[NonHyphenAmerican]

You bought at good prices.

When silver hit $50.35 in June of 79, it started dropping.
When it hit $4.35 per toz, I started buying a 20 ounce box of 1 toz Medallion whenever I had the money.
I stopped after they started minting silver dollars again.
When they started minting American Eagle Silver Dollars in 86, I started buying 20 of those whenever I had the money until I retired in June of 2013.

My rule of thumb for silver was that I thought it should run between $17 and $21 per ounce.
Any time it got above that range, I wouldn't buy any.
Any time it went below that range, and there were a lot of years it was $5.50 to $7.50 per ounce, I'd take cash I'd put aside and buy some.

Over the years, some of them were higher markets, some lower, but my average is about $6 per toz.
When I finally started getting ahead of the game, I'd buy some gold every now and then when I had some extra.

Oh, and someone mentioned buying 90% silver quarters.

I once hit a deal a long time ago, when a customer wanted to cash in 4 bags (4000 90% quarters per bag for $1000 face value and 715 toz .999 fine silver).
He wanted $2500 a bag.
Legitimate deal and I knew the guy. He needed the cash.
I had the cash, so I paid him what he wanted and stashed them out of sight.
I drove a junker of an old Dodge for over a decade instead of buying a new vehicle.
I still have those bags.
That isn't figured into my average price for silver.
Sometimes it pays to hang onto stuff for a while.

 

[steveracer]

I have battle packs, those sealed brown plastic packages, of .308 ammo.
a few also spam cans of 7.62x39.
I figure those will be worth 10x their weight in food, if we get that far gone.
If not, my kids can shoot them.
My dear brother, insurance agent and Very Smart Man, says:
“If I told you, for a couple hundred bucks a month, starting when you were 25, that I could guarantee nothing bad would ever happen….
You would be begging me to take your money.”
When I was 25, $200 a month bought you $3mil in life insurance till your 76th birthday at my insurance company. Basically the same as nothing bad ever happening to me.
so if we prep for disaster, and it doesnt come, we arent going to gripe about all that ammo or gold or silver or food we have stored up. Nothing bad will ever have happened.

 

[trebore]

Inquiring minds want to know: gold and silver is valued by who, salt and sugar is valued by who, bread (in it's basic form) is valued by who? And where does the "power" e.g. electricity come from (produced) in an apocalyptic scenario? Paper in all it forms is used to wipe what?

 

[maxwayne]

One of the causes of the first primer shortage back in the 80's was a comment by Jeff Cooper in his Guns & Ammo column, that primers and ammo might be the new currency.

 

[USARV72]

Inquiring minds want to know: gold and silver is valued by who, salt and sugar is valued by who, bread (in it's basic form) is valued by who? And where does the "power" e.g. electricity come from (produced) in an apocalyptic scenario? Paper in all it forms is used to wipe what?

Suggest you research, find and read a few of many magazines and books on this subject. Not hard at all. Barter/ trading will establish values. Gold and silver will be pretty high on the value chart, maybe just behind 22 RF. Bread was and is baked without electricity, check Foxfire books. Large leaves and such was used way before TP.

 

[Rvham]

Some very good points mentioned here. Some I never thought of.

 

[Colt191145]

Cash, cash and cash.

US dollars will be taken until hell freezes over, people suggesting gold and silver are funny.

View attachment 673655

I think hell is at 40 degrees and the wind is picking up. If BRICS and fednow get their way the dollar isnt looking to be worth a bucket of spit in the future. In a stable world economy with the rule of law our dollar is great. Current world events are changing at such a fast pace daily that having a plan other than cash is worth considering.

 

[TheDreadnought]

Let's say I want to have $10,000 in ready funds available not in a bank. What is the best/ safest form to have that money in? Is there anything better than just paper currency? Just thinking out loud here...

Gold/Silver are useless for disaster preparedness. Their only use for the individual person is speculating.

For a minor SHTF event, paper currency is what people will want and expect. Lots of it.

For a major event, nobody will give a **** about your worthless metal. If you can't eat it, drink it, wear it, shoot it, drive it, fly it, or **** it. . . nobody will want it.

 

[earlwb]

I would go more like the mormans do. They try to have up to a year or more of nonperishable food supplies on hand just in case. There is a industry built up for supporting it too. They get things like rice, beans, corn kernels, wheat kernels in double vacuum sealed containers along with other freeze dried vegetables and meats even. Canned food too. You do need to keep aware of expiration dates, etc and rotate your stock. But it gives you a way to test it out with cooking as well as getting used to it for eating. Much of the stuff is still good long after it passes any expiration dates as well. Food is worth more than money in a disaster.

