Small Changes Equal Huge Opportunities

I’ve had a number of responses, personal and on the blog about the affordability of silver or gold as an investment and wanted to show people the comparable value of these metals vs. the day to day purchases we make. My argument is we all live above our needs in some way and a small deviation from the norm can free up at least a little for investment.

Coffee: It’s not an original idea but if you save up your coffee money over a year it really can up to substantial savings. One coffee on the way to work or at break can run from 1.20 to 3 dollars if you like those crazy Starbucks coffees. 49 weeks of work on average X5 days would work out to anywhere between 300 to 735 dollars. Or in bug speak 18-45 oz of silver or nearly 1 oz of gold. I gave up most morning coffees and two coffee breaks during the day making my personal savings $700 even with discount coffee, all for breaking a 3 dollar ritual.

Brown bagging lunch or just grabbing a plain bagel and using the Peanut butter in my desk drawer, easily saves me $20 bucks a week even when I cheat, annual savings equals $980

Movies: 1 night out for 2 people at a theatre, $22 for tickets and at least $40 after snacks, up to $60+ with baby sitting, if you waited 4 months and rented the movie the net savings even after supplying snacks would be $50+,
I’m not a big movie guy but would likely go to see about 5 a year so a $250 or 15 oz savings.

Beer: I like my beer, I really do, but I decided some time ago that a lovely Creemore was not value for my money and switched to Lakeport Honey Brown.
At $7.50 savings per 12 pack I can sock away enough to buy one sheet of silver maple leafs, another 10 oz for the hoard for just under $200

A nice sit down meal in a mid range restaurant, drinks, appetizers, coffee, dessert, for 2, $80 dollars, with baby sitting, gas, parking etc. would total $110. Compared to putting the kids to bed early and having a quiet dinner alone after they’ve crashed; net savings at least $80, or 5 ounces per meal. Even 6 nights out a year changed to nights in would net me $480 or 30 ounces.

I had a second car, 10 years old and functional, but it received little use other than taking me to the commuter train. My decision to walk to the train station and give up the car saved me on insurance, license tag, emissions testing charge, routine maintenance, giving me a net savings of around $1200 a year. Not only that I was making an ethical decision to reduce green house gas emission and get exercise.

So just on a few things I learned I could do without I’ve managed to reduce my expenditure by $2800 or 160+ ounces of silver or 3 ounces of gold and some silver for change, without any loans and before liquidating other investments to buy silver.

I could have stopped drinking beer altogether and made other more stringent savings and would have easily made 200 ounces of silver in one year. You don’t have to sit down and pull a big cheque out of your butt, just make small changes in your lifestyle and put it aside until you can buy the product you want.

I believe in $100+ silver as inflation and shortages eventually improve the attraction of silver. That is a multiple of 7.5 over today’s price, each grand I put away in silver should in time (under 10 years) be worth $7500. I personally think it’s worth the scrimping and the sacrifice of a few luxuries now.