Silver can thread through every life

Let’s say you were the smartest silver speculator ever.

You bought the precious metal when it wasn’t so precious.

That was back in 2001.

Lets say on Nov. 5, 2001, you bought silver for $4.08 an ounce.

Can you imagine it being that cheap?

You have held it now through thick and thin for more than 15 years.

You witnessed silver brushing up against the record price of $50 an ounce that has been in place since 1980.

Back at the end of April 2011 it was just about$48 a ounce.

Then it retreated.

You still own it.

Here we are nearly 15 and a half years after the bottom and six years after the most recent peak.

You have a gain of $13.53 an ounce, which works out to be 332 percent profit.

Wow.

But now your daughter is getting married, or you just retired and you want to downsize.

It is time to start evaluating everything you own and take steps to begin living the rest of your life.

Do you sell your silver now?

Take a bow and enjoy the feeling of success. But you will have to pay taxes on the gain.

Do you sell a portion of your silver, but retain some as an ongoing inflation hedge?

Do you mentally consign the topic of your silver to a part of your brain that says, “Do not open until silver is $50 an ounce?”

What do you do?

If you are thinking about this, you can bet that others are as well.

The thing about success is you are not alone.

Others bought silver at the bottom just like you.

Others have life needs as you do.

But your decision might not match that of others.

Some silver holders will indeed decide to sell out entirely this year.

It has nothing to do with where silver might be headed in 5, 10 or 20 years, it is simply a matter of the stage they have reached in their own lives.

Some might sell off a portion of their holdings and keep the rest.

Still others are buckling up for the long haul to come. They are letting it all ride.

Don’t feel guilty no matter what stage you are at.

Live your life.

But that is also good advice to others who are still looking at silver for the long haul, but who have never bought any.

Others have achieved great success in silver, why not them?

The only difference in most cases is their stage of life.

What will they be saying about themselves 15 years from now?

Will they have taken advantage of $17.61 silver?

Will they think of themselves as smart speculators?

They won’t if they don’t ever act and buy some silver.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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