With the recent financial meltdown and continuing economic uncertainty, investing in precious metals such as gold, silver, and platinum may become a more attractive alternative. In fact, J. D. Seagraves, editor of the blog Silver Monthly and author of REAL WEALTH: The Simple Guide to Silver Investing, says “There are numerous bullish signs for silver…the historical silver-to-gold ratio is near all-time highs, meaning it takes more silver to buy an ounce of golf today than almost any other tine in history – and many experts think we’re due for a correction.”
Seagraves provides a wealth of information about silver and silver investing. He begins with an intriguing history of silver investing: It’s the story of how the Hunt brothers single-handedly cornered the silver market, only to see their investment drop so precipitously in value that it forced one of the brothers into personal bankruptcy. The lesson to be learned, says Seagraves, is “a lack of financial education can be the downfall of any silver investor—even billionaires.”
More importantly to today’s investor, Seagraves discusses the positives and negatives of silver investment vehicles. He focuses largely on precious metal mutual funds, sharing his opinion of several in particular. He also covers the relatively new silver ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), another type of investment that could be attractive but having significant risk associated with it.
Seagraves tackles numerous other silver investing topics, such as whether or not to use silver bullion in IRAs, what it means to lease silver or gold, the ten best silver coins for investment, top places to purchase silver coins and junk silver, and how to store silver coins and bullion.
The most engaging chapters in the book are “The 7 Deadly Sins of Silver Investors” and “The Six Types of Silver Investors—Which Are You?” Seagraves
identifies such “sins” as overindulgence, haste and irrational exuberance. While avoiding sins like these may appear to be nothing more than common sense, it is nonetheless valuable to have them enumerated and outlined, especially for the beginning investor.
The author humorously calls silver investors “all different kinds of crazy,” but he does an excellent job of defining them by type. “The Collector,” for example, is interested in numismatics, “and while he certainly hopes to see a return on his investment, this is almost secondary.” On the other hand, “The Trader” is an investor who “seeks to make profits by gaming the short-term movements in the spot price of silver.”
Clearly, J. D. Seagraves is well-versed in the silver market and, as such, is an expert guide to the world of investing in silver. Ultimately, whether or not silver investing leads to “real wealth” will be up to the individual investor – but this book should offer anyone interested in silver some sound, practical advice.
by Barry Silverstein, a reviewer for ForeWord Clarion Reviews.
