I’m thinking of buying silver and/or gold for a long term investment - 10+ years.
I’m looking at physical ownership rather than ETFs. Possibly Canadian Maple Leaf Silver coins which are 99.99% pure.
If you had $500 per month to invest in silver/gold, how would you do it?
Is now a good time?
Buy coins. Coins are known items and known quantities and known purities. Canadian coins are ok I guess. It doesnt matter if the coin is 99.99 or 99.9 or 99. What matters is finding people who will accept gold coins. Everyone in the world will accept USA gold coins. Canadian coins are almost as good. Kruggerands are well known in the third world.
Forget ETF’s. You may lose everything. If you buy gold, then buy physical gold that you can, and do, put into your hand. The Comex may easily go bust, and so can any bank or brokerage or anybody else who “supposedly” is holding your gold. There are many ways to lose your gold if someone else is holding it. If you really dont want to physically hold your gold and want someone else to hold it for you, then feel free to send it to me and I will store it for you.
Is this a good time? It was a better time to buy when bush got elected, in the year 2000, that is when I started buying gold again, since bush was going to be a disaster. Is it still a good time? Depends. If the USA cuts federal spending and balances the budget and pays off the federal debt, and if it also brings back its manufacturing capacity and becomes an exporting nation once again and the value of the dollar stabilizes, then buying and holding gold will not be necessary. If you are buying $500 a month for the next 10 years, then you will be dollar cost averaging anyways. $500 a month translates to buying 1 gold double eagle (a 1 ounce gold coin) and a few silver dollars every 3 months.
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Thanks Susanann, would your advice above apply also to silver coins?
This really needs to be in Great Debates. There are a number of us who think investing in gold right now is one of the stupidest things you could do with your money. Buy low, sell high. As of this instant, gold is going for $1433/oz. The time to buy was 1980.
Well, sure it was but as susanann states, I will be dollar cost averaging over the next few years. I understand Gold and Silver are currently at all time highs but what are your reasons to be bearish?
BTW, in the 1980s, Apple shares were a few dollars. Now they go for $350 but it’s still (IMO) a good time to accumulate AAPL.
If you want to be exposed to fluctuations in the prices of the metals as part of your asset allocation, gold/silver ETFs are definitely the way to go. If you expect you’ll need to barter with coins as the government collapses, I guess go with physical.
If we ever get to the day when Krugerrands are preferred over Dollars as currency in the US, you’ll probably be spending them on things like food and fresh water. So I say cut out the middleman: invest in cans of food, bottles of water, medical supplies, guns & ammo, and a renewable energy source. Gold is worthless if the person with food would rather eat it than sell it to you.
Not really, except that I still say buy coins, not bars, because only a few people will buy a bar from you. Everyone will buy a silver coin from you, esp if it is a USA silver coin.
People are not as picky about silver coins, since they are only 40 bucks per ounce, instead of $1400 per ounce. Therefore, it is not as critical to validate that each and every silver coin is genuine. USA 1 ounce silver coins are just fine, however, they can get bulky and VERY heavy, esp if you put 1000 of them in a box.
You should buy 1 ounce silver coins. But I dont follow that advice. I like to buy** Morgan** and** Peace** USA silver dollars. I just like them. I dont advise other people to do that, since there is a big premium over the price of silver. A Morgan silver dollar has about 3/4 ounce of silver in it which is worth about $29.75, yet it would probably cost you about $35 to buy one.
Owning gold, silver, guns, ammo, food, etc. are not mutually exclusive.
Most people that I know that own lots of gold, also have enough guns to prevent somebody from taking their gold.
Actually,** I sold gold in 1980. **I figured Reagan would fix all the economic problems that Jimmy Carter caused. Gold was at a good selling price in 1980, and the future with Regan probably becoming president would cause the gold price to decline since Reagan would prevent the end of the world. ** 1980 was a good time to SELL!!! gold.
