Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Oh no, not another gold article
Ten ways to invest in gold
Thought I'd post this because a number of interesting points arise. One is the huge spread on buying bars and coins. Buying gold for investment would seem best done by holding it indirectly. However, holding physical gold in case of economic collapse appears to raise other problems. If you own allocated gold, can you be sure of liquidating it when needed? Using physical gold, assuming you can get your hands on it, as currency does not seem practicable given the value of the smallest coins. Maybe have physical gold stashed safely away until the economic maelstrom passes is the only logical point of holding it. What do the gold aficionados here think?
Posted by letthemfall @ 12:12 PM (1148 views)
12 thoughts on “Oh no, not another gold article”
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Cheekie Charlie says:
“For sterling investors, the price remains at an all-time high, because of the slide in the pound,” said Sandra Conway of ATS Bullion.”
Not for me thanks.
japanese uncle says:
We remember prior to this financial Tsunami, Crash G sold out gold from the government coffer in billions, but to WHO? (Usual suspect in this sort of situation is always the House.)
Those who bought gold at the bottom may be in a position to squeeze lucrative profits, by coordinating media and other means. To me it is so clearly obvious.
mrmickey says:
I have to say the more I think about it the only way this country will be able to meet it’s future massive obligations will be to print money. Eventually the government will be left with no other obtion because nobody will want to invest in this country at zero interest rates.
davecrash says:
I agree with the original poster, physical gold looks the most expensive option and the hardest to trade. Indeed, in a major economic collapse who would buy your gold? Or is the idea to slice a piece off your stash and buy say a chicken to eat?
I like the idea of gold ETFs they only have a charge of 0.4% and can be traded like shares in a nominee account. Does anyone know if the 0.4% charge on an ETF is a one off payment or an annual charge? However, in a major economic collapse your share dealing website will probably be down (power cuts) and in an extremely major economic collapse, the security guards and their company directors ‘protecting’ your ETF companys physical gold would have long since disappeared into the hills with all your physical gold.
I think the question of how you hold your gold all depends on how bad you think it will get.
Personally I would go for 50% paper gold (EFT) and 30% real stuff in a vault and 20% buried in the garden 😉
mountain goat says:
My opinion is spread it around. If you want exposure to precious metals, and most financial advisers would say anywhere between 5-20% is sensible, then don’t go for just one option. Have some coins, some BullionVault (which I think would class as an allocated gold account), some ETF’s (ETF come in two flavours. One just tracks the gold price and holds no gold at all, it is a derivative. The other holds physical gold to match the amount of money people have in the ETF. Depending on how “paper” your ETF is be ready to sell early if the financial infrastructure of the world implodes. Personally I don’t think it will come to that, but I hold a few gold coins just in case. ). Also consider holding some silver. Silver coins are less precious than gold so it might be easier to dispose of them when you want to sell. IMO silver is closer to money in your wallet than gold so I prefer it for the Armageddon scenario. Whatever you do don’t hold any gold in the USA. After the Great Depression gold was confiscated and banned for 41 years. Don’t be surprised if this happens again.
doom&gloom says:
Unfortunately VAT is payable on silver, making it much less attractive as an investment (even with the ‘reduced’ 15% VAT rate). Definitely a strong case for buying through stocks or securities to avoid the VAT.
http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/silver.html
techieman says:
Dom sums it up in the FT this weekend with a technical view (you might have to register):
http://www.ft.com/money/current-issue
Then “Gold misses its cue after starring role”
str 2007 says:
I’ve been pondering the Gold thing a while as you know and yes I’d be up if I’d bought some about 3 weeks ago but all of the above and a few other comments read here has also brought me to the conclusion Cash is best at present.
Just where to put it ?
Luckyjim says:
str 2007.
Buy a property at auction and rent it out?
Seems counterintuative to be renting yourself and buying properties to rent out but, if you are in a similar position to me, the houses YOU might want to live in have only fallen a fraction right? Wheras some houses at auction can be bought for half of their opeak value. Rental yields approaching double figures versus how much are you getting in the bank ?
You can wait for the rest of the market to fall 50% or you can lock in those sort of price drops now.
shipbuilder says:
Gold is simply a potential way to profit from the current situation and I wish people would stop pretending that it is something else, something moral and honorable. At least admit that, like investors and BTL, you simply want to come out of this with loads of dosh.
This point has been made, but if there was a collapse in the financial system there are hundreds of more useful things to have. Who’s going to swap you gold for food if the shops are empty?
rumble says:
Ship, disagree – i have gold, not to make loads of dosh, but simply so that i might have some dosh if pound goes splat. My co-workers spend their lives opening new savings accounts and shifting their pounds from one to the other, chasing after silly interest rates, i avoid this hassle. Total collapse scenario – agreed, probably not much use then – “excuse me, i’d like to buy 40000 eggs with this piece of gold.”
Urban Bear says:
I own vault Gold as an inflation hedge and expect to recover lots of otherwise lost value, you do not profit off Gold, even when it cost a lot more, you just oppose your loses against worthless fiat currencies. Gold is seems to be priced way below value, due to heavy COMEX shorting and low central bank gold leasing rates, however the retail market is running low on Gold, some big commercial COMEX purchasers want delivery, and Gold leasing rates are rising, so I will be surprised if Gold does not rocket upwards in the future.
Super markets look quite vulnerable to supply line disruption because many re-stock on a just-in-time basis, so could easily run out of food, after a week!
I know what it is like to survive without electricity for two separate days, due to estate electricity maintenance work, not fun at all, a blow lamp may work for cooking with, but portable gas cooking gear is much easier to use.
I’m not taking the chance of starving or running out of fresh water, if a breakdown does occur. I now have enough dry and canned food to last for weeks, several days of water, portable gas cooking gear, and other useful items; I’m gradually growing this hoard, as I see suitable items to add to it. Most of the stuff I have hoarded, I eat normally, so it is just another form of banking