Hello everyone, welcome to Bald Guy Money. And last week I touched on the topic of using silver to pay for retirement. And of course it was controversial because it always is. But the main point I was trying to get across was if we measure in today's US dollar, so at the current value of a US dollar at current price levels, even if the price of silver returned to the old Roman gold to silver ratio where 12 ounces of silver was equal in value to 1 ounce of gold, even at that price level, which would be $278 per ounce for silver


today, 500 ounces of silver plus the median 401 1k balance. So both of those things together, a median 401k and 500 ounces of silver would not be enough on top of social security for the average person to fund a basic retirement. Because even when you factor in 500 ounces of silver at that higher price plus a median 401k for somebody 65 or older, it only gives you $227,500, which comes up just short of being enough to supplement a basic retirement. So based on your requests to provide some clarity on this topic using the


latest figures for 2025 and some estimations for beyond in this video I will take you through the latest data to tell you how much it actually costs for a basic retirement and a comfortable retirement. And this includes a short discussion on if it really costs $2 million to retire. Once that's covered, I will show you how much gold and silver you need for retirement in five different countries. After that, we'll talk about the global pension crisis, why it's so important, when it will


start, and why it's going to have major implications for gold and silver stackers. And we'll finish this video off with a special channel announcement for those of you who have been wanting to have a one-on-one call with me in order to discuss some of these topics, whether it be retirement or purchasing a house with precious metals. I'm going to tell you exactly how you can do that at the end of this video in that special message. Now, just before we dive in, please remember to check out


summitmetals.com if you want to buy gold and silver at a great price from a dealer you can trust with my picks of the week shown here on the screen now. And if you're a new customer, please don't forget to claim your 5 o of silver at spot when you use code new customer at checkout. And I will leave the link to this deal in the video description below. So jumping in, there is a lot of bad information out there with regards to what it costs to retire with experts and even articles from the same sources


often contradicting themselves saying it costs anywhere from $700,000 to retire to more than $2 million to retire, which is a complete manipulation of the facts bordering on being an outright lie and is unfortunately so commonly repeated. that most people preparing for retirement in the USA today believe it and are so demotivated by the number that sometimes they use it as an excuse to not save for retirement at all as they see it as a hill simply too high to climb. Now, this is important to clarify at the start of the


video because even my viewers, who I see as some of the most well-informed people out there, have fallen victim to the myth of the $2 million retirement. And here are some viewer comments from my last video showing exactly that. And where that $2 million figure comes from, if you were wondering, is from estimates based on a 23-year retirement in the state of Hawaii, which is the most expensive US state to live in. Much more expensive than almost anywhere in the United States and most other places in


the world. And as we move over to data showing how far $2 million goes for a retiree in a few selected US states, I will add that it's a number used deliberately by financial advisors to scare you into giving them as much money as possible. And it's dishonest and simply untrue for most people as $2 million will last you two to almost three times longer in other US states than it will in Hawaii and will even go further in the countries I will cover shortly. So factoring in the reality that less than 5% of Americans retiring


have $1 million, let alone $2 million, yet somehow these people are still alive, with some people having no savings at all and living off of social security alone. We need a proper set of data that shows regular people like you watching this video that a better retirement is possible and within reach. Now, just before I reveal the numbers, I just want to share these updated assumptions with you all. Starting with the fact that these numbers include home maintenance and property taxes, which could also be allocated to rent if


you're a renter. The assumed age of retirement is 67 since that's the age you can collect full retirement benefits from public pension plans in the countries I am covering with an average life expectancy of 82 years meaning you have to cover 15 years of retirement expenses. All numbers have been converted to US dollars to keep things as simple as possible in the video. And I'm assuming that 80% of the value of your retirement savings in precious metals will be in gold with 20% being


saved in silver because that's my personal preference. And all prices are based on Friday, July 4th's market closing prices. And here are the numbers you need to hit per country to cover a basic retirement. And those numbers are the ones on top. and how much you need for a more comfortable retirement. That includes a little traveling and maybe a bit more eating out, which is the set of numbers on the bottom. Now, all numbers are based on national average living expenses. So, if you live in a city, you


may want to factor in a bit more. And if you live in a rural part of your country, it may cost a little bit less. For each country, I have added what a 67y old retiree receiving government pension benefits gets per month and I have subtracted that from what they need to save to cover retirement. Now, what these numbers and the calculations sitting behind them tell us is the total gap during retirement. And that's the most important number we need to focus on. And those numbers are highlighted in


the red frame on the screen. And that is what you need to aim for as a minimum to cover from your own pocket to be even modestly prepared for the type of retirement you want to have. with figures ranging from about $100,000 in Germany today for a basic no frills retirement due to their more generous public pension and social services system all the way up to about a half a million dollars for a comfortable retirement in the USA, UK, and Canada. And before I move on, I just want to encourage everyone to screenshot these


figures for future reference and target setting if you're preparing yourself for retirement now. So, now that we know how much it costs to retire in each of these five countries, it's important that we understand how much gold and silver is needed to cover these retirement expenses. Now, the numbers you're looking at on the screen here show us how much gold and silver is needed to cover a basic retirement. And we'll get to the comfortable numbers in a moment. But as you can see here, I have covered


