Buying Gold and Silver for Survival (in SHTF): Yes or No?

If you’ve spent any time at all looking into prepping or survivalism, you’ll find that one of the most common things you’ll hear or see discussed is the importance of “investing” in or stockpiling gold, silver, and other precious metals.

The basic reasoning is that when SHTF, money won’t be worth anything – your hundred dollar bills will have as much value as any other sheet of paper. You might as well use it for tinder like you would newspaper.

The conventional “prepping” wisdom is that in a genuine SHTF situation (where the government has collapsed, for example) then the US dollar (or your local currency) will be worthless. However, all your stores of gold, silver, and other precious metals (or gems) will still be extremely valuable. The idea behind this line of thinking is that historically, things that are both shiny and relatively rare have been pretty valuable regardless of what society or monetary system you’re looking at. So while government backed money might go to zero (if the government becomes dysfunctional or ceases to exist), gold and silver will always have value as long as there are humans around.

We hate to break it to you, but this conventional wisdom is wrong.

OK, conventional wisdom isn’t completely wrong. It’s definitely true that gold, silver, and things like precious metals/gems have historically had great value in almost all human cultures, and will likely continue to be seen as valuable going forward, regardless of what kind of world we’re living in (whether everything is normal or we’re living in a post-apocalypse).

We’ll go over why we think the conventional prepping wisdom is misguided on this count, and how we think you should think about the importance of either investing or stockpiling in gold and silver.

First off – the here’s a necessary disclaimer to appease the overzealous regulators.

This article on Secrets of Survival is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice or investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice. We are not financial advisors and we recommend you consult with a financial or investment professional before making any serious financial decisions.

The Truth about Buying Gold and Silver for Survival

We’re going to cut to the chase here and lay out all our survivalist thoughts on precious metals first. Later on in the article we delve deeper into the history of gold and silver and why they’ve always had value to humans. We also speculate about why they may or may not be valuable in the future.

But for now, here’s the truth as we see it about stockpiling precious metals like gold and silver. There are basically three distinct types of possible disaster scenarios. In each of these, the value of precious metals will be very different, and the practical effect of precious metals ownership is also quite different.

Scenario #1: Major disaster without societal breakdown

In this scenario, there is a major disaster. Imagine a super storm, more powerful than Katrina, that does major damage to three or four different states. Or an earthquake on the west coast that kills hundreds of thousands or millions of people. Or imagine an economic crisis or financial collapse that’s as bad (or worse) than the Great Depression.

All of these are major catastrophes. However, none of these scenarios describe a total governmental and societal collapse, nor the complete breakdown of law and order. As long as the government exists, the law exists. As long as the law exists, contracts can be enforced.

What does this mean for precious metals? It means that if you decide to put money into gold and silver, you should treat it like an investment. If your belief is that a crisis will hit, but that society will continue to operate (more or less) as it has in the modern era, then what you are functionally doing is predicting that there will be some sort of crisis and consequence the value of gold and silver will increase. That’s investing.

It also means that you should feel relatively comfortable using financial instruments to make these investments. If what you’re planning for is not the breakdown of society, then buying precious metals on ‘the market’ makes a lot of sense because you don’t need to deal with all the logistics of the delivery/storage of physical gold/silver, which can get quite complicated, especially when you’re dealing with large amounts.

There might also be potential tax benefits if you take this approach – for example, there are a variety of tax benefits if you choose to invest in gold through an IRA (or a ROTH IRA).

So, if what you’re planning for is a major disaster that doesn’t result in the complete breakdown of the government and society, then any amount of money that you spend on gold and silver is an investment. Furthermore, this should mostly be done via financial markets. You save yourself the hassle of dealing with the physical logistics, and your “investment” will make more money for you because if you do it right, you’ll end up paying less in taxes.

