How to Use Precious Metals to Protect Your Assets | Ask Andrew Sleigh
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Welcome to Ask Andrew with Sprott Money. I'm Shiva Burnett and today we're exploring the fascinating world of precious metals with Andrew Slay from Sprott Money.
With over 32 years in the financial industry, Andrew started as an insurance broker in 1991 and later became an independent financial broker. However, he realized that traditional financial planning was not enough to truly protect his clients. So in 2017, he made a shift to focus on bullion, dedicating himself to helping people safeguard their assets by investing in precious metals. And today we will be asking Andrew questions that are coming directly from our audience.
Are you ready, Andrew, to do this together?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (00:48)
Yeah, thank you for having me back again Shiva and ready, ready and let's go.
Sprott Money Inc. (00:49)
Very exciting. So I have a bunch of questions that our actual audience has asked to directly ask you, and I'm just going to go right at it and get started. So the first question is very timely. And the person is asking, with the elections coming up, how do you think this will affect the economy and precious metals? The very hot topic right now.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (01:19)
So if they're referencing who's gonna win, there's two parts to this. A, there's a chance that there may not be an election in the US because of a crisis that is brewing. Two, if there is an election, whoever gets into office, both parties have said they're gonna go to 0 % interest rates or negative, which will completely destroy what's left of the US dollar and explode gold and silver up. either which way,
There's nothing good going to come out of this. So metal is the place to be.
Sprott Money Inc. (01:49)
So my question to that is, I know we're coming up like pretty much weeks from this election and it happens every so often. How would you safeguard or what would be your recommendation in terms of this type of, you know, uncertain times? What are some of the things that people should be thinking about?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (02:07)
minimizing your exposure dramatically to the banks and minimizing your exposure to the financial sector as a whole. So you want to take off whatever portion that you want to protect and not lose and hold that in real hard assets such as gold and silver.
Sprott Money Inc. (02:26)
Okay, no, that makes complete sense. The other question I'm gonna write into kind of falls in and the person wants to know, how do geopolitical events such as nationalization of mines impact the global supply and pricing of precious metals?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (02:44)
So there's a good example of that right now where Mexico is going towards nationalizing their silver mines. And at one point, Mexico produced 25 % of the world's silver supply. Now they're down to about 15%. And if they follow through with their nationalization program, we all know that governments cannot run business that well. you're going to see a reduction in production.
And you may see Mexican government turn around and not export any silver. So that one example could be a 15 % overall shortfall on the supply to the silver market worldwide. If that happens,
Sprott Money Inc. (03:28)
And again, my question was, do you think that our governments in North America, is there anything that they're going to do about it? Or you think this is something that we have to just sit around and watch?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (03:41)
Well, I don't know what the governments in Canada or the could do other than just diplomatically say you shouldn't do that. But they can't control what a nation decides to do on their own. So if Mexico does this, then silver will go up as a result. It's just strictly supply and demand.
Sprott Money Inc. (04:01)
Absolutely. Okay. Are we ready for the next question? The person is saying, how does the potential for a market crash similar to 2008 affect the prices of gold and silver?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (04:14)
So two things can happen there. One, metal can go down. It won't be going down as much as what the market will go down. So if we use 08 as an example, stock market went down 50%. But I'm not sure if silver and gold did the same. It followed down, but very briefly. And then it started coming back up within weeks. What's more dramatic that happened in 08, which I think will happen again,
is that the supply of silver and gold was entirely bought up. Like in the States, for example, the big money poured in when the metals went down in value and there was nothing to be bought for 16 weeks in the US. So the average consumer, you know, who calls up whoever to buy, they had no stock for 16 weeks. In fact, the US Mint stopped taking orders.
at 16 weeks, they said, don't even bother calling us for back orders now. So that's going to be even more significant. And so if silver and gold go down on the market crash, expect big, big money to go in and buy it all. If it doesn't, it'll go the opposite direction. it's also very possible that the confidence in the stock market will be lost. And when it's going down, the money will be pouring out of there and into metals. So metals could go the opposite direction as well.