different scenarios ranging from a modest 10% coverage for those of you who choose to cover the rest maybe in stocks from a 401k or maybe you plan on having some rental income from another property you own to 25% coverage, which is here. 50% coverage in the numbers, which you can see in this box here, going all the way up to a 100% coverage for those of you who feel more comfortable betting on the stability of precious metals in retirement. Now, as I said earlier, this is an $80 allocation to gold and a 20%


allocation to silver. Meaning, you need both of these for retirement. And for example, if you're in the United States and want to supplement half of your basic retirement with metals, you'll need 29 ounces of gold and 662 ounces of silver. And although I think we are poised to see silver outperform gold right now because I am anticipating that question in the comments section, I want to make it clear that gold's relative stability versus silver is why I lean towards having more allocation to


gold for retirement. Because even if silver rises faster than gold right now, its pullbacks can also be larger in the future. And that's a variable you don't want to have to worry much about in retirement. And before I move on, please remember to screenshot this data for future reference. So, moving on to the comfortable retirement figures, it's important to note that the overall numbers are slightly lower than they were in 2023 and 2024 when I presented this data as gold and silver prices have


outpaced rises in the cost of living. And although over the long term I think that's a trend that can continue. In fact, I think it likely will continue as fiat currency devalues driving more and more people into gold and silver. I wouldn't factor that trend into the numbers. And I'll say more on why in a moment. But as we look at these comfortable retirement figures, and again, please screenshot them for future reference. I want to add, as I've done in the past, that these are the numbers


I think people should be especially focused on. Not because I think living a basic lifestyle is not good enough, but because it never hurts to be overprepared for something. And considering the fact that many of you have about 20 years still before you reach retirement, if you just get on a basic schedule now, and you can even do that at Summit Metals, by the way, with the auto invest program on the website there, you can see here how much gold and silver you would have to buy per year to reach the 25% retirement


coverage level over a period of buying of 20 years. And to be honest, for many of you, if you cut out some of your unnecessary expenses and tighten the belt a little bit, this is easily achievable and you'll be so happy you did it because there is a storm brewing right now in public pension systems around the world and even in the USA with social security. And it's a problem that really started getting talked about more after the.com bubble and the global financial crisis when articles like this


one here stated a hard truth and that is the pension systems that many elderly people rely on are running out of money. And although the sustainability of these national pension programs has always really been a concern, the reason it was amplified in the wake of the.com bubble and the global financial crisis was because retirees, many of whom had all of their retirement savings in the stock market, had a miserable 13 years from 2000 to 2012 as they supplemented their income from 60/40 investment accounts


that were at times crashing in value as low interest rates and money printing started to squeeze their standard of living while they sat by watching precious metals act as the insurance policy they're meant to be. And mind you, most of these people didn't even own a gram of gold or silver, let alone a few ounces that might have bailed them out in a tight spot. Now, we'll swing back to gold and silver in a minute, but this problem has only gotten larger since 2012 with many national pensions


risking insolveny. So, basically running out of money to pay out full benefits over the next decade, meaning by 2035. And I've covered this in recent videos when talking about US Social Security as the largest trust fund within the program, the one designed to take care of people in old age, will become insolvent, according to the US government's own numbers, by 2033. And as these developed countries ramp up spending on things like national defense, as we saw pledged at the last NATO summit in the HEG, a pledge that


amounts to more than $1 trillion in extra government spending per year for all of the NATO member countries combined, it's likely that the solution to the pension problem won't be a responsible restructuring, but a combination of higher retirement age rules, as we've even seen implemented in China recently, which is also also suffering from this issue due to their one child policy and more money printing which I expect to increase the rate at which fiat currency devalues possibly even leading to some kind of reset or


new deal where a lot of these promised benefits are renegotiated to reflect a more modest reality. So as we come back to what happened from 2000 to 2012, no matter what happens moving forward, it's clear that preparing yourself at least in part with gold and silver makes sense. And that's why I am showing you this data. Not to discourage you from holding stock portfolios or 401ks. Have that stuff. But make sure that gold and silver are there too. Because if the last 25 years are any indication of what


direction the world is moving in when it comes to money and how regular people need to prepare for their financial safety, it tells us that sound money is back and that owning it is more important now than maybe ever before. Now, just before we wrap up, in celebration of my channel's 4th anniversary, I am offering a video call consultation one-on-one, just you and me, to all of my fullear Patreon members to be done in the months of July and August. And this also applies to anyone who joins my Patreon on an annual


membership within the next week, so till July 13th. And what we'll do is if you want some help making sense of retirement, your finances, maybe real estate, any topic you want to cover with me in order to be better prepared for the future financially, we'll pull out some of the tools that are available for all of my Patreon members and in a one-on-one call, we will confidentially go through your numbers and figure out what's best for you. So, if that's something you might find useful, link to


join my Patreon will be in the pinned comment and video description below. And I look forward to speaking to many of you. With that said, that's it for this video. Please leave a like below if you enjoyed this content. And don't forget to share it with people who you think need to hear this message. And as I say at the end of all of my videos, I'm wishing you all a fantastic day ahead. Please remember to take care of yourselves and take care of each other. I want to wish all of my American


viewers a belated happy Independence Day. It was the 4th of July. I hope you all safely celebrated and made it out with all of your fingers. And to my Canadian viewers, also a belated Canada Day. They celebrate their Independence Days very close to each other. So, I hope you all had a fantastic holiday. See you in the next video. Goodbye.