If this interests you, Goldco is offering a free guide on how you can Recession-Proof your retirement. If you are worried about an impending recession of economic crisis and that’s why you want to put some money into gold and silver, then you should definitely get this free report. It’ll teach you how to take full control of your retirement.

Disclosure: The owners of this website may be paid to recommend Goldco Direct. The content on this page, including any positive reviews of Goldco Direct and other reviews, may not be neutral or independent.

Scenario #2: Gold and silver in SHTF or total collapse

In a true apocalypse, or a situation where it feels like the end of the world, any stockpiles of gold and silver will likely be worthless to you and your survival.

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Just imagine it for a second. Imagine a nuclear war scenario, where America (or wherever you live) is functionally destroyed. The government no longer exists, and it’s a situation where it’s literally every man for himself (or every family for itself). People are fighting over food and water.

In this kind of situation, do you really think anybody is going to care about gold or silver?

The answer is no.

In this kind of truly apocalyptic TEOTWAWKI situation, the most valuable resource will be ammunition and firearms. Weaponry will allow you to take the resources that you need by force . This will be followed by anything that covers your basic needs like food, potable water, and medicine/first aid supplies.

Only things with practical applications will be useful. Precious metals will be near the bottom of the list… in this type of situation, one of the only things less valuable than precious metals will be “government-backed” US dollars (or other paper currency).

So, if you’re prepping and planning for a complete breakdown of the system, then stockpiling precious metals should not be your priority. Instead of spending your hard earned money on gold and silver, spend it instead of a proper survival cache – things like ammunition and firearms, survival tools/gear, food, water, and medicine.

However…

Scenario #3: Gold and silver in the post apocalypse

While gold and silver may be relatively worthless in the immediate aftermath of an apocalyptic/world-ending disaster, if you believe that any kind of new society might be formed in the aftermath, then stockpiling precious metals begins to make sense again. This is the logic:

We know that through most of human history, precious metals of all kinds have been considered highly valuable. We know that in many cases, gold and silver were in fact used as money – people turned to these precious metals as a store of value and as a means of transaction.

Immediately after an apocalyptic disaster, these metals will be worth next to nothing. However, once the situation has stabilized and the survivors of the apocalyptic event have figured out the basics – shelter, water, and food… What happens next? Presumably, in a post-apocalyptic scenario, many people have perished. Space is no longer an issue – if you want to grow a farm that will provide enough food for your family, nobody’s going to stop you. As time passes, you’re no longer spending every living moment focused on survival.

This situation bears remarkable similarity to the kind of situation that the ancient hunter-gatherer would’ve faced after the advent of agriculture. Time is freed up for other activities. Not every waking moment needs to be devoted to survival.

So what comes next? Trade and recreation.

If you’re not spending every waking moment foraging or hunting, suddenly you have more time. If you feel secure with your supply of survival basics, you might be willing to start barter trading with your nearest neighbors. Perhaps they have chickens and you don’t. You might begin to trade some of the crop grown on your farm for eggs.

Eventually, as trade gets more sophisticated and people have more time for leisure, trinkets made of gold and silver will once again become items of value. As you try to transact with people further away from you, spoilage or upkeep may begin to be an issue, making a durable, long-lasting medium of exchange necessary. These are the same reasons that we outlined above that explain why precious metals became valued in the historically.

It’s extremely likely that if any kind of society re-emerges in the post apocalypse, that gold and silver will once again be considered valuable by humans. Which means that if you have a healthy stockpile of precious metals stashed somewhere, you might be able to emerge in this new world as a wealthy man or woman.

One thing to note here – the big difference between this scenario and the “major disaster, but no societal collapse” scenario is that in this scenario, buying gold via financial markets will be useless to you. In an apocalyptic scenario, contracts will be worthless, which means that any gold that own that’s not physical and in your possession is gone forever.

