
It’s Time to Consider Investing in Silver Bullion,
Especially if You’ve Never Invested Before
If you’re a beginning investor looking to invest in precious metals, silver can be a far more affordable option than gold.
Recently, the market price per ounce of gold has been hovering around USD 1,862, while the market price per ounce of silver has been around only USD 25.
If that sounds intriguing to you, the next step is to determine your options when investing in silver and what option might be best for you as a beginning investor.
Silver Investment Options
In addition to investing in physical silver, such as silver jewelry and silver bullion, you can invest in proxies that represent silver value. These proxies include silver stocks, silver options and futures, and silver Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs).
If you’re new to investing, silver bullion might be the best way to go.
Silver Bullion
Silver bullion refers to silver that is officially recognized as being at least 99.9% pure. It comes in bars and coins. Institutional investors and central banks hold silver bullion as reserves.
In North America, you can use silver coins as legal tender. If you buy silver bullion, you can later sell silver bars or sell silver coins for cash.
Silver Bullion vs Gold Bullion
Gold bullion is officially recognized as being 99.5% rather than 99.9% pure.
Silver and gold bullion are considered safe haven assets, meaning assets whose value tends to stay the same or increase during rocky financial periods in history.
Silver bullion is potentially a better investment option for beginning investors because it can be more affordable than gold bullion and has a lower barrier of entry. That’s because silver premiums are often higher than gold premiums. Much higher, in fact: on average, an ounce of silver will sell for roughly 15% to 20% over spot price, while an ounce of gold will sell for only about 3% to 5% over spot price.
Another reason to choose silver bullion over gold bullion is that sometimes when gold does not act as a safe haven asset, silver does.
How To Invest in Silver Bullion
If you’re considering investing in silver bullion, it’ll help to keep your eye on the market price per ounce of silver. That’s because when you buy silver bullion bars or coins, you’re essentially buying 1oz of silver.
Investing in silver, like investing in any asset on the marketplace, comes with risks. But unlike many assets on the marketplace, silver has a comparably consistent purchasing power.
Your best bet might be to buy silver bullion when you can get it as close as you can to spot price and sell silver bullion when you can sell it as close as you can to spot price.
More, when you invest in silver, you might want to hold on to it for ten or more years. In technical terms, that means you might want to treat silver bullion as a long-term hold. In practice, that means waiting until the spot price rises.
By doing so, you might be able to get a positive yield on your investment—after silver premiums are accounted for.
Where to Buy Silver Bullion
Simple: you can buy silver bullion from silver bullion dealers with good reputations. They are more likely than dealers with shady reputations to sell silver bullion closer to spot price.