How many significant physical silver investors are there?

[beauanderos]

I say compare "significant" to what is always touted as the route to retirement, the old adage of contribute $2000 every year for your work career and expect 8 percent compounded interest and you should have sufficient savings to fund your retirement (figures vary between one and two million). Forgettting about the compounding element, and utilzing a baseline of $50 silver anyone who was keeping up with or exceeding the target provided thus is doing quite well for themselves.

18 = 40 oz
19 = 80 oz
20 = 120 oz
25 = 320 oz
30 = 520 oz
35 = 720 oz
40 = 920 oz
45 = 1120 oz
50 = 1320 oz
55 = 1520 oz
60 = 1720 oz

I would much rather amass an equivalent value of silver outside a system designed by the govt and which can be confiscated by them, than depend on those assets being available to be withdrawn when you need them. The compounding 8% is laughable. My brokerage tells me that the avg amount baby boomers have saved towards retirement is less than $70,000... which in the event of hyperinflation would not last you a year. Something like 56% have less than $10,000 saved.

[hejira11]

I'll be optomistic and say 3%. The # of ounces will always be relative to the amount a person or family is able to save, even if they were 100% invested in silver (just an example). 10oz to one family would be like 300 to another. I also believe NO ONE holds any .999 metals by accident. I just got some coins from my Godfather, they were left to him by my late Grandfather. He only kept them for sentimental reasons!?!

Given Beau's chart, for my age, I have some catching up to do. I'm heading over to the "BUY IT NOW" thread!

[Mossy]

I also believe NO ONE holds .999 silver by accident.

"No one" is sort of drastic. The number of accidentals is certainly small enough to ignore.

[hejira11]

I also believe NO ONE holds .999 silver by accident.

"No one" is sort of drastic. The number of accidentals is certainly small enough to ignore.

I hear ya, I know what talking in absolutes gets you. But, I believe .99999 % of people have a reason, the other .00001 % is blind luck. (someone needs to check my math)

[hejira11]

What defines a serious investor? I'd say it's a percentage of the investments in metal, not a flat amount. To say "you must have $400,000 in silver to be a 'serious investor' is rather absurd. I'd say anyone who has over 50% of their investments in precious metals is a serious investor.

Bump.

[franklin]

Althought the thread title specifies 'investors', my belief is that there are unaccounted-for hoarders who are stacking the stuff in case what happens in Belarus, as we type, happens here. I don't count them as investors, much as I don't count myself as one. Investing is different than preparing.

[aristobolus]

Coininfo.com only has on average about 700 to 1200 persons viewing at a time. That astounds me! With all of the coin shoppe owners, ebayers, etc., you would think that many more would be utilizing this indispensible resource.

Regarding private ownership of said silver? Maybe two million people; maybe a bit more or less. Thus I would estimate about about .66 %

[theo]

When I used the term "significant" I was thinking of an amount that would probably have to be willfully accumulated by an investor/stacker with some combination of resources and discipline. I know of several people who have inherited 10 to 20 ounces from older relatives, but barely know what they have. I myself owned five morgans dollars for years without even knowing about it (I'm still not sure where they came from). As others have suggested I choose 300 ounces because it is small enough to be attainable by most of the American and Canadian middle classes, but large enough to be a security concern.

As to the reason for this thread, Camaro is pretty close in his assessment. I was also trying to get an idea of how of big our little psychographic segment (measuring attitudes, lifestyles) has become. Afterall, I believe that most of those with $10,000 or more of silver in their possession, share our outlook.

[bankmining]

In my 10 years of hoarding PMs and among all my friends, family members and co-workers I have come across exactly zero like-minded individuals - I believe the percentage for the nation to be well under 1%.

[Delawhere Jack]

I say compare "significant" to what is always touted as the route to retirement, the old adage of contribute $2000 every year for your work career and expect 8 percent compounded interest and you should have sufficient savings to fund your retirement (figures vary between one and two million). Forgettting about the compounding element, and utilzing a baseline of $50 silver anyone who was keeping up with or exceeding the target provided thus is doing quite well for themselves.

18 = 40 oz
19 = 80 oz
20 = 120 oz
25 = 320 oz
30 = 520 oz
35 = 720 oz
40 = 920 oz
45 = 1120 oz
50 = 1320 oz
55 = 1520 oz
60 = 1720 oz

I would much rather amass an equivalent value of silver outside a system designed by the govt and which can be confiscated by them, than depend on those assets being available to be withdrawn when you need them. The compounding 8% is laughable. My brokerage tells me that the avg amount baby boomers have saved towards retirement is less than $70,000... which in the event of hyperinflation would not last you a year. Something like 56% have less than $10,000 saved.

Word!

[Rodebaugh]

So Rays chart is nice for full silver vestment......but what about gold. You know....that yellow metal.

Buy and hold an ounce per year for the average incomer?

[beauanderos]

So Rays chart is nice for full silver vestment......but what about gold. You know....that yellow metal.

Buy and hold an ounce per year for the average incomer?

