgot the Lesson's learned where a Military Govt. has unchecked power over the individual, both physical and over their money. This experience as an 18yo troop is what helped shape me and later gave me the moral strength to fight corruption and respect the rights of the individual. You see I fear Govt. far more then I fear street crime.

In such places the familys wealth is generational because they dont trust their Govt.'s either, nor their banks, nor their worthless currencys. The family "bank" is under the floor boards in the form of gold and/or silver. Thats their "bank". Its not Citi Bank or PMC ; Its in a bag buried out in the back yard and always kept "In" the family, which is why so many cousins marry.

To even think we live in a society where one can order PMs online to store outside Govt. control, or can order firearms for self protection, is in itself a marvel of Liberty usually found in the world given only to the wealthy and powerful few %. Always protect it. Always appreciate it. Never allow Govt. to steal it away from you because it will if given the chance.
 
Certainly not rich but then again I dont have to eat out of Alpo cans.
I'm impressed by the attitude you manage.

But I'll tell you, poverty is a teacher, and a stern one. I was poor when young - but didn't learn the lesson well. I ascended to middle-class as I aged, but then, I got involuntarily retired from the railroad industry four years before I could claim a pension. And...taking work that didn't qualify as covered under Railroad Retirement, would cut "Current Connections" - and forfeit my pension, at any future time.

Back then, Uber was new; car insurers weren't worried about it; and it was considered "Self-Employment" under Railroad Retirement rules. So I drove for Uber; lived on $1000 a month for four years, re-learned how to eat cheaply.

Now I had most of my stacks - in fact more; but as much as possible, I didn't want to touch them. There were times there wasn't a choice; but those years, I wasn't vacationing in Europe.

Now I'm pensioned; now I'm older and my metabolism is messed up. The one advantage to that is, if I eat so little I don't gain weight, it costs next to nothing. I mean, I'm annoyed when 18 eggs cost $7.50, but that doesn't break me. Simple stuff, plus rotating canned goods I'd stored.

I don't cook elaborately, but I haven't had to check out the price of Alpo, not yet.
 
What kind of a pension is it if they don't allow you to take work? Seems like a scam.
some form of partial disability?


what is a pension??? LOL my moms generation all seemed to work for and get "retirement" and "pensions" ...... i was never exposed to anything other than IRAs 401ks... social security ....etc.....i dont fault people getting pensions but they were never on my radar thru my working years and most in my opinion would collapse if the stock market took a significant turn down
 
Last edited:
What kind of a pension is it if they don't allow you to take work? Seems like a scam.
Once you're at full retirement age (67, or thirty years' service and 60) you can work as you like.

If a covered railroad employee stops working for the railroad - as I did - before being of eligible age, and that employee takes any other form of W-2 work...he's out of the system. Gone forever. Eligibility lost. Only way to get it back is to take another railroad job.

Which isn't always easy to find. And in my case, with medical history of back problems - that was what happened; hurt my back. Which put a big red X on my forehead - I was marked for removal; the company informed me I'd have to relocate 300 miles away, and the only open position was as a switchman in a major yard.

I was late 50s with a back injury. I couldn't work as a switchman. So I was basically fired.

What kind of pension is it? People in the industry assume Railroad Retirement is for the railroad workers - part of Big Benevolent Government, taking care of the little guy.

FALSE!!

It's there to help the railroad COMPANIES. Over a century ago, with the West still opening up, railroads had a real problem keeping their ground employees. Someone would come and work a few months or years, get a grubstake, and head to Alaska, or Montana, to pan for gold. Or he'd just go off on a drunk. Or become an outlaw and rob the trains - he knew how the railroad worked, and what trains would be carrying payroll. Perhaps try other work - lawman, or rancher.

Most failed, and would come to another road, again looking for a job. Often with some names they could drop.

This made managing employees, difficult. Weeding out those fired for cause. Of the guys who wandered off, some were good, some were not.

