You may not want to follow the constant advice of financial experts who seem to be hysterically demanding that people hedge portfolios and buy silver bullion. Yes, it can get a bit tiresome to hear the repeated admonitions to convert up to 35% of your holdings to a precious metal, but if you look at the record sales of silver during 2010, you might begin to wonder why you are hesitating to make this investment.

Consider that 2009 saw roughly 28.7 million American Silver Eagle coins sold, but by the first day of November, 2010 that figure had already been matched. This indicates that more and more investors are opting to buy silver bullion, but they all have more than a single reason that they are doing so.

Just consider that you might decide it is the right time for you to buy silver bullion because of the trend in the financial markets. It is not anticipated that once reliable stocks and bonds will return to their former levels any time soon, and instead it is the classic hedge investments, such as precious metals, that so  many are using to stabilize their portfolios and ensure their purchasing power.

You might alternately decide that it is the time to buy silver bullion simply because industrial demands for this metal are really positioned to keep increasing over time. Mining experts indicate that around 90% to 95% of all above ground silver has already been used, and those statistics apply to all silver over the course of the past one hundred years and not just in the past decade! This indicates a serious conflict between supply and demand, and that means that anyone with ownership of silver bullion is going to have an asset that will increase in value substantially.

The industries that need silver include medicine, optics, electronics, and jewelry among many others. This illustrates the vast size of the silver market, and proves that mining is not likely to catch up or keep up with the demands.

What all of this actually translates to is the simple fact that silver is an asset that is likely to continue to increase in value for the foreseeable future, and at a pace that is rapid and persistent.  Because the conditions in the financial markets are not expected to change or improve over night, it is considered practical and savvy to rely on silver to protect wealth.