We are at the beginning of a shift from paper assets to real assets. Many people who come to this discovery step straight into gold without knowing exactly what they are doing. They just want to get out of paper assets as soon as possible. I myself also initially bought gold until I became more familiar with silver buying and found out that silver is precisely the smart investment.
People who switch from paper assets to the physical market often initially switch to the gold market. This is partly because the gold market is the largest market for precious metals but also because most of the advertising is for gold. Therefore, I think gold is mostly an instinctive reaction for investors looking for a safe haven.

Why should you own physical silver and why right now?

For me, silver is the only investment, I simply think it is the best investment there is. This is because, for me, silver is a physical product. Therefore, I do not invest in anything other than PHYSICAL silver. A well-known motto is ‘if you don't hold it, you don't own it’. Should you still want to invest in SLVs, silver mines etc, I ask you this: How would you feel if you have been right all these years by investing in silver but have not been able to profit from it because you have been investing in the wrong form of silver all these years?
As mentioned earlier, we are at the beginning of a shift from paper assets to physical assets. The US dollar is on the verge of toppling, this is a mathematical certainty. The collapse of the dollar will be the biggest event in history and will affect the entire world.
When the inevitable happens, all paper assets will be destroyed. This applies to the Dollar, Yen and the Euro. This also applies to our stocks and options. But also for our pensions and social security.  Without currency and the uncertainty associated with it, our credit comes to a standstill. This results in a standstill in payments which transitions to a standstill in the markets and eventually leads to a standstill of the world economy.

Why precious metals are the right choice

A standstill in the global economy causes investors to switch to commodities. However, the problem with most commodities is storage. In fact, the two best assets during real inflation are food and fuel. Humanity cannot do without food and/or fuel. However, if you are neither a farmer nor an oil baron, it is almost impossible to store it. This brings us to metals, but here too storage is a problem. For $8000 you can buy a tonne of copper but for this you can also buy 4 ounces of gold. This is exactly why precious metals are so sought after, they are rare and it is possible to store a lot of value in a small space.
One of the biggest reasons why people invest in precious metals is that there is little risk involved. The value of precious metals is derived from its intrinsic value of rarity and from its potential uses. With precious metals, there is no need to fear a deteriorating economy. The worse the economy is, the more people switch to precious metals and the more prices are driven up.

Why gold and silver?

The moment you realise that you should invest in precious metals, you still have to choose between the 4 major precious metals. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium. For both platinum and palladium, it is true that they are rare and used in the industrial process. However, for both, it is also true that they have never been used as legal tender in history.
With the prospect of currencies collapsing around the world, I want a precious metal that will be most in demand. Therefore, I want a precious metal where there is industrial, investment and monetary demand.

What are the advantages of silver over gold?

• Silver is the second most versatile commodity, this after oil.
  Silver is increasingly used in technological products and silver's unique properties make it very suitable for medical purposes. Because it is so important and it is used in small quantities, the price is completely inelastic. If the price of silver per ounce increases by $1000 and Apple needs 1/10 ounce to make a $2000 dollar computer the price of this computer is simply increased by $100.

• Silver is cheap enough to be bought by the ‘common’ man.
  Gold, at $1800 per ounce, is not affordable for the average citizen. With silver at a price of $40 per ounce, it is easier to purchase a few coins. Suppose you come home with a few coins of silver, this often does not need to be explained. If you come home with a $1800 Euro gold coin, then you probably have a lot of explaining to do to your wife! Because silver, compared to gold, is so cheap. The rule often applies that the higher the price of gold, the more demand there is for silver.

• There are no large stocks of silver.
  In recent decades, we have consumed more silver than we have extracted from mines. This is possible because we have used up previous mined metals. In 1950 there was still a stockpile of 10 billion ounces; today there is nothing left. There will come a time when the market will start recognising the huge opportunities. When this happens, silver may become even more valuable than gold. So if you want real gold then buy 45 ounces of silver now. The moment the ratio has dropped maybe 1:1 you can exchange these 45 ounces of silver for 45 ounces of gold.
   
• Silver has the biggest and most persistent short position of all commodities.
  The only reason the ratio is still at 1:45 is the short position held by bankers. This is done to suppress the price of silver and keep the dollar strong. Last May when the silver market crashed, 8 billion ounces of paper silver was dumped into the market in 5 days. This while only 1 billion ounces is mined in mines worldwide every year. This large short position ensures that one day no more can be delivered by the banks. Buy silver, crash JP Morgan!
   
• The silver market is small.
  With only 27 million ounces of physical silver, just over a billion dollars is enough to wipe out the entire physical stock. Last Wednesday alone, $240 billion dollars was added to our national debt in 1 day. When you consider how many quadrillions are in the paper silver market (which eventually collapses) and when you consider that there are few other suitable investment opportunities you can imagine what happens when people get into the physical silver market. Part of the reason the Central Banks and big institutions buy gold is that if they buy silver the market immediately explodes.
   
• Gold is in the media more than silver.
  The media always talks about gold and silver is never actually mentioned. Silver is only mentioned at the time when prices fall sharply. This is used to scare people and especially to tell them how dangerous the silver market actually is.
   

Note: This is a translation of an article on Munkee.com
Disclaimer: The Silver Mountain does not provide investment advice and this article should not be considered as such. Past results offer no guarantees for the future.