Realcent.org

Where are all the young people?

Our clients are, by and large, in their 60s, 70s and 80s. Where are the young people? They’re on social media and buy stocks. The gold and silver buyer pre-1975 were almost exclusively coin collectors. The precious metals dealers were strip mall coin dealers.

My early experiences with precious metals were the circulated silver dollars that were used in slot machines in Las Vegas that my uncle Irv brought back and gave to all the kids as holiday gifts. No one but a coin collector knew anything about gold. It wasn’t legal to own gold (unless you were a coin collector) until 1975.

When the U.S. government removed silver from our coinage in 1965, a few people started collecting silver dollars and dimes and quarters (pre-65) at face value and sold them to coin dealers for a profit – since the silver value by weight was greater than the face value of the coins. That was the industry, period!

Our industry, as you know it, came into being in the late 70s with the arrival of Blanchard and Investment Rarities, national telemarketing companies selling silver dollars, junk silver, Krugerrands, Mexican 50 Pesos and pre-1933 gold double eagles.

For the first time, people started writing about the history of monetary metals, and the reasons to own them. Jerome Smith wrote a couple of books on silver, Gary North, Doug Casey, Richard Russell, James Dale Davidson, and others published precious metals newsletters and a new industry came into being – the financial seminars and offshore conferences. The message was getting out.

Because of the inflation of the 1970s and the rise in gold from $35 to $850 and silver’s rise from a dollar or two an ounce to $50 there was great interest in precious metals. Both the massive bull market that peaked in 1980 and the new telemarketers and newsletter writers (the king being Howard Ruff and his Ruff Times) and the conferences and seminars, a market base came into being.

Now we have financial news channels and gurus like Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, who pitch paper assets. Gold gets no love from Wall Street or money managers and financial advisors. Young people know little about the reasons to own gold and silver and on top of that, they have been in a bear market for the last seven years while stocks have gathered all the headlines.

College econ courses do not discuss the causes of inflation (money creation), and do not speak positively about gold and silver. If the younger generation isn’t getting educated in school, or by Wall Street WHY gold and silver are important financial assets, then who will we will our metals to? My generation, our readers, are not the buyers of tomorrow.
The young people will eventually figure it out – why we need gold and silver, but not until the prices explode and paper assets crash. That’s coming. The 2020s will resemble the 1970s and history will repeat, right on down to a new generation of buyers discovering gold and silver.

But meanwhile, we hear from our older clients that their kids are mad at them for buying all that worthless gold and silver – when they could have put the money into stocks.
I want to gloat! I want to tell these kids, “See, we told you so, this is why gold and silver are necessary. Aren’t you sorry you don’t own any (yet?)

...

Mercuryman wrote:I'm technically a millennial. I don't have any social media and I've never participated in playing the rigged super computer market trading. Less than 10% of trading is regular stock picking. I don't know any millennial's playing the stock market. Millennial's are into social media, smart phones and crypto's. Even crypto is rare, most millennial's have nothing of value or any store of wealth. I hate my generation. Everyone expects to be handed a silver platter and get a free ride.

68Camaro wrote:Some - a few - older technical millennials have been taught to "get it". But still the social / cultural pressure to conform to the "norm" of that generation and the generation that follows is intense and unless their belief is truly internalized until they own it, many cave to the pressure.

The problem with multiple generations being "f*cked" is that is the stuff that revolutions are made of. The few older middle class who were thrifty and saved will become in their minds the "elite" who have what they don't have - and they will then rationalize in their minds why it is ok to take it from them (you).

Opsec is key.

Mercuryman wrote:I'm technically a millennial. I don't have any social media and I've never participated in playing the rigged super computer market trading. Less than 10% of trading is regular stock picking. I don't know any millennial's playing the stock market. Millennial's are into social media, smart phones and crypto's. Even crypto is rare, most millennial's have nothing of value or any store of wealth. I hate my generation. Everyone expects to be handed a silver platter and get a free ride.

