Sorry in advance for the wall of text, I'm kinda bored and got carried away.
Silver and Gold are typically used to protect your current purchasing power as the fiat currency that you use loses value. That is the basic starting point for most people interested in the precious metals. Beyond being an innocent 'inflation hedge' many people are of the view that silver and gold are manipulated to service some agenda by the elites. Some say to hide the true levels of inflation, some think that they are manipulating metals to make profit and siphon wealth from the masses, another theory is they want to distance society from assets that inherently keep the system accountable. It could be all of these and more.
Beyond protecting your purchasing power against inflation, many precious metals enthusiasts also expect the current manipulation to come to an end at some point based on the tendency for civilisations to either collapse or reinvent themselves. If people start losing faith in the system they start looking for other assets to protect themselves like precious metals, crypto etc--more people getting interested in silver means less to go around and pushes the price up.
When it comes to the value of a given thing, as far as I can tell it's not something we can absolutely know, it's something we deduce based on certain factors over time and everyone comes to a level of consensus like how much effort it takes to produce, how much is available, historical data etc. So yes, your metals will always have value and assuming society doesn't completely collapse into a SHTF situation you'll be able to trade them based on the cost to produce them (+/- people's current sentiment surrounding them). For something to be able to be considered money it needs to meet these criteria (silver and gold do which is a substantial bonus when you consider our current institutions potentially failing):
Divisible: Can be divided into smaller units of value.
Fungible: One unit is viewed as interchangeable with another.
Portable: Individuals can carry money with them and transfer it to others.
Durable: An item must be able to withstand being used repeatedly.
Acceptable: Everyone must be able to use the money for transactions.
Uniform: All versions of the same denomination must have the same purchasing power.
Limited in Supply: The supply of money in circulation ensures values remain relatively constant.
Most people either put it in a safe at home, bury it somewhere they have reliable access to or store in some kind of facility (bank, vault etc.). Each have their own potential risks whether that be theft, fire, if buried you could forget where it was or lose access, if stored at a bank or vault you're relying on someone else and could also lose access in that scenario.
As far as time frame for investment goes, many people have been suckered into buying due to some short lived hype and price movement and unfortunately buying at a higher price only to see the price succumb to manipulation or selling pressure again (think global financial crisis--price rose and some who bought then are still holding silver at prices above today's value). I think I can safely assume that if you're on this website you have a fairly large amount of confidence that the system we currently have will be dismantled or restored which I think will lead to people's attitude to silver/gold dramatically shifting (purchasing power goes up relative to other things) and in that case you may not even want to get rid of all your precious metals.
You might want to look at shadow stats to get a bit of an alternative perspective on inflation numbers.
I would also suggest not forgetting about gold, personally I think silver is the more undervalued and better buy but I am wary of the fact that gold is better suited to fill the role of money (and possibly a gold standard) as it doesn't have as much of an industrial use case. My personal preference is to focus on silver but not neglect gold altogether.
Sorry in advance for the wall of text, I'm kinda bored and got carried away.
Silver and Gold are typically used to protect your current purchasing power as the fiat currency that you use loses value. That is the basic starting point for most people interested in the precious metals. Beyond being an innocent 'inflation hedge' many people are of the view that silver and gold are manipulated to service some agenda by the elites. Some say to hide the true levels of inflation, some think that they are manipulating metals to make profit and siphon wealth from the masses, another theory is they want to distance society from assets that inherently keep the system accountable. It could be all of these and more.
Beyond protecting your purchasing power against inflation, many precious metals enthusiasts also expect the current manipulation to come to an end at some point based on the tendency for civilisations to either collapse or reinvent themselves. If people start losing faith in the system they start looking for other assets to protect themselves like precious metals, crypto etc--more people getting interested in silver means less to go around and pushes the price up.
When it comes to the value of a given thing, as far as I can tell it's not something we can absolutely know, it's something we deduce based on certain factors over time and everyone comes to a level of consensus like how much effort it takes to produce, how much is available, historical data etc. So yes, your metals will always have value and assuming society doesn't completely collapse into a SHTF situation you'll be able to trade them based on the cost to produce them (+/- people's current sentiment surrounding them). For something to be able to be considered money it needs to meet these criteria (silver and gold do which is a substantial bonus when you consider our current institutions potentially failing):
Divisible: Can be divided into smaller units of value. Fungible: One unit is viewed as interchangeable with another. Portable: Individuals can carry money with them and transfer it to others. Durable: An item must be able to withstand being used repeatedly. Acceptable: Everyone must be able to use the money for transactions. Uniform: All versions of the same denomination must have the same purchasing power. Limited in Supply: The supply of money in circulation ensures values remain relatively constant.
Properties of Money
Most people either put it in a safe at home, bury it somewhere they have reliable access to or store in some kind of facility (bank, vault etc.). Each have their own potential risks whether that be theft, fire, if buried you could forget where it was or lose access, if stored at a bank or vault you're relying on someone else and could also lose access in that scenario.
As far as time frame for investment goes, many people have been suckered into buying due to some short lived hype and price movement and unfortunately buying at a higher price only to see the price succumb to manipulation or selling pressure again (think global financial crisis--price rose and some who bought then are still holding silver at prices above today's value). I think I can safely assume that if you're on this website you have a fairly large amount of confidence that the system we currently have will be dismantled or restored which I think will lead to people's attitude to silver/gold dramatically shifting (purchasing power goes up relative to other things) and in that case you may not even want to get rid of all your precious metals.
You might want to look at shadow stats to get a bit of an alternative perspective on inflation numbers.
I would also suggest not forgetting about gold, personally I think silver is the more undervalued and better buy but I am wary of the fact that gold is better suited to fill the role of money (and possibly a gold standard) as it doesn't have as much of an industrial use case. My personal preference is to focus on silver but not neglect gold altogether.