As of this writing, the price of an ounce of gold is in record territory. Over one thousand dollars is a lot of money to be investing at one time and may be out of reach for most people. But silver is still extremely reasonable when compared to the price of gold and fairly cheap in relation to its own historical price. Silver is currently less than $20 per ounce and costs about the same as a large pizza.

In many ways, silver will function like gold when it comes to an investment.

• Silver stores value. Silver will help protect investors from inflation. Since silver is purchased in America for dollars, if the dollar loses value from the effects of inflation, then the cost of silver will go up. When selling silver, the investor will get more dollars for the silver which can then be used to purchase other items.
• Silver is not created out of thin air. One of the problems with paper currency is that it can be printed at the whims of governments. Precious metals, on the other hand, must be mined out of the earth. It takes a lot of effort to get the appropriate permits, build a mine, mine the ore, and process the ore to produce an ounce of silver.
• Silver will always have value. Companies can go bankrupt with their stocks and bonds becoming worthless. That will never happen with silver. Silver will always have some value and be tradable for other items. It has been true through thousands of years of history and will be true for several thousand more years into the future.
• Silver is portable. Silver can be packed up and brought with an investor when he decides to relocate. Real estate and businesses cannot be uprooted. Those needing to escape political or religious persecution can bring silver with to begin a new life in a new country.

Every individual should keep some wealth in the precious metals. If gold seems too costly, then silver is a good place to start.