No – if you want to plan for the kind of situation that we’ve described above, you want physical gold and silver that you can hide away somewhere. That means physical gold and silver bullion in the form of bars, ingots, or coins. The most accessible way of getting your hands oh physical precious metals is probably in the form of silver coins which are perfect SHTF. Silver coins are a good choice because 1. coins are small enough to be used for barter, and 2. physically buying gold is always going to be more expensive than buying silver for SHTF purposes, plus gold will be difficult to use as a barter material.

In this case, you want to avoid precious metals that you can buy via ETF or a futures contract or some other kind of investment vehicle. Having a position in your IRA will be worth nothing because your IRA won’t exist anymore.

You’ll need to figure out a safe, smart way to store any physical precious metals you have in a safe place. Some might choose to store their gold and silver in a safe or a vault. Others choose to bury it underground, but leaving a marker that only they would recognize. Some preppers and survivalists even suggest hiding your precious metals in the freezer!

Wherever you end up choosing to store your physical precious metals, make sure that it’s safe, that it will go unnoticed, and never ever tell anyone where your stash is.

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When SHTF, don’t pull your precious metals out immediately. Wait until things have settled, and people are more willing to cooperate and barter with each other (rather than everybody treating everybody else as a threat). This will be your first indication that a kind of primitive societal system is re-emerging, and it’s also a good signal that the value of your gold and silver will start increasing (relative to other available goods and resources).

If you are interested in buying physical gold or silver in the form of bars or coins, Goldcore offers both Silver and Gold bullion for delivery. Their pricing is based on market prices of gold and silver, so they only open during their trading hours which are 3am to 11am Eastern time. If your primary goal is to accumulate gold and silver to barter with in some kind of post-apocalypse, then you’ll want physical gold that you can store safely yourself, and Goldcore offers secure delivery of physical precious metals straight to your door.

A Brief History of Gold and Silver

Throughout time and across many cultures, gold, silver, and some other items like gemstones and other kinds of “precious metals” have always been seen as valuable.

The first instance of gold being used as jewelry that archaeologists have found is estimated to have origins that go as far back as 8000 years.

As long ago as 600BC (about 2500 years ago), gold was being used as money by ancient civilizations. Silver too has been used throughout history as a kind of money, often in conjunction with gold. Historically (and pretty consistently across different cultures) gold has always been more valuable, probably because gold is rarer than silver is.

For much of the known history of Ancient Greece, the primary currency that was used was coins made of silver, but the Greeks also used gold coinage (as well as coins made from an alloy of both gold and silver called electrum). What we now refer to as “Ancient Greece” was actually a combination of many independent city-states, each with their own coins. However over time, while the designs of the coins varied from city to city, the weight of the coins became standardized. In effect, what this meant was that each coin would contain a set amount of silver.

The Romans also used gold and silver, along with bronze and copper as forms of currency. Due to their military strength and the expansion of their empire, Roman coins became the de facto currency of trade through much of the world (much like the US dollar is today).

The use of gold and silver as money wasn’t limited to just western civilizations. The use of gold and silver as currency occurred through money cultures around the world, including the Persian empire, and places like Korea and Japan. The breadth of cultures and time periods where gold, silver, and other precious metals were used as currency suggests that it’s not coincidental. It seems like perhaps there’s something intrinsic to human nature where we value shiny metals, especially if they are rare and hard to find/mine.

An innovation that came about later on was the idea of a gold or silver standard. This innovation meant that other forms of money (made from paper or less valuable metals) were put into circulation, but these new types of money would be redeemable for a certain amount of gold and silver from the authorities. That meant that when governments wanted to “print” or “mint” new money, they needed to set aside the equivalent amount of gold (or silver) in case it were ever to be redeemed. This in turn limited the ability of the authorities to just invent money out of thin air – the idea was that all the money in circulation was backed by a precious metal. The silver standard was used by countries like China, India, the US, and the British Empire. The gold standard was also used by the US, along with Germany, Great Britain, and most of the other European empires through the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century.