Sprott Money Inc. (05:40)
So I guess the answer is to safeguard yourself you have to get in now versus waiting for that crash to happen as a lot of people are predicting.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (05:50)
because you're gambling with not getting in at all.
Sprott Money Inc. (05:54)
I know, and I think the big question surrounding that is also with, you know, obviously real estate, because that was also very affected, and a lot of people have investment properties and things like that. I was just curious about what your opinion on that is, and how would you mitigate that type of risk in that scenario with utilizing precious metals, let's say.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (06:13)
Well, if you're if you have positive gains in multiple properties, you know, takes them off the table, takes profit in those properties before you can't. So I just saw an article this morning, the foreclosure rate in Toronto is spiking. So, I mean, we're just getting started with that. And there's data coming out from August to August of last year to this year.
Sprott Money Inc. (06:34)
Yes, it is.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (06:42)
that foreclosures in Canada are up 260%.
Sprott Money Inc. (06:47)
Wow. And that's going to, of course, affect the entire economy. Yes.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (06:48)
And that's only gonna get worse. That's right. mean, the ripple effect will continue to get larger and larger. And then so properties will start to cascade downward. They're still physical, but in dollar terms, they're gonna be very low. I, sorry, they're high right now, but they will be very low. And I saw another article headline this morning that in the UK, homes are in a...
more or less an all-time high in dollar terms over there, but at a 40-year low in gold terms. So it just depends on what you measure it. Yeah.
Sprott Money Inc. (07:25)
wow. That's a very interesting point, right? And it's like, you also have to consider now the affordability of the prices of these homes. So how is the demand and the need going to be met if people can't afford to buy those prices, right? Is it really going to keep its value at where it's at, right?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (07:46)
Nowhere near. We're at all time highs and we have severe economic headwinds on us now in Canada. Our economy is terrible. And so people are going to be owed to work and inflation is going to get worse on the dollar, which means that once food starts to react to the money printing, you wait. People all of a sudden have a 30 percent increase in their food bills. How are they going to pay the mortgage payment?
Sprott Money Inc. (07:58)
Yeah.
Which is kind of already happening, Andrew. I don't know, I'm feeling it from where we are in Toronto where the prices are really high, you know, even for the basic basket of foods that we were buying, you know, even I want to say three years ago, you know. So definitely I can feel that. I'm going to jump into our next question. This person wants to know, what role do technological advancements such as solid state batteries play in the demand for silver?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (08:47)
So that's going to continue to increase. Samsung just came out with their new battery invention with, you know, using a lot more silver in the battery, doubling or tripling the range on the battery. And you can charge the battery in nine minutes, which will be a game changer. And that will filter down into all other battery operated stuff, power tools, you name it, whatever. So that's going to continue to go up and up and up. And that's all going to put more pressure on silver. So
you know, long term, that's the place to be. So people shouldn't be looking at buying silver. Yeah, people shouldn't be looking at looking at buying silver to like, do the paper do the physical trade, like I want to buy silver today and sell it next year. That's not how they should be thinking about it.
Sprott Money Inc. (09:21)
Absolutely, there's a lot of changes happening.
You know, this might be a bit of off topic, but I don't know if you saw recently on Instagram, Elon Musk, you know, showed those robots that you can get into your homes and they do all the work for you. I was just terrified thinking, you know, how our lives are going to change so much and, you know, how that's going to affect the economy and with all the different changes that are happening. And I remember, you know, 20 years ago, we thought, you know, having FaceTime on our phones was such a big revelation. And now we look at things
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (09:39)
Hmm.
Sprott Money Inc. (10:06)
like robots and they're really here. Do you think that's going to affect the economy as well in terms of where we're headed with this type of technological advancements and things that are coming?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (10:18)
It's going to be the largest massive change in human history. Like, you you talk about the industrial revolution at the turn of the 19th century when Ford started making automobiles on the assembly line. And that was a game changer. Then you have the introduction of the computer and how that changed everyone's lives. Some to the better, some to the worse. Now you're talking about the AI, pardon me, the AI technology. And there's been studies on this that have revealed that
Sprott Money Inc. (10:22)
Yes.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (10:47)
There's going to be a 2.3 billion person job displacement over the next three years. Like that's massive, right?