Railroad Retirement was there to STOP the job-hopping. Come on with us, run our trains...do it until you reach (whatever age they were using) and you get income for the rest of your life. LEAVE, and you get NOTHING.

This, in the days well before antiSocial inSecurity. What a proposition! For many, it was a lottery ticket - in the steam days, before air brakes, there were plenty of ways to get killed. Crown sheets on boilers, unwrapping, or hitting cattle or trestles washed out...or for brakemen, just walking the tops of cars, "dressing" the cars (winding the brake-wheel on each to stop the train). But if you live long enough, you'll be a rich big shot like the rancher-kings or oil barons! Living in luxury (relatively) in old age.

That was long ago, but the system remains. Because it's managed by GOVERNMENT - and the closest thing to Eternal Life you'll ever find, is a government program.

As it happened, I did get an early retirement with "craft disability" on account of my back. This, after failing two company's physical exams - Amtrak and BNSF. So, once I attained the age of 60 (I was 58 when I sprang my back) - and waited two years for red tape to unwind - I was pensioned off.

Now that I'm no longer active and no longer under the age of normal retirement, I can work, no problem. That wasn't the case when I was cast off, ten years ago, no job, no pension money, nuffin. Good luck and careful management kept me from losing claim on the pension.
 
Last edited:
Once you're at full retirement age (67, or thirty years' service and 60) you can work as you like.

If a covered railroad employee stops working for the railroad - as I did - before being of eligible age, and that employee takes any other form of W-2 work...he's out of the system. Gone forever. Eligibility lost. Only way to get it back is to take another railroad job.

Which isn't always easy to find. And in my case, with medical history of back problems - that was what happened; hurt my back. Which put a big red X on my forehead - I was marked for removal; the company informed me I'd have to relocate 300 miles away, and the only open position was as a switchman in a major yard.

I was late 50s with a back injury. I couldn't work as a switchman. So I was basically fired.

What kind of pension is it? People in the industry assume Railroad Retirement is for the railroad workers - part of Big Benevolent Government, taking care of the little guy.

FALSE!!

It's there to help the railroad COMPANIES. Over a century ago, with the West still opening up, railroads had a real problem keeping their ground employees. Someone would come and work a few months or years, get a grubstake, and head to Alaska, or Montana, to pan for gold. Or he'd just go off on a drunk. Or become an outlaw and rob the trains - he knew how the railroad worked, and what trains would be carrying payroll. Perhaps try other work - lawman, or rancher.

Most failed, and would come to another road, again looking for a job. Often with some names they could drop.

This made managing employees, difficult. Weeding out those fired for cause. Of the guys who wandered off, some were good, some were not.

Railroad Retirement was there to STOP the job-hopping. Come on with us, run our trains...do it until you reach (whatever age they were using) and you get income for the rest of your life. LEAVE, and you get NOTHING.

This, in the days well before antiSocial inSecurity. What a proposition! For many, it was a lottery ticket - in the steam days, before air brakes, there were plenty of ways to get killed. Crown sheets on boilers, unwrapping, or hitting cattle or trestles washed out...or for brakemen, just walking the tops of cars, "dressing" the cars (winding the brake-wheel on each to stop the train). But if you live long enough, you'll be a rich big shot like the rancher-kings or oil barons! Living in luxury (relatively) in old age.

That was long ago, but the system remains. Because it's managed by GOVERNMENT - and the closest thing to Eternal Life you'll ever find, is a government program.

As it happened, I did get an early retirement with "craft disability" on account of my back. This, after failing two company's physical exams - Amtrak and BNSF. So, once I attained the age of 60 (I was 58 when I sprang my back) - and waited two years for red tape to unwind - I was pensioned off.

Now that I'm no longer active and no longer under the age of normal retirement, I can work, no problem. That wasn't the case when I was cast off, ten years ago, no job, no pension money, nuffin. Good luck and careful management kept me from losing claim on the pension.
railroad companies were granted a lot of power/land/etc back in the day ....i know a local city had to build a overpass over a railroad track at huge expense because the railroad has such a strong control over the land rights they were granted , but back in the day having the railroad in your town was a huge economic boom
 
Boy it must be nice to have that kind of ready cash. To have that kind of ration I'd have to dip heavily into deferred accounts that are doing very well, which kind of defeats the purposes of diversification. Even worse, Uncle Sam would steal their 20%.