Why Precious Metals Have Value

This is perhaps the wrong question to ask, but we’ll try to answer it. We’ll also try to explain why gold and silver pop up time and time again throughout history and across cultures.

To start off with, both gold and silver look attractive to us. They’re shiny. It turns out that humans like shiny things. Thousands of years ago, when we were hunter gatherers, that’s probably the very first reason why humans started seeing gold and silver as valuable. They saw something shiny, two cavemen fought over it, and by virtue of fighting over it, it was clear to everyone in the tribe that this shiny metal was something you wanted.

But that’s not all. Lots of metals are shiny. Silver in particular isn’t all that unique – it’s metallic grey, just like a lot of other metals. Bronze or copper, why not quite as “golden” as gold, are both colored metals that humans have known about for eons. So what made silver and gold stand out from the rest?

If you lived in ancient times and you wanted to make jewelry, or you wanted to craft something as a gift to the gods, what kind of material would you choose to use?

You’d want:

Something that doesn’t rust or corrode (excludes copper, iron, etc)
Something accessible via primitive methods (excludes titanium, aluminum, etc)
Something that’s rare

Suddenly, the list of shiny materials you’d like to use to craft things like jewelry has been narrowed down to a very small set of materials.

(Side note: Silver does corrode a little bit actually, but it’s more commonly called tarnishing and it happens very slowly, and its easily restorable.)

So now perhaps you begin to see why gold and silver have been highly valued by many different cultures. If you wanted to make something out of metal that lasted, that could be passed down from generation to generation, and you wanted that item to be cherished, what would you pick? You’d pick gold or silver.

It also probably helped a lot that both gold and silver are extremely malleable, making it possible to use them to craft intricate shapes even in ancient times. This was likely an additional factor in why they were often chosen by artisans for the creation of ‘valuable’ items like jewelry and other craft goods.

The reasons above were likely the starting point for why these precious metals were often highly valued by ancient civilizations.

These reasons also played a part in why gold and silver were both used as money across so many societies.

If you think about a trade occurring in the ancient world, using these metals as a means of exchange makes a lot of sense.

The average person from the ancient world would have valued a lot of things – farm animals, wheat, vegetables, corn, and so forth. The problem with all of these things is that they require upkeep, degrade over time, or need to be stored. A pig would’ve been very valuable in ancient times, but it’s not suitable as money because a pig needs to be fed. It costs something to have one. You could slaughter the pig, and meat might not cost you anything to keep, but it goes bad very quickly. Even things like wheat and corn go bad eventually, plus they are (relatively) abundant and therefore would be too bulky to use as a medium of exchange.

Gold and silver don’t degrade over time, don’t take up a lot of space (because they are relatively rare, so small amounts of them can be used rather than bags of wheat for example), and don’t require any upkeep or maintenance (don’t need to be fed, unlike a farm animal).

It probably also helped a lot that the malleability of gold and silver meant that it was relatively easy to make near-standardized shapes out of them – e.g coins.

So – it makes sense that these metals were used for jewelry and crafts, and it makes sense that they were used for coins. But why are they still valuable today?

The other part of whether or not something has value is whether or not people agree that it has value. Think about the US dollar (or most other currencies across the globe). We believe money has value because other people believe it has value, which means that we can buy things from them with money. The truth is, money is just paper – it’s our confidence in its value that makes it worth anything.

With gold and silver, the fact that they were used for crafts and used as money probably contributed to their perceived value throughout history. That perception has carried on to this day. Just think of a set of silverware passed down from grandparents, or a gold watch or wedding ring that’s a family heirloom. In some cultures, giving gold to the bride and groom continues to be a part of tradition. Even though the world we live in is very different from that of the Romans or the Greeks, gold and silver continue to be seen as valuable today, partially because they’re useful, but also partially because there is a cultural understanding that they are valuable materials.

