How much physical should one own?

It is probably different for everyone, but I keep a physical stock that will sustain me for two years at current rates lving off of sales from my silver. Any more than that and it goes into paper which I consider tantamount to gambling. 

There is a great resource out there that shows the value of silver vs. everyday consumer products 1960-1962 vs 2009.

At the core, 1 oz of silver has consistently bought 4.2 gallons of regular unleaded gasoline since 1960 though 2009.

You can extrapolate from there.

It really depends on your age and risk aversion.

If one is old and doesn't want to take much risk. Just buy physical gold and a little bit of physical silver. If you want more risk you can add more physical silver, for even more risk you can add mining shares. If that's nog enough you can start to play with options, ...

I am still young so I have 50 % physical (75% silver - 25 % gold), the rest are mining shares, options on silver, a trading account to trade on silver and some stocks in Asia (10-15%, nothing to do with silver, but I truly am a believer of Asia)

I started with my physical silver position. I kept buying until I felt like I had enough at that time. Now I'm in the process of adding to my physical gold and mining shares, because I have the feeling I'm low on them. For my following my feeling has really helped.

I'm about 80/20 silver/gold. I hold about two months of living expenses in cash and have a 401k I wish I could cash out even with penalties. When TSHTF you will always wish you had more.

I_S

Because it is a condition of employment, I am 70% paper and 30% physical of which the gold to silver is 3 to 1 value wise. I hold no paper investments beyond the work pension plan. The metals have consistently more than doubled the returns on the pension plan's investments, and I have WAY more faith in the long term viability of my coin stash than the gov't held pension plan.

Obviously we are all in different financial situations. I personally feel that at a minimum you should hold enough PM to last you 1 year in your current situation, and current value. I know it's hard to calculate that with fluctuations but just do your best. Never go all in on anything. Some is better than none. More is Better than less

Is it true you need to buy 15000$ worth of silver by today's price to become millionaire? I think it was Mike Maloney said that. 

If you're referring to 'millionaire in dollars', well, I doubt that the dollar will have long disappeared before silver hits 2,300$ oz.

That's sad.

I have cashed out--liquidated--all of my 401k. My wife is not very happy about it, however, she is learning that I may be on-to-something. With little Timmay "borrowing" almost $80 billion, so far, from the Civil Servants Retirement Fund it sounded some warning bells for me. I paid the 10% penalty and then ask myself about paying additional taxes now. The answer that I arrived at was--taxes will be higher in the future than they are today. I paid an additional 20% tax to receive my money and then converted it all into silver 80% and gold 20%. The raid--I mean borrowing--on the CSRF was un-announced. Is mine a good decision? Time will tell. So far, all the penalties and taxes have been recouped at the current silver and gold USD exchange rate. What does the future hold? My crystal ball is broken, however, Jim Sinclair, Bob Chapman, John Embry, Eric Sprott, James Turk all seem to believe that silver and gold will go much higher than todays exchange rate. Jim Sinclair stated "...you will not sell your gold in the future, you will trade it for goods and services..." The collective knowledge of these people is well over 200 years. For me, that is a very informed group of individuals. If you do not believe that silver and gold are going higher--possibly much higher--than today why would exchange USD/FRN's for metals? Remind what USD/FRN's are back with; the "full faith and credit and the US Gubment". That's all you got?! I plan on buying silver/gold this weekend and again in two weeks and again two weeks after that and so on and so on...

Hi,

Can you tell folks what needs to be done to cash out 401k?

When I go to HR and ask to cash out what happens after I let them know I am happy to pay the penalties and want my fiat?

Thank you!

I'm told that there is no way to cash out a 401k at your current employer. Accts with past employers are no problem. If your employer will "unemploy" you for a day then reemploy you it is possible. Other than that your only option is hardship withdrawl with very stringent accounting rules or loans.

If you find out differently please let me know.

I_S

In the past couple years I've ramped up the PM's from 7% of net worth to 24%. There's no right answer, but it's starting to feel like it's enough.

You need to decide, is this just insurance for hard times? Or am I speculating, trying to get rich on the back of some calamity? You need less for insurance, more to speculate. 

Probably best to speculate with paper though.

I have a gold bias, so I'm close to 70:30 in favor of gold. I expect in the long run I'll move to nearly all gold.

I partially cashed out of my 401K, here is what I did. First I took the largest loan I could, which is being payed back every week off my check. Note, I believe there is current legislation in the senate to curb people from doing this. Then I went to my chiropractor, or go to any one, and have them write you the biggest bill/quote you can. Submit that and hardship withdraw under the health care section. I did this 2 times, the second time the plan administrator didn't even ask for the proof :)

The thing to note is that your employer, boss, owner, plan admin, whoever will think your nuts for wanting to liquidate your "retirement". They seem to think they know better how to manage your "money" than you do. So in my opinion, keep it low key, you can chip away and withdraw a sizable amount without them raising red flags. I did ask the owner of my company if I could be let go and rehired for the purpose of taking my 401K for x,y,z reason (buying silver was never mentioned) and I was then interviewed about why I am "short on money" and if I was being responsible lol. Wasn't a good move, so I chose the other option mentioned above. Good luck

1 is too many

1000 is never enough

As much as you can!

Seriously, I'm among those who can't just go out and buy hundreds of ounces of metals at the time ...but just keep stacking. A little or a lot..it all adds up. I have placed an order for as little as 2 ounces at a time. Felt kind of silly for doing it since the shipping cost will make a dent in your budget that way.. but to keep accumulating as you can is the point.

I don't even worry about my 'ratio' of how much physical to cash, etc that I am at. The point for me is to just keep getting all the metal I can as I go.

I am also slowly trying to accumulate miners and playing (very small amounts) on silver options ..just so I can try to afford more metal. GL!

I even bought 1 oz at a given time. But it was at a moment when I just felt like buying things (yes I'm from the consumption generation).. So I bought physical with it instead of thing I didn't need and when it arrived at my door it felt likes Christmas (even if it was only 1 oz).

This a really a great strategy, just keep stacking. Every month a bit, and if one cannot afford much just buy a little.

Wealth is measured in ounces and not in POSX or €

I think the best general advise is to have 1/3 metals, 1/3 stocks, and 1/3 cash. The cash is to take advantage of likely corrections in metals and stocks. 

RRJJ, while this is not directly responding to your question about 'how much' as a percentage of total assets, I found this to be really helpful when just starting out purchasing physical:

https://the-moneychanger.com/commandments.phtml

HTH,

tread