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I bought gold in 1971 when Nixon took us off the gold standard, and I bought gold in 2000 when bush was probably going to be president. 1971 and 2000 were good times to make big investment switches into gold.
Ive added/been adding to my gold holdings continuously since 2000, and will continue to do so… until…and unless… the United States balances its budget and pays off its federal debt. For every additional trillion dollars of debt that the USA accumulates, I buy more gold.
This is the best description of gold investing I’ve ever heard!!
Most investing just requires using mathematics for calculating the spread of interest rates.
But Gold investing uses more mathematics— for calculating the spread of shotgun blast.
The way to invest in gold and silver is to get training and practice in making jewelry, because that way you can increase the value of what you have. Don’t bother with coins, because nobody in the world buys precious metal coins. But everyone buys pretty jewelry.
This is incorrect. There is a large existing market for gold and silver coins. Jewelry requires you to invest your time in making a product that you then have to find a market for. Any bullion or coin dealer will buy your precious metal coins. As Susanann noted, the U.S. and Canada make very negotiable gold coins, as does Australia and China (Pandas, however, often come with a large collector value attached). For some reason Krugerands always sell for less than their counterparts.
The only downside to buying gold or silver coins from the mint is that you pay a hefty premium for them. If you’re going to buy silver coins just for the silver content, go with lower grade coins (i.e., circulated), and coins that have little collector value. Mint and proof coins are too expensive for someone who only wants bullion.
This thread seems totally advice-driven. Over 3 hours ago I sent a message to the mods suggesting it get moved to Great Debates. Are they overworked today, or do they disagree? (BTW, silenus also suggested moving it.)
I don’t see the point in buying gold. It doesn’t do anything.
If you want to invest, then how about creating wealth instead of just running a warehouse?
Because those advocating gold are betting that the Amercian economy will utterly fail, plunging us into a dystopian world where they will need gold to buy bullets and Ayn Rand books.
It is not a “bet”. Rather, it is akin to** insurance**…or…a hedge against obscene federal debt.
People who buy gold to protect their wealth, are no different than people who buy home insurance.
Buying insurance on your house is not betting that the world as we know it will be destroyed. The whole world does not need to get destroyed to prove that it was a good idea to mail in that house insurance payment, or that buying gold is also a wise thing to do. Gold protects wealth from a zillion different risks. Something as simple as high inflation causing the US dollar to be worth less, or even that the US currency might become totally worthless, is enough of a reason to buy gold. Paper money becoming worthless is not unheard of in world history, or even in American history, paper currency has already become worthless twice in American history.
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Avoid paying sales tax when you buy your gold or silver coins.
Here in California when I buy gold or silver coins, I make sure I buy over $1500.'s worth. At that point (or above) there is no sales tax. Your state’s tax laws may vary. I can’t imagine paying sales tax on top of the coin dealer’s profit!
Gold coins come in small sizes (not just one ounce). I only buy !/!0th oz. coins. Full oz. coins contain too much “value”. When the Fed’s notes become worthless because they are being electronically “printed” by the billions each month out of thin air, a one ounce gold coin will be worth thousands of Dollars. Who’s going to be able to make change for you when you buy something?
As far as silver goes, I buy pre 1964 quarters. People recognize these as “money” and each one today is worth about $7.00 because of their silver content. They will be a lot more useful for buying things when the paper Dollar tanks. A $100 face value bag of pre 1964 quarters will run you about $2700.00, but you can buy them in smaller quantities. And that price is correct, $100 worth of quarters are now worth $2700.00 not $270.00. Amazing how quickly the government can debase it’s money if it really puts its mind to it!
Moving this from General Questions to IMHO, where people can give their opinions as well as factual information.
samclem Moderator
One more thing. Be sure to bring your ID. The government wants to know exactly who is buying gold and silver AND where you live. Not that they would ever come to your home and confiscate your gold from you. They would never do that.