When Money Was Real
I remember a time when we did business with real money. It was a day before credit cards or Bit coin. We used checks but for the most part only to pay bills that had to be mailed. It was 1964 and a postage stamp was 5 cents. A gallon of gas was 30 cents. You paid for that gas with real money. Lets say you paid with 3 dimes. A gallon of gas today cost about 2.46 in New Hampshire as per Gas Buddy.com . Now the government has added many taxes on gas that we did not have in 1964 but lets see how those 3 dimes hold up against inflation and taxes. The melt value of US 90% silver 3 dimes today 1/9/2018 is $3.6719 and if you were to buy a roll of those dimes today you would pay about $1.28 for 1 coin before shipping. A roll of dimes in 1964 would have cost you $5.00 today that same roll of dimes will cost you $68.14 at Apmex.com with check or Bitcoin and $70.98 if you use a credit card. So how much gas would those 3 dimes buy you today? If we use the melt value those 3 dimes ($3.67) you could buy 1.49 gallons of gas. And lets remember much of the price of that gas is taxes we did not have in 1964.
A gal of milk cost $.95 in 1964 today a gallon of milk cost $2.58 at Walmart. The melt value of the 95 cents today is $11.628. So the 95 cents that would buy one gallon of milk in 1964 will buy you about 4 1/2 gallons today.
Lets say you had purchased 10 rolls of quarters in 1964 at the cost of 100.00 those rolls of quarters today would be worth over $1500. As you can see the value of silver has more then kept up with inflation and I believe that silver is undervalued.
When I think of wealth I think what can I purchase with that wealth. If no one wants my paper dollar then it has no value. But metal always has some value. If the dollar loses it value and I go to a local farmer to buy some milk would he rather have my 90% silver or a promise of Bit Coin? Right now he might like the Bit Coin but in turbulent times I think he would prefer the silver.
I know right now everyone is chasing the cryptocurrencies and I sure do wish I had purchased Bic Coin when I first heard of it. But even if I had been wise enough to buy Bit Coin I still would hold on to my silver. There is an old saying "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." That is my thinking when comes to wealth on the Internet. If it is not in my hands then do I own it?