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I agree and support you in everything you posted. But that's not what I'm asking. I have grown kids and I have friends who've been casual buyers who have gotten the bug lately.
What advice would you offer?
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That is a tough one. Let me be perfectly clear - I am not a financial planner, even though I play one on the InterWebZ.
I HAVE lived through this before, 2008.
AND...I HAVE made the mistake of not staying liquid enough. Most recently, I sold a couple of K-rands to fund my vacation trip in September. That was fine, of course, since there was a lot of dollar-appreciation this year; but in years past, after temporary gigs wound down, I had to sell various holdings. At the same price (gold) or steep drops (silver) from what I paid.
So I basically lost money, counting the vigorish each way, on those deals. There were times I was questioning my own judgment - all this money-printing, and consumer prices aren't really rising!...which was where we were at ten years ago.
We now know it was because so much New Fiat was going overseas, sometimes on pallets, sometimes in Somalis' briefcases. Kept the money from flooding retail markets and causing prices to launch.
But now it is.
Back to the question: How much? I think the standard Prepper answer is a good one: Have enough CASH to last 2-6 months, depending on situation. Yes, cash loses buying power. Yes, money-market funds at the bank pay enough to ALMOST hold even with CPI increases. But when TSHTF, the first thing that's gonna go, is your bank.
So. Cash. I favor $50 notes. Work for three months of living expenses.
And conventional credit cards. Keep them CLEAR of balances (yeah, I sound like Dave Ramsey). In a minor event, they'll work. They'll work a lot better if you're not maxed out.
Once you have that, start buying. The price is ugly. Can anyone see it going down? The last major retrench Gold had, was when Reagan announced it was Morning-In-America. Does it look like morning, now? You see the clean cities, effective government, employment opportunities of 1984? I don't.
I would tell your new stacker to focus on Gold. Silver is a bit volatile - and its buyers are less economically stable, less likely to be long. AND silver is also an industrial metal, with one more way to shift demand, one way or another.