 

[USMM guy]

Gold/Silver are useless for disaster preparedness. Their only use for the individual person is speculating.

For a minor SHTF event, paper currency is what people will want and expect. Lots of it.

For a major event, nobody will give a ** about your worthless metal. If you can't eat it, drink it, wear it, shoot it, drive it, fly it, or ** it. . . nobody will want it.

That is why backup plans are always worth consideration.

 

[PaulWVa]

This has kinda drifted around from investments to survival prep and that's cool ... it can all work together. As I said earlier, I do keep extra water, food, gasoline and ammo on hand. Ammo for my own use and some that I may use for barter.

But on a whole other level, I have a neighbor who is LEO support, search and rescue, first responder guy. He told me about some of the things he does that I found interesting. The talk about salt, suger and medicines reminded me. He has plastic boxes with bottles of aspirin, Advil, Benadryl and other first aid stuff. And get this .. a couple of cases of those small (half pint I think) bottles of bourbon, gin and vodka all for trading. Just a small stack of boxes in a corner ... all nicely sealed up .... I thought, "brilliant!". ..😎

 

[mr380acp]

I was getting a bit crazy during Covid. I had like $15000 in hundred dollar bills in the house. I don’t do that anymore but always at least a couple thousand rounds of pistol ammo is on hand

 

[earlwb]

There are those who will try and take your stuff too. Violently. So having weapons and ammo is a good thing. But if a disaster is really bad and long term you cannot stay in the city or urban areas you have to get way out into the rural areas. Someplace you can fortify. As the thugs will organize into groups to go raiding.

 

[USARV72]

This has kinda drifted around from investments to survival prep and that's cool ... it can all work together. As I said earlier, I do keep extra water, food, gasoline and ammo on hand. Ammo for my own use and some that I may use for barter.

But on a whole other level, I have a neighbor who is LEO support, search and rescue, first responder guy. He told me about some of the things he does that I found interesting. The talk about salt, suger and medicines reminded me. He has plastic boxes with bottles of aspirin, Advil, Benadryl and other first aid stuff. And get this .. a couple of cases of those small (half pint I think) bottles of bourbon, gin and vodka all for trading. Just a small stack of boxes in a corner ... all nicely sealed up .... I thought, "brilliant!". ..😎

Have and am increasing my” supply of booze” for trading, IIRC 20-30 pints will fit in some of the plastic storage boxes. Each bottle is wrapped in bubble wrap.
Forget the guys name but he is Serbian? that wrote several articles? books on how his family survived the war there in the 90s, very interesting and informative.

 

[cavelamb]

Have and am increasing my” supply of booze” for trading, IIRC 20-30 pints will fit in some of the plastic storage boxes. Each bottle is wrapped in bubble wrap.
Forget the guys name but he is Serbian? that wrote several articles? books on how his family survived the war there in the 90s, very interesting and informative.

How I survived a year of SHTF in 90s Bosnia

 

[USMM guy]

Have and am increasing my” supply of booze” for trading, IIRC 20-30 pints will fit in some of the plastic storage boxes. Each bottle is wrapped in bubble wrap.
Forget the guys name but he is Serbian? that wrote several articles? books on how his family survived the war there in the 90s, very interesting and informative.

Him and another guy have published a book since then. I picked up a copy of it the other day. Just skimming over it so far. A lot of it is old news to me. But he does make some pretty interesting observations.

 

[earlwb]

That is why backup plans are always worth consideration. View attachment 673750

it needs to be stabilized, humidity at its lowest and no oxygen to cause deterioration. I like the double vacuum sealed Containers myself they even put in those oxygen absorbing pads too. Those are good for like 30 years or longer in storage for some foods.

 

[FDM1]

I have looked into some of the Mormon prep food but have always wondered which tastes the best? I bought a canister from Costco a few years ago but the food was bland at best.

 

[USMM guy]

I have looked into some of the Mormon prep food but have always wondered which tastes the best? I bought a canister from Costco a few years ago but the food was bland at best.

Something to consider but if it comes down to it some food even food that you might not be too fond of is going to be better than no food at all. And a Lot of that stuff that is marketed as "survival food" is overpriced and substandard. You can do better just buying normal items that have a long shelf life.

 

[ThatMontanaGuy]

I have some gold coins locked away for a rainy day. Not 10k but enough to get me through a rough patch. I have coins ranging from 1oz to 1/5oz, as well as some silver.