Should Millennials Care About Gold & Silver?

The general consensus I have seen following the gold and silver markets is that historically these markets have appealed mostly to the Boomer generation and most people under 50 (or for sure under 40) did not really care about gold and silver too much. That seems logical. Most people under 50 have never lived under a monetary system based on gold or silver. They may know that some old US coins (pre 1965) were made with silver, but it is likely they have never gotten one in change in their entire lives. The rise of technology over the last 30-40 years means that most under 50 know a lot more about cell phones, tablets, and perhaps Bitcoin than they do about gold and silver. They have lived a lifetime so far without that mattering too much. It just seemed like gold and silver are something the old folks may care about, but why would anyone under 50?

It's been a fair question for the younger crowd to ask. In this post I will offer three reasons why they should care and (in some cases) might even need to care some day. Recently, there seems to be some increasing interest within the younger generations in regards to silver. I think these trail blazers are realizing they may be on to something interesting. Perhaps being an early adopter for silver may have some sound reasoning behind it that aligns with their vision of the future. So let's look at three reasons why they might be right.

1 -- Gold and silver have a long history as valued assets and as money. This has been true for thousands of years. Even though gold and silver are not used as money today, the number of people on the planet who value them as important assets starts with the letter B (not M). That s not likely to change any time soon. If that many people do care about gold and silver as important assets, perhaps you should too. At the very least it makes sense to make some effort to understand why so many other people care about them. While gold is sometimes dismissed as a relic from the past, there must be some reasons why the world's central banks own tons of it and are still buying tons of it even in these modern times. Right?

2 -- Even if you are young, you probably still have some hopes and plans to build up a nest egg for the future. That is a very universal goal for people of all ages everywhere. If you have started into such a plan and have looked around for financial planning advice, you have likely heard the cherished adage that you need to be diversified. It's cherished because it's good advice. The question we need to ask is -- What does it mean to be diversified? I would say it means that you have allocated your savings or accumulated wealth across several different asset classes to the extent you can. The wisdom behind this advice is that it should enable you to be flexible and adapt to a wider variety of future economic scenarios as circumstances change over time. If that is true, don't we need to have more than just a mix of stocks and bonds to really be diversified? Those are all paper assets and leave you with no tangible hard assets. I would not think of that as truly diversified. Perhaps you add some Bitcoin to the mix? Hopefully that works out well, but you still have nothing in the hard assets class. Gold and silver fill that void very well. I will make a bold statement at this point. No matter what anyone tells you, if you have no hard tangible assets in your portfolio mix, you are NOT really diversified and you are not in a position to be as flexible to any future market scenario as you may need to be (not financial advice, just an opinion). That's the thing about the future. None of us can predict it with certainty. It's a simple fact that being truly diversified means you are in a better position to adapt to whatever the future may bring. I will add that not including a reasonable precious metals component in that mix is foolish in my view no matter what generation you belong to.

3 -- What if you inherit some gold and silver? What if they are coins? If the first two reasons don't persuade you to care about gold and silver, I bet this third one will if it happens for you. It's not farfetched. If we allow that in general older folks may lean more towards gold and silver than younger folks, the odds are not bad you may inherit some one day. That's a good reason to care and also to invest some time learning about them. If this happens to include some gold or silver coins, you certainly need to know as much as possible about those. If you sell them, you need to know what they are worth in the marketplace and be sure to maximize your value received. All coins are not alike and it's important to understand what that means.

Bonus Reason to Care About Silver -- I will add in this bonus reason to care about silver at no extra charge. If you are young and your vision of the future includes a world filled with solar energy, long life batteries, cell phones, and electric cars, silver is the metal for you. It could even be a key to your future world vision. In fact, your vision cannot exist without it. The world will need a lot of silver and it is possible the global supply of lower cost silver that can be mined may be peaking. If the future world does need more silver than it can profitably produce at the current price for silver, you do the math. That could also be a very good reason to care about silver.

If you have recently become curious, but are new to gold and silver, the mission of this blog is to provide you some basic free information and tools to help you get started. Explore the various blog pages to find tools and resources that can help. There are a lot of younger people starting to show some interest in gold and especially silver (see WallStreetSilver as one example). We may be watching the start of a major global grass roots movement led by a new generation now discovering why they should care about gold and silver.

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Added notes: According to this article in etftrends.com, Millennial silver jewelry buyers are also becoming another driver for silver demand (and silver prices) going forward. Also, this article was picked up on Talk Markets.