Joe's Money

With the recent run up in price for gold, silver, and many other commodities, you may be wondering where to score the deals for those precious metals.  I haven’t personally been buying too long, only a couple of years.  However, here are my experiences.

Apmex (Online Merchant)

A few years ago, I made my first silver bullion purchase from Apmex.com.  Little did I know, they cater more to large volume buyers as the only time you can get a decent price is if you are ordering 100+ ounces of silver at a time.  To some, that may not be that much, but I certainly couldn’t afford it.  On otp of the high premiums for low volume buyers, there are shipping fees, credit card fees, etc.  If you pay by check or money order, the credit card fees are obviously removed.

Final Say: Better for large volume buyers, no so much for the low volume.  Service is impecable.

eBay Auctions

Boy ohh boy, where do we start here?  In the past, deals were difficult to find, but were there.  With prices where they are now, this is not the case.  Lots of buyers have been bidding well past the normal premium prices as of late.  I did a little research and have found that most of these buyers fall into the category of simply being unfamiliar with their purchases.  Another group is folks that only buy an ounce or two at a time and are willing to pay a high premium.  The last and likely smallest group of folks paying these insane premiums are folks using reward programs like eBay bucks or eBay gift cards.  The discounts bring the actual paid price to a level consistent with other venues.

I have however heard that there are still respectable deals to be found in “junk” silver.

Final Say:  For well versed buyers, this is probably the last place you should try to strike a deal.  Individuals just looking for a piece or two of silver, this could be an ok route.

Local Coin Shows

Keep in mind my findings around local coin shows may not be what you experience, all markets can vary greatly depending on the amount of buyers and sellers.

Local coin shows around my area (Twin Cities Metro Area) tend to have some of the best prices around.  Silver eagles usually go for a much smaller premium than online sellers or eBay.  Eagles have almost always been available.  These are likely the most sought after silver bullion items available.  Generic silver bars or rounds can be difficult to find, especially in quantities.  However, premiums when you can find them, are very low, barely over spot price.

Other common selections from my local shows are the Australian Kookaburra round, the Chinese Panda round, and the Canadian Maple Leaf.  All of these coins have detailed, beautiful designs.

Final Say:  Likely the best prices around, no tax, get to work with folks from your own community, etc.  Possibly a limited selection.  Clearly the best choice as far as pricing goes.

Well, let me start off by saying you won’t be getting a buy one fill up get another free with this deal, a guy can dream right?  So bare with me and I can show you how to ease the latest gas prices just a little bit.

Super America and Speedway both offer the Speedy Rewards card.  All it entails is a free discount card that racks up points as you spend your hard earned cash on everyone’s favorite expense, gas.  The card also ears points on just about everything found in the store as well.  For gas you typically earn 10 points per gallon.  Most in store items reap 20 reward points for every dollar spent, sometimes more for bonus items.  Only a few categories do not earn points like tobacco, lottery, etc.

So right now it takes 24,500 points to get a free $25 gas card.  Yes, you’re absolutely right, that takes a lot of spending to rack up that many points.  However, here is a little trick that will help you get there faster.

When you purchase giftcards, you get a bonus of 1,000 points for every $50 put towards the giftcard.  So when I go to the gas station, I put on a few hundred dollars until it runs out, then repeat.  Gas is a fairly fixed expense so if you budget you should be able to do this as well.  Once the cash is on the gift card, you use that to purchase your gas replacing your cash or credit card.  In addition to the bonus points from purchasing the gift card, you also earn points when you purchase the gas.

Picking up the gift cards in $50 incriments will sure help you get there faster.  While you won’t get a ton in free gas, a little extra never hurts.

Silver has been on a dominant run up over the last year or so.  However, the increases in price over the last few weeks have been unprecidented.  I have never seen such a large short term gain.

This morning, silver briefly opened up well above $48 an ounce before settling around $46.50 or so.

Individual investors generally pay a few dollars per ounce over spot for investment grade silver.  This could be pushing them towards the assumed resistance point of $50 per ounce and causing some resistance to purchase more.

In addition, the $50 per ounce price may also trigger some sell offs as well by both large and small investors alike.

In my personal opinion, silver and the commodity price rises as of late are caused largely by inflation fears so the rise in prices are to an extent justified.  I say to an extent because it would appear silver is rising at a significantly higher rate than most if not all other commodities including its close brother, gold.