Sprott Money Inc. (10:55)
I can truly see that, yeah. It's massive and it's, think something we're not necessarily even realizing how big that impact's gonna be. I remember when they had the grocery stores where it was the auto checkout and people were a little bit upset about that, but now you got these robots coming to clean your house, babysit your kids, it's crazy what they're suggesting they're gonna be doing and I think it's gonna really change a whole lot of things.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (11:15)
Yeah.
You know, Elon Musk had an interview over at the World Government Council, which I'm not sure what that exactly is. It's self-proclaimed organization, I guess. But, you know, he was over in the Arab world doing an interview on stage with a presentation. And he said that with this AI, world governments will be forced to come up with a universal basic income worldwide because there'll be so much displacement.
Sprott Money Inc. (11:49)
Good stuff.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (11:50)
people will have to have an allowance to be able to buy stuff. And with this automation, he says that it's going to be an abundance of production at very, very low cost and things will get cheap.
Sprott Money Inc. (12:04)
I 100 % can see that. if Elon Musk is saying, the person who's creating the technology, I think it's important for us to realize it's really going to impact us and we have to really prepare for those economical, unfortunately, changes that are gonna happen in our basic jobs. This next question actually kind of fits in. The person wants to know, will the shift towards digital currencies affect the demand for physical precious metals?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (12:33)
Well, my opinion of that would be that there's going to be people that get into the digital currencies that realize that they don't have any autonomy, privacy and all that stuff any longer. And there's going to be a tremendous amount of people that want to try and transact outside that system, be it by barter and whatever. And that's what silver and gold is going to wind up being the freedom money to use. And that has the potential just to circulate through the economy on its own.
Sprott Money Inc. (12:58)
Absolutely.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (13:02)
I buy eggs from the farmer and give him an ounce of silver and that farmer's buying something else for his tractor and pays it silver and it just starts circulating through the economy that way.
Sprott Money Inc. (13:15)
And I think inevitably with all the changes that are happening, if societies actually want to move away from being so controlled by robots, this is a way that we can actually do it, right? By having some sort of diversification of some other tool beyond going into our watches and cards to pay for things, right? And they make it seem so attractive, like you just want to do it because it's easy and it's convenient. But I think we forget how much of our freedom we're also kind of giving up on.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (13:26)
Yeah.
I think.
Sprott Money Inc. (13:45)
that when we're dependent on a device to make payments. Yeah.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (13:50)
Look how the public are enslaved with their phones.
Sprott Money Inc. (13:54)
Yeah.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (13:55)
Right for a three inch screen by five inch screen and look walk down the street. Look where everyone's heads are. It's a complete enslavement tool.
Sprott Money Inc. (14:03)
you know, I was taking the train today and I noticed like no one's even looking at each other. We're all like zombies, you know, looking at the screen and missing what's happening even around us. So it's definitely a change and I do believe that having...
other methods of being able to deal with changes in the world really does help with that. Okay, so let's get to our next question. This person wants to know, what's the historical significance of gold and silver as safe haven assets during financial crisis? So they want to know if there's any historical significance to that.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (14:41)
Yeah, it's the only money that has actually never bankrupted in world history. So gold and silver have been around for 5,000 years and have always been the asset of choice. And then the shenanigans of the paper currencies that we know of today, those have only been around for thousand years. that currency, currencies created by government, always have reverted to its real value of zero eventually.
So every currency that's ever been created in history has always gone to a value of zero. Gold and silver never have. Ever.
Sprott Money Inc. (15:20)
That's a pretty impressive fact, And I think sometimes we forget about the history, right? And they say, the data is there, so you've got to really look into it and utilize that information, right? Wow. OK, next question. Sorry, go ahead.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (15:34)
You know, to add something else to that, sorry, I just want to add something else. you know, during wars and conflicts, invade another land. They don't go after their currency. They go after their gold.
Sprott Money Inc. (15:49)
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (15:50)
they seize those kinds of assets, right?