Furthermore the gold/silver ratio, and call it what you want, is back up to 90 oz of silver to 1 oz of gold which makes a heavy stack of gold kind of irresponsible or even unobtainable for most.
I am an entrepreneur. I went to business school in Miami on scholarship. I was never afraid to work and rarely take vacations.
 
railroad companies were granted a lot of power/land/etc back in the day ....i know a local city had to build a overpass over a railroad track at huge expense because the railroad has such a strong control over the land rights they were granted , but back in the day having the railroad in your town was a huge economic boom
A lot of towns existed only for the railroads. Many were created BY the railroads - land-grant programs that built both the Union Pacific transcontinental, and the Northern transcontinental. The government wanted railroads to open up the West and populate it - with Americans (or at least under American control) and not Indian/native tribes, or Russian or Mexican. Or even Canadian - even that question wasn't quite settled. Vancouver was becoming a major port.

So the railroads got granted land - their rights-of-way, and also land (figured in various ways) in which to lay out towns. The logic used for their location, I don't know. On rivers or creeks, or by trading-posts, or at strategic points for train service needs. Las Vegas was exactly that - a coaling and recrewing point for the AT&SF Railroad. There were machinists and laborers there - working on steam locos, a dirty job - and a bunkhouse, or series of them, for train crews.

Of course, a secondary network set up to meet the railroaders' needs - washerwomen, cafeterias, taverns, cat-houses. And card rooms and other dark arts. Sound familiar? Nevada being so sparcely populated, with essentially no other major industry besides railroading...never quite got around to outlawing prostitution and gambling. Took them a century, but they finally figured out they could license and regulate it, and even make the state a lot of money - both taxes and in promotion.

Just one example. Reno also, on the Central Pacific, later Southern Pacific. Just a place to change crews, and for the rough men to have a beer, a card game, a soiled-dove for an hour.

But that was the way the West was won. And it was how even the Midwest, even east of the Mississippi, was settled and laid out. The railroads working with the government.
 
In a lot of ways the Railroads were some of the first inroads of Fascism into the country.
Yup.

Should have been stamped out at the start. Pro-government types would argue, they would never have been built.

To that, I offer two men: Cornelius Vanderbilt and James J. Hill.

Vanderbilt, a ferry mogul in NYC, built the New York Central out of a dozen short-line and regional companies. PRIVATELY. NO government money - a lot of New York money, NYC and state, was spent FIGHTING him. It was one reason the school kidlets were taught to hate him for a hundred years. He resisted the crony-corporate-government model.

James Hill was at the opposite end of the nation. He built the Great Northern Railway along a route that competed with the Northern Transcontinental - and he was fought all the way. The Northern-Pacific interests attempted to buy him, and later, his successors at the GN, out, for 75 years - finally succeeding in 1970, merging it all into the Burlington-Northern Railway.

But the crony-proto-fascist model was the one that was allowed to succeed, easier; and the one protected from failure. We should have learned, back then - but we did not.
 
Yeah we could all be chucking spears at Buffalo to eat and living until we reached our 40's again. Hopefully still with a scalp.

I dont mock the Natives. Indeed I have always found much to admire about them. It was a hard land and only hard men and woman endured in it no matter where or when. The Native Americans were among the hardest but what they couldn't fight and couldn't endure were microscopic organisms nobody knew even what to call let alone how to fight them and they ravaged every tribe, continent, and the entirety of humanity thru the ages.

Small pox, bubonic plague, Cholera, Influenza, The Columbia Exchange of small pox, measles, diphtheria, Typhoid, Bubonic Plague, between 1492 to 1600 AD killed over 90% of the native peoples of North America. During the 14'th century the Black Death killed 1/3'rd of all of Europe. From 1956 thru 1958 the Asian flu killed 2 million people.

