As much as you can afford. Consider that silver will only "hold" your current purchasing power, so if you buy $10k today it will be able to buy you the same amount of items in the future regardless of fiat price. - with that thinking hold as much silver as you think you'll need to survive a certain amount of time. Ie: 6months, 1year, 2years. I don't think this is true, I think silver is going to go much much higher and will buy you plenty more in the future. But think of it from a conservative standpoint when figuring out how much you have. Best move is to buy steadily, every couple weeks or months. Don't forget gold though. Should definitely have that too.