Well, if you remember the $2000 cap than you'll start exceeding that by next year if you wanted an ounce a year. But that's as good a number as any. Got your ten ounces yet, youngster? That earlier chart I posted is much less than what would be ideal, as it doesn't track the element of compounding... but you get the idea. Gives people a target... but certainly, don't stop there. Dang, I just realized... you guys could be calling me Methusaleh and get away with it

[Rodebaugh]

So Rays chart is nice for full silver vestment......but what about gold. You know....that yellow metal.

Buy and hold an ounce per year for the average incomer?

Well, if you remember the $2000 cap than you'll start exceeding that by next year if you wanted an ounce a year. But that's as good a number as any. Got your ten ounces yet, youngster? That earlier chart I posted is much less than what would be ideal, as it doesn't track the element of compounding... but you get the idea. Gives people a target... but certainly, don't stop there. Dang, I just realized... you guys could be calling me Methusaleh and get away with it

Still working on it....Darn morgan dollars!

[beauanderos]

http://money.cnn.com/2011/05/26/pf/expe ... ?iid=HP_LN

[fasTT]

How about 1 comex contract.

That seems to be a reasonable number for significant/serious.

100 oz. gold or 5000 oz. silver.

[Mossy]

When I used the term "significant" I was thinking of an amount that would probably have to be willfully accumulated by an investor/stacker with some combination of resources and discipline.

I'd call that "serious", but "significant" sounds "relative to others".

Either way, "not many".

Yet.

[Mike]

I'm just making a wild guess, but I'd doubt if there were more than 100,000 or 200,000 serious PM investors in the States.

Over the past 33 years working, I've known exactly one other PM investor. Recently two acquaintances have talked about it, but I don't know if it was just talk, or if they've actually done anything about it.

To look at it from a different angle, let's suppose every American decided to buy one ounce of silver. That's 300 million ounces, which would pretty much wipe out all inventories and drive the price through the roof. Since that hasn't happened (yet), I'd say the demand from we PM investors is still pretty small.

[Country]

How about 1 comex contract.

That seems to be a reasonable number for significant/serious.

100 oz. gold or 5000 oz. silver.

I'd agree with these numbers. 100 troy ounce of GOLD, while not what is was in 2003, is significant today at $154,000 valued at spot. 5000 troy ounces of SILVER, which only a year or so ago was worth $75,000, would now fetch $191,500 at today's spot. I guess you could say anyone owning $100,000 or more in physical PMs has a significant stash these days as negative net worth is abounding.

[Copper Catcher]

In a recent article: http://www.financialsense.com/node/2967

It stated:

...How much silver in coin or jewelry form is there? A billion ounces? (I don’t think anyone believes it is this high—but just for the sake of argument I’ll use it). This means that only ONE MILLION PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH CAN OWN $25,000 IN PHYSICAL SILVER.

Another interesting site to learn more about silver production and demand you can look at:
http://www.silverinstitute.org/

[Mossy]

Over the past 33 years working, I've known exactly one other PM investor. Recently two acquaintances have talked about it, but I don't know if it was just talk, or if they've actually done anything about it.

I'd /guess/ that about 10% of the Filipinos I work with have some PM squirreled away, probably gold. Just try getting that info out of them, though.

[adagirl]

My vote is that anyone who consistently buys silver is "serious." What constitutes significant (or for that matter, serious) is subjective until the zeitgeist operational defines the terms. Perhaps a "signficant" holding of PM's would be a defined % of one's net worth or purchasing power.

[beauanderos]

My vote is that anyone who consistently buys silver is "serious." What constitutes significant (or for that matter, serious) is subjective until the zeitgeist operational defines the terms. Perhaps a "signficant" holding of PM's would be a defined % of one's net worth or purchasing power.

would over 99% be considered significant?

[adagirl]

I would much rather amass an equivalent value of silver outside a system designed by the govt and which can be confiscated by them, than depend on those assets being available to be withdrawn when you need them. The compounding 8% is laughable. My brokerage tells me that the avg amount baby boomers have saved towards retirement is less than $70,000... which in the event of hyperinflation would not last you a year. Something like 56% have less than $10,000 saved.

I couldn't agree with you more. I have stopped all 401k/457 investments, and moved that investment $ toward PM's, and I am looking at taking the max out of the 401 for some land. Land is tangible, and prices are 2002 prices now. Plus I can produce my own food. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Great post that get's you thinking!

[adagirl]

would over 99% be considered significant? [/quote]

Dude, in my humble opinion that is significant! Way to go!

[Copper Catcher]

Only ONE MILLION PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH CAN OWN $25,000 IN PHYSICAL SILVER.

This shows you how small of a market physical silver really is....The world population is currently estimated to be 6.92 billion.

Asia accounts for over 60% of the world population with more than 4 billion people. China and India together have about 37 percent of the world's population. Africa follows with 1 billion people, 15% of the world's population. Europe's 733 million people make up 11% of the world's population. Latin America and the Caribbean region to 589 million (9%), Northern America is home to 352 million (5%) and Oceania to 35 million (less than 1%).