How does one blame a virus ? Especially back when nobody even knew what one was ?
 
Back then, Uber was new; car insurers weren't worried about it; and it was considered "Self-Employment" under Railroad Retirement rules. So I drove for Uber; lived on $1000 a month for four years, re-learned how to eat cheaply.
Any interest in creating a thread on Uber/Lyft driving? What to do? How to do it? Expenses? How much you can make? How Uber pays etc.
 
Last edited:
Any interest in creating a thread on Uber/Lyft driving? What to do? How to do it? Expenses? How much you can make? How Uber pays etc.
No interest for me. I was as gypsy as could be - didn't tell my insurance company; didn't keep books. I was doing Uber Eats, so I could use an older car (and did). I didn't get a good cell signal in my apartment, then, so I'd have to drive a mile to the main highway to be able to log on and get pinged for delivery orders.

It was a different time, then. No WC eligibility - and I did trip on some hellacious sidewalk (heaved up by tree roots, one slab was 30 degrees off) but nothing to do but finish the order, log off, and go home and put ice on it.

Uber Eats was easy, though (if not good-paying). I got in with GrubHub as they opened here, but they expected multiple deliveries. Have one order in the car cooling, while they'd expect me to pick up another nearby. And unlike Uber Eats, taking an order was not optional. And you could be kept waiting - half an hour was not-unheard of, in some places here.

But after a month with GH, my pension got approved. Early retirement on craft disability, meant I was subject to a means test, and had to report all income. So...wasn't worth the hassle. Especially since I got a big lump sum (back payments for two years, while working through the system) so it wasn't worth it.

That was the summer I was gonna go see Alaska; and found out Canaduh didn't want to see ME.

But all that was back seven years. Now, insurers want commercial policies if you use your personal car to make money, ridesharing or any other way. Now they have minimum wage standards in some states - and it's considered employment, not 1095 self-employment.

And these companies, that were start-ups then, now feel the need to report profits. That means digging them out of their lowest-tier people.
 
I am an entrepreneur. I went to business school in Miami on scholarship. I was never afraid to work and rarely take vacations.
I envy you guys, who can look at a problem or situation, piece together...not just a simple solution, but the whole environment around it; and then who can organize subordinates to put your model in place and run it.

I don't have that kind of imagination.
 
No interest for me. I was as gypsy as could be - didn't tell my insurance company; didn't keep books. I was doing Uber Eats, so I could use an older car (and did). I didn't get a good cell signal in my apartment, then, so I'd have to drive a mile to the main highway to be able to log on and get pinged for delivery orders.

It was a different time, then. No WC eligibility - and I did trip on some hellacious sidewalk (heaved up by tree roots, one slab was 30 degrees off) but nothing to do but finish the order, log off, and go home and put ice on it.

Uber Eats was easy, though (if not good-paying). I got in with GrubHub as they opened here, but they expected multiple deliveries. Have one order in the car cooling, while they'd expect me to pick up another nearby. And unlike Uber Eats, taking an order was not optional. And you could be kept waiting - half an hour was not-unheard of, in some places here.

But after a month with GH, my pension got approved. Early retirement on craft disability, meant I was subject to a means test, and had to report all income. So...wasn't worth the hassle. Especially since I got a big lump sum (back payments for two years, while working through the system) so it wasn't worth it.

That was the summer I was gonna go see Alaska; and found out Canaduh didn't want to see ME.

But all that was back seven years. Now, insurers want commercial policies if you use your personal car to make money, ridesharing or any other way. Now they have minimum wage standards in some states - and it's considered employment, not 1095 self-employment.

And these companies, that were start-ups then, now feel the need to report profits. That means digging them out of their lowest-tier people.
You don't learn much from people who have it relatively easy in life.....there is much to learn from people who faced adversity and came thru it....I listen to people who have dealt with adversity
 
Back
Top Bottom