Sprott Money Inc. (15:54)
It makes complete sense. Okay, the next question is also kind of relating to governments. The person wants to know, how do changes in interest rates affect the attractiveness of holding precious metals? And I know like right now we're kind of seeing a shift of the interest rates going down. They were really high. What's your opinion about this? How do you think this will affect the holdings of precious metals?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (16:18)
Well, as soon as they start to go down with the interest rates, that's going to be rocket fuel for metal. So gold and silver are going to explode upward because that's, you know, the if the economy is doing so well in Canada and the US, why did the central banks cut the interest rates?
Sprott Money Inc. (16:24)
Okay.
Right. It doesn't add up.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (16:36)
Right. mean, there's there. mean, there it's just an outward lie. So, you know, where do you see gold going right now? It's continuing to move up and up and up. OK. And that's a barometer of the gold's job is to sniff out and understand what's going on with the monetary system. And, you know, it's it's the canary in the coal mine. And gold is saying that.
Sprott Money Inc. (16:48)
Yes.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (17:03)
You can't hide the shenanigans of the monetary system by the governments anymore. It knows there's a problem. And the governments are printing money at hand over fist. And there's nowhere for gold to go up and up.
Sprott Money Inc. (17:14)
So would you say as an average person, it's not necessary, you shouldn't really worry about whether interest rates are going up or down. You should be building your plan just ignoring that fact, or do you think that as interest rates are going up and down, you should have a different strategy?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (17:29)
Yeah.
Well, at this stage, if you went back to 10 or 20 years, there probably could be a different answer to that. think now it doesn't really matter if interest rates go up or down. The currencies are having real problems and they're headed to zero. And the Canadian dollar and the US dollar respectively in their own countries are now worth somewhere around two cents of their own purchasing power within the borders. So when it goes to a tenth of a cent or a hundredth of a penny,
Sprott Money Inc. (17:40)
Yes.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (18:03)
I mean, if you hold these other assets based in dollars, you're holding nothing. But if you're holding gold and silver, you still have ounces of gold and silver. And they'll just be worth in dollar terms way more and they protect your purchasing power.
Sprott Money Inc. (18:14)
Yes.
It makes sense. It makes complete sense. Okay, coming to our last question. And this person wants to know, what are some common myths about investing in precious metals that you think needs debunking? You know, things that people say about investing.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (18:35)
that's a great one. Yeah. So the entire, you know, as you said, you know, people know I come from the traditional investing industry and that whole industry is all promotion about why would you ever want to buy silver and gold? It's a high risk metal. It's volatile and it's all promoted that way by design and the advisors don't even understand. It's just a lot.
They just think it's that way because silver and gold don't do anything for a while and then they move, they don't move. Advisors can't make any money selling gold and silver. There's no trailer fee on it. So the whole industry has been set up to poo poo on silver and gold. Now,
Sprott Money Inc. (19:24)
So there's a lot of miseducation out there or misinformation I guess I can say. Yeah.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (19:27)
100%. Nine years ago, I had clients ask me about why, you know, should I be buying silver and gold? And my answers were completely idiotic in, in, you know, why would you ever want to hold it? That was my answer. It doesn't do anything. I mean, I look back now and go,
Sprott Money Inc. (19:40)
Yes.
Well, I used to work in banking and I remember they used to give us a pamphlet of how to answer the questions. There was, you know, this is the answer for this, this is the answer for that. There was little room for really wearing off to what the standards were in terms of percentages and what you be diversifying in. So I do feel like unfortunately there's a bit of I guess, agenda or sort of like one strategy mindset. And yeah, that causes a lot of problems because it doesn't suit every person.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (20:10)
So they're, that's right. So the industry, you know, we have to go right up to the very tippy top of the financial sector. The global elites, you know, the 1 % money out there around the world, they want you and I in the markets. They're in gold and silver. Okay. You know, they're exiting the markets now and getting into gold and silver. Countries around the world are buying gold and silver.