Why Gold and Silver Might Not Have Value in SHTF

So – we know a little bit about the history of gold and silver, and we have an understanding of why they have historically been seen as valuable. But what about in a genuine disaster scenario? Would gold and silver still be valuable to people in a post apocalypse scenario? What about if there was a nuclear attack?

How much would gold and silver be worth to you if, for example, your home was completely destroyed and you were struggling to feed your family?

Here’s the tricky thing about the value of precious metals – unlike with most other preps, they aren’t things you can consume or use. If you’re stockpiling survival food, if there’s a disaster and you can’t access food, well – your stockpiled food is there for you to eat. The same thing goes with water, medical supplies, and so forth. With survival tools, these are things that have practical uses – you can use a hatchet to fell a tree, or use tarp and paracord to build an improvised shelter.

All the other things that we recommend you stockpile or acquire in anticipation of disaster are things you can use in one way or another. Gold, silver, and other precious metals aren’t like that. They have no practical applications, at least when it comes to survival scenarios. So why do people bother making stockpiles of gold and silver.

Most people want a cache of precious metals so that if paper money ever becomes worthless, they still have a form of “currency” that was seen as valuable historically. You stockpile gold and silver because you anticipate other people will still value gold and silver, even in a disaster or apocalyptic scenario.

So, the tricky answer to whether or not gold and silver might be valuable in a disaster situation is that it depends.

Whether or not gold and silver will be seen as valuable depends on what kind of disaster has occurred, whether or not civilized society and the government are still intact, and how desperate people are.

The Price of Gold and Silver in SHTF

So here’s a couple of examples.

In the Great Recession caused by the financial crisis in 2008, gold prices slowly climbed up because people saw that central banks were printing money in order to stimulate the economy. A lot of people feared there would be some kind of huge increase in inflation, which is what lead to the increase in the price of precious metals.

For a lot of people around the world, the great recession and its aftermath would definitely count as “disasters”.

Another example of an even more serious example of an economic crisis. Prior to World War 2, Germany experienced hyperinflation – the commonly used currency essentially became worthless, and the prices of everything from bread to beer rose to absurd levels. An example of the effects of hyperinflation – the German currency in that time period was the “mark” – a cup of coffee might cost 5000 marks in the morning, but later in the day the same cup of coffee would cost 9000 marks. That’s how ridiculous hyperinflation was.

But even in this version of an extreme economic crisis, precious metals held their value. In fact, the price of gold went up more than inflation, even while the rest of the economy was falling apart.

Any survivalist would agree that the hyperinflation during the period of the Weimarr republic was a genuine disaster situation – and a stockpile of precious metals would definitely have helped you a great deal if you lived through those times.

That’s why gold and silver are sound investments to have in any period of high inflation as well as any period of great economic difficulty. If investing in gold or silver in anticipation of a financial crisis or economic collapse interests you, you should definitely get this free report from Goldco. It will teach you how to recession-proof your retirement and take back control of your financial future.

On the other hand, imagine a situation where food and medicine are both extremely scarce, and society has gone through a complete and total breakdown.

In this kind of situation, gold and silver will probably be worthless. Food, water, medical supplies, and ammunition will be the things that are valuable to people – if you can’t feed your family, or if you have a friend who’s sick and needs medicine, getting your hands on shiny pieces of metal isn’t going to be your priority. If you want to plan for a situation like this, you’re better off stockpiling ammunition and supplies rather than any kind of precious metals.

Physical Gold or Silver Bullion for Survival vs “Investments” in Precious Metals

Another factor to keep in mind, for both “financial” gold/silver and real physical precious metals is that none of it is ever safe from the government.

If a tyrannical ruler comes to power and instills martial law, or if there’s a major, full scale war – or even something as “normal” as a major recession – all of these situations could potentially result in a nationwide confiscation of gold and silver.