Bigjohn wrote:I am a millennial, a stacker, a collector, a family man, and someone with a higher education and a full time job. Personally, I don’t agree with a lot of things that are being sad about millennial’s. While I understand that stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason, I do believe that stereotyping millennials is no different than stereotyping based on race, color, or gender. I have a lot of friends in my age group and can tell you that none (Including myself) day trade, addicted to crypto, spend all our time on social media (I don’t have a single social media account), have any student debt, have $12 an hour job, expect anything to be handed to us............I won’t go on. All of us put ourselves through college working multiple jobs. I don’t take offense, just wanted to put my 2c in

68Camaro wrote: I've hired a lot of really great young people over the past several years) most of those that I've hired feel (like yourself) that they are the exceptional minority in their age group.

Know Common Cents wrote:Think back to New Year's Eve 2017. If someone told you about all the actual economic and political strife that loomed ahead during these 12 months, you (like me) would've dismissed them as being an alarmist.

The next 12 months of 2019 have the potential to be very good or very bad. Middle of the road doesn't even seem like a possibility anymore. Many millenials have lots to learn about financial matters. In my early 20s, I pretty much knew what I should be doing, but made multiple conscious decisions to rebel against just about all conventional wisdom.

I dropped out of college (strongly believing I already possessed the wisdom of the ages) only to discover how wrong I was. I finished college and had a very successful career. I do have an optimistic slant to my thinking these days about the future of most millenials. The ones who concern me the most, however, are those who are on a perpetual slow-drip IV of social media. They're on a self-imposed short tether and consider Facebook and other social media to be the center of the known universe.

I do have abundant hope. May I live long enough to validate it.

Mercuryman wrote:Honestly back in 2017 I knew exactly what was coming. I've been aware of the banksters financial system of fraud since I was 16. The federal reserve has been plunging this country into the ground since 1913, It's a private bank running our country with zero oversight or regulations. People in the 70's thought the fiat money system crash was imminent and yet here we are still chugging along.

I honestly thought [shucks] would hit the fan years ago. Every year your dollar will be worth less and prices will keep going up. Wages will not increase with this cost of living.

Once the Government subsidized housing, food stamps and free medical care go away this country will go to hell quickly. Especially when they don't have entertainment and are withdrawing from their psychotropic ant-depressants. The US will never fully recover after we have our economic crash.

This current system could keep riding like this for decades... or it could collapse anytime. The best thing to do is be prepared and mentally ready for the challenges ahead.

Unfortunately the millennial's have no idea what's going to slap them in the face. It's not a matter of will it happen, its a matter of when will it happen.

Sorry if i just dropped a black pill. My advise is enjoy the good times while we still have them!

CLINT-THE-GREAT wrote:Long time since I last posted.... I am an X-ennial. I'm the small sector between the Gen-X and Millenials. I was the last generation to take "typing" class and the first generation to learn on a computer all at the same time. While I enjoy many of today's luxuries, I was raised the old school way with old school parents in which I am raising my son the same way. Of my 3 siblings and their children, my son is the only child to have a savings account. My son is the only one with a silver stash, and my wife and I still buy physical savings bonds for our son when we do our taxes. But like several others have stated, people in my generation and many more in the millenial generation have ZERO wealth. No stocks, bonds, crypto, PMs....nothing. I can't tell you how many people I know of who have already raided their 401k's to pay for things.....including a VACATION!!!! I see a lot of you saying we are heading towards the 70s again.... I think it may be more like the 30s. Just my $.02
-The Great

Bigjohn wrote:Saw this article today, made me think on the thread.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/persona ... li=BBnb7Kz

I do believe that what many refer to as millennials is actually the post-millennials (Gen Z). It’s interesting that millennials actually have the least amount of debt of all generations, less than baby boomers. There are fewer millennials in debt than Gen X (36-51 yo).

Recyclersteve wrote:Don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but perhaps part of the problem with young people and coins is that coin collecting is a slow paced activity. With social media and the internet, games that have incredible graphics, etc. there are lots of much faster paced items available for young people to get involved with.

Bigjohn wrote:Not cherry picking anything. Was reading the news and the article caught my eye. That said, some have their minds made up regardless of data, which is only natural