Sprott Money Inc. (20:29)
Right. wow, that's a very good point.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (20:40)
at historically largest volumes ever in history. Why? You know, they're doing this because the currencies are going to fail and when they do, they can't buy any more gold and silver. And so it's the advisors out there, the entire financial system from the banks up to the brokerage houses to the mutual fund guys. Unfortunately, none of them understand or want to acknowledge there's a problem with the dollar.
whatever country you're in. Doesn't matter. Okay, there's a problem with the currency.
Sprott Money Inc. (21:13)
I completely...
I completely can see that, and mean a parallel for me is, I used to be in the health and wellness industry. And so when I look at that, I look at the medical system versus like, let's say the natural remedies. And although yeah, there's merit for both, there's a lot of brainwashing happening on one side, that people feel like they have to do this. So I think when you look at our society, there is a lot of agendas and sort of like, this is the way, this is what you have to do. And that's why I really admire what you're doing.
Andrew because I feel like you actually have the courage to speak up.
and to kind of bring light to a new way of thinking at least, right? I mean, we don't make any... We're sort of just showing people, hey, here's an option, here's some things to think about. And I think that's very, very important. So thank you for educating us and sharing your knowledge and taking us from the one mindset. It has to be this way. I think we need people like you. That's what I'm trying to get at. Absolutely.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (22:18)
Yeah. Well, thank you so much.
Sprott Money Inc. (22:19)
we've reached the end of our questions. Is there anything you want to leave off the viewers, any final messages that you want to share? The floor is all yours.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (22:30)
So we're getting pretty close to some big things happening around the world. World War III is being promoted. there's a very real danger that could occur in next few weeks, possibly as a way to postpone elections in the US. So keep your eyes on that. First and foremost, if World War III is declared on various countries, there's a distinct possibility besides postponing elections,
they're also going to freeze the financial system. And if they do that, they can freeze the stock market, the bond market, the commodities exchanges, including precious metals, and also the banking system. And that's to prevent money from leaving the country that has declared war on whoever. They're going to make up whatever story they want to, but that's a possibility that could very much happen. And so,
Realistically, if people are waiting to see if there's another pullback, well, we had a pullback. What are you waiting for? Another pullback? You know, and and so, you know, if people keep on sitting on the sideline, they're going to get hurt financially about this. So ideally, what you need to do is start thinking about yourself as your own central bank and you have a certain amount of cash under your roof, under your direct control.
a few months worth of bills, not cash at the bank. You don't have control over that. It's not even yours. That's the loan you have at the bank. And you need to back that up with precious metals that's under your control a certain amount. If you have so much money that you have too much, then you have to look at having storage. But the time is getting really late for this. So you want to position yourself strategically so that if any given Monday the system shuts down.
banks close, brokerage houses, nothing is working. You are as little affected as possible. Your day doesn't change. And if you get to that stage, you've done a fantastic job. But if you're you're distraught, you're like, I can't get money out of my bank. I've just lost everything. Then my goodness, make changes. If you need help, just call me. I'll tell you what you need to do and make those changes. have, if the system shuts down tomorrow, I'm unaffected. My day doesn't change.
Sprott Money Inc. (24:39)
I like that.
We're all going to be lining up at your house.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (24:57)
I have no exposure. That's right. I'll have like my exposure to the bank is so minimal, like I'll just write off the thousand bucks. That's all I ever keep there. And my day will not change. So people need to adhere to that.
Sprott Money Inc. (25:07)
Yeah, makes sense. Makes sense. Andrew, how can people get in touch with you? Can you share us? I mean, we can always put the information below, but if someone wants to book an appointment with you or have a more in-depth conversation, what is the best way to connect with you?
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (25:24)
So in North American call the toll free number one eight eight six one zero seven seven five My extension is 230 or you just call the toll free number and just ask for me by my first name I'm the only one here at Andrew You can email me at death of the dollar at Sprott money calm so it's death of the dollar Sprott money calm and Yeah
Happy to answer anyone's questions if they want to reach out.
Sprott Money Inc. (25:55)
Perfect. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking the time this week to answer all the questions and I look forward to our future conversations. Thank you again, Andrew. Have a wonderful day.
Andrew Sleigh & Sprott Money (26:04)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. You as well. Thank you.
Sprott Money Inc. (26:08)
Thank
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