If you think that this could never happen, think again. It’s happened in America already. In 1933, FDR made it illegal to hoard gold coins, bullion, or gold certificates (e.g financial contracts that gave you ownership of gold). The price that the Federal reserve paid people for their gold wasn’t a market price – it was a government mandated price. Essentially, the government confiscated all gold and paid well below the market rate for it.

Sure, this was during the Great Depression – but this confiscation of property took place purely due to an economic disaster. This blatant violation of property rights didn’t even take place as part of a war effort, or due to some other major physical disaster where many lives were being lost.

It was purely an economic/financial crisis – so imagine how little pretext it would take for the government to confiscate all gold today? Now imagine how much worse it might be if the US were under martial law or in a real, full-scale war with another powerful country. In these cases, confiscating gold and silver would seem like almost an afterthought – it would be an extremely easy way to extract resources from the citizenry.

This is one of the risks of hoarding a large amount of precious metals, either in physical form or in purely financial form. A tyrannical government could pretty easily take it all away in an instant.

Perhaps, if your contractual gold was housed overseas and the rest of the world were still normal, you might be able to flee the country and your ownership might be honored. Or, if you have mostly physical gold, it’s possible that you could hide it somewhere where the government wouldn’t be able to find it.

The point is, in the event of a tyrannical or overreaching government, your gold and silver might not be safe. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t buy or stockpile precious metals. All we’re saying is that if you do decide to buy gold and silver in anticipation of disaster, make sure you never tell anybody about it. Also, if your gold is contractual, make sure you’re dealing with a reputable party. On the other hand ,if your gold is physical, make sure you hide it so that nobody but you would be able to find it.

Outside of the possibility of gold confiscation by the government, the other major risk of holding gold is the risk that other people take it from you by force amidst the chaos that occurs after a major disaster. Imagine an armed person tries to loot your home right after a major hurricane when law enforcement isn’t available. Again, to prevent these situations, you’ll need to hide your gold away. This is also one reason why it might not be such a good idea to store your gold in a (unhidden) vault or safe – an armed intruder could force you to open it, revealing your hidden reserves.

Gold vs Silver for SHTF

If you’re wondering whether you should put your money into gold OR silver in a SHTF situation… the answer here is both.

In recent history, the value of gold and silver have been quite closely correlated. Gold is used more often as an “investment” vehicle when people think that high inflation will occur. Silver is less popular as an investment overall. This means that if higher inflation or some kind of economic disaster is on the horizon, Gold will react more strongly than silver in the way its price moves.

If an investment in precious metals is your primary goal, then leaning towards gold makes sense. The market treats gold as a kind of “hedge against disaster” more than silver, which could work to your benefit if there’s a recession (or depression). Read this free report for more information about the idea of making your retirement more resilient to a recession.

On the other hand, in a situation where you’re using precious metals to barter for other goods and supplies, silver will be more useful to you, simply because it’s less valuable. A bit like having change in your pocket. You wouldn’t carry a thousand dollar note (if such a note existed) around in your wallet because it wouldn’t be useful, especially if nobody could provide change. In any kind of bartering scenario, silver will be the primary currency – equivalent to cash you carry around with you. Gold will act more like your bank account.

So – both gold and silver have their advantages. That’s why we recommend that if you’re buying gold and silver for survival purposes, to spend equal amounts on both. You can fudge the exact percentages a bit – if you believe an economic crisis of some sort is looming, then you might want to go 60% gold and 40% silver. If you care more about being able to barter with precious metals, you might choose to go 60% silver, 40% gold. The point is that you want a bit of both because while they serve a similar function when it comes to survival, they offer slightly different pros and cons.

A Framework for Buying Gold and Silver for Survival

Given the three types of disaster scenarios we’ve laid out above, this is what we’d do if we were thinking about adding gold and silver to our overall prepping/survival strategy:

– If there was a major disaster, but we believed that the government (and society as a whole) would remain broadly the same, we would set aside some money and put it into gold and silver as an investment.