Only time will tell if the wild silver rise is in line with current investors or if the market has been severly overbought.  Back in the 1980’s, silver also went on a intense rally reaching a high of approx. $50 per ounce.  We haven’t quite hit that yet.  Including inflation, we haven’t come close to matching the silver run up in the 80s.

As I’m sure you can tell, I don’t think you should have a credit card if you haven’t cleaned up your financial life and you are confident you will use it appropriately.  In the US, the average credit card debt is over $6,000.  At other points in time, I have heard this has actually been closer to $10,000.  That doesn’t sound like moderation to me.  Use your card once per month for a necessity, like a tank of gas, or put a bill on autopay through the card.  Pay it off in full every month.  Do not use it for buying toys or other want items.

If you are on the younger side and don’t have much credit, a credit card can be a good tool to build credit.  When I was younger, around 20 years old, I managed to build my credit score up to the 730 range only using only one credit card.  You don’t need a wallet or purse filled with plastic.  Find one good card, and stick with it.  It is important that you select one, and keep it for the long run.  Part of your credit score comes from the length of your accounts.  If you are closing old accounts and opening new ones, your credit score is going to be lower than someone who has used the same card, the longest.

When looking for a credit card, the most important factor is the interest rate charged.  Most folks consider anything under 10% is pretty good, for a credit card.  However, finding one of these cards when you don’t have much credit.  Stick to it and you can always call and try to get the credit card company to lower your rate.

Next, look for a card with no fees.  You should NEVER pay an annual fee to use a credit card.  An annual fee is simply money the credit company charges you just to have the card, even if you don’t use it.  This fee can vary, but stay away.  In addition, look for a card with no minimum finance charge.  This isn’t a huge deal since the minimums are usually only $.50 to $1.00.  But hey, if you can, get one without a minimum.

If you are having trouble getting approved for credit cards starting out, try department stores or big box stores.  Try to stay away from stores where you might have the urge to impulse buy, control your finances, don’t slip into that trap.  If you can’t get approved at even a department store, go to your bank and see if they offer a secured credit card.  The idea is pretty simple.  Your limit is usually the amount you secure with a deposit.  Example:  You deposit $500 into your savings account, your credit limit is $500.  You will not be able to use your deposit until the bank decides you are credit worthy or you close the account.  With the secure deposit, the bank can’t lose because your maximum credit line is the same or less than that of your deposit.  This is how I started building my credit.

One last comment…  Don’t chase the cards that offer the rewards.  If your new card has it, great!  Consider it an added bonus.  The rewards usually add up so slowly its almost worthless.  For my personal credit card, I can get a $50 gift card for every $6,500 I spend.  Whoopity doo.  Thanks anyways.  Find a card with a good rate.  With the money you save that way, you will be able to afford a $50 gift for yourself anyways.

Ok.  The first thing you need to do is come back to reality.  Unless you are the perfect soul who never gives in to life’s finer things, you can find money to cut.

The first thing that comes to my mind for myself, is my terrible habit of smoking.  While I didn’t quit in my journey, it certainly was there to help motivate me to try even harder.  Another huge money waster for me was eating breakfast and lunch at my employer’s cafeteria 5 days per week.  I always said to myself, “ah its only $2 for breakfast and $3 for lunch.”  Pretty easy to do the math on this one.  I was wasting $100+ a month on this alone.  Now I bring generic cinnamon pop tarts that cost $1.25 per BOX for breakfast and bring leftovers or prepare my own lunch.  While that still costs money, I know I don’t spend half of what I used to.  Pick your poison, everyone has one, or in many cases, more than one.  This is all about sacrifice at this stage in the game.

There are countless other expenses I’m sure you could do without.  Cable TV, cell phones, etc. are all wants, not needs.  Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish the two, but again, focus.

A little story about a friend of mine…

My friend starts the conversation similar to one I’m confident you were involved with.  Not necessarily you yourself, but someone you know.

“I’m broke.  I don’t know where my money is going.  I’m telling you, I don’t shop, I don’t eat out.”  Line after line.  I knew for a fact that this person was making more money than I.  Probably even more than both me and my wife combined.  So I go into my usual pitch, to get out of the seemingly endless race, you have to sacrifice some things now to be much, much better off later.  The immediate response was “Well, there are some things I just cannot sacrifice.”  This person must have been referring to the near new truck, boat, ATV, and motorcycle they had.  This was in addition to the cars he and his significant other drove daily to work and around town.  I was floored.

The idea behind this is to get you back to reality.  Get a grip.  Make it happen.  It is up to no one but YOU.