It’s possible to do this via gold funds (either ETFs or mutual funds). Another alternative is to put money into gold or silver futures,

Additionally, if an investment into gold/silver was the end goal, it might be worthwhile exploring the option of using an IRA to make these investments. If gold and silver do appreciate in value, the taxes would likely be more favorable if this were done via an IRA. This free guide will tell you everything you need to know about the advantages of using an IRA to invest in precious metals.

– If something apocalyptic in nature happens – e.g the complete breakdown of society, TEOTWAWKI, SHTF… If this is the kind of situation you want to prepare for, then it’s probably not worth hoarding gold and silver at all. Focus on items with more practical value – ammunition, weaponry, water, food, tools, medicine, etc. When people are truly desperate they won’t value gold or silver at all.

Maybe you want to plan for the end-of-the-world scenario, but you also want to plan for whatever comes afterwards. This means that whatever calamity that caused normal society to stop functioning has come and gone. You’ve lived through the worst of the disaster. Those who were unprepared and desperate have perished. It’s only survivors who are left alive.

If you want to set yourself up to thrive in the “new-world” post apocalypse, then stockpiling physical gold and silver makes the most sense. As people come out of the survival-only mindset, cooperation and collaboration will once again begin to happen. That will include trade. Food and water will be, if not abundant, then at least more widely available (those who were going to starve have starved). People are beginning to spend time on activities that aren’t solely survival focused. In whatever new societal structure emerges, it is very likely that gold and silver will once again begin to gain value. We can make confident predictions about this because historically, cultures at the same level of technology as this “new-world” have always seen gold and silver as valuable.

Where to Buy Gold and Silver for Survival

If you’re looking to invest because you foresee a recession (or worse) on the horizon, check out this free guide on how to make your retirement “recession-proof”.

If you’re looking to buy physical gold or silver to store securely in anticipation for a SHTF situation where humans will need to revert to a barter economy, Goldcore offers secure physical delivery of precious metals to your door.

Balancing Precious Metals vs Other Preps

Obviously, gold and silver will cost significant amounts of money to stockpile. They should not be your priority when you’re planning your preps. If you’re on a limited budget, then there are definitely other areas you should focus on first – making sure you have all the equipment and gear for shelter and warmth, access to drinking water, and good supply of survival food… these should absolutely be your priorities.

However, it’s also true that a lot of what we’ve described above is stuff that many of our readers have already prepared. If you already have a decent stockpile of food and you’ve prepared yourself a supply of drinking water (either with a filter, purification tablets or actual stores of drinking water itself), then it’s fair to ask if buying gold and silver for survival is a good idea.

The answer is “probably, yes”.

Given that none of us can truly predict the future, our recommendation is to buy a mixture of silver and gold, and also mix it up between physical precious metals and financial instruments.

The financial instruments can serve as a form of investment or hedge against an economic collapse, without the hassle of physical storage.

The physical metals can serve as insurance in case we ever end up in a world where society as a whole has collapsed and something new is forming in its wake. These physical metals should be secured, hidden, and put away safely. You can dig them up or recover them for barter purposes if you manage to survive whatever it is that causes TEOTWAWKI.

The mixture of physical and financial gold and silver means you’ve prepared for both scenarios that we laid out above where these precious metals might become more valuable, and hence useful.

That being said, you should only put money into gold and silver for survival purposes if

You’ve already got decent preps that cover your basic needs and
You have the disposable income to put money into these precious metals without adversely impacting yourself or your family

What we mean by this is that if you’re currently living paycheck to paycheck in the world as it currently exists, you should be focusing on your survival efforts in the society we currently live in rather than preparing for a future that may not happen.

On the other hand, if you’re choosing between buying yourself a new TV/a new car or adding to your preps with a cache of gold and silver, we would opt for the latter.

In short, It’s worth putting money towards buying gold and silver for survival as long you have your prepping basics covered AND you have disposable income. Don’t put money into your preps that you can’t afford.