Another gold thread

[Brent S]

I know there are several threads about gold here but I wanted to ask for opinions about gold right now. Even though it is close to 1800$ an ounce right now I‘m considering wether to buy some. I don’t think gold is a great investmen, as a matter of fact I don’t think it’s even an investment but more of just a safe hedge against inflation. When you factor in the transaction fees of both when you buy and when you sell gold it really is a crap investment. All this being said, this is why I’m still considering it. I believe the spending by the current administration, along with the spending of all the previous administrations, has gotten so unsustainable that I feel the fiat currency is going to be in trouble sooner than later. Both, the mounting debts in the US and the world wide economic impact of the pandemic are making me feel there will be a large correction before long. I hope my pessimistic view is wrong, but the math just dosent add up for me to be optimistic. So, any input would be appreciated as I like hearing others views before making financial decisions.

 

[Dracos]

I know there are several threads about gold here but I wanted to ask for opinions about gold right now. Even though it is close to 1800$ an ounce right now I‘m considering wether to buy some. I don’t think gold is a great investmen, as a matter of fact I don’t think it’s even an investment but more of just a safe hedge against inflation. When you factor in the transaction fees of both when you buy and when you sell gold it really is a crap investment. All this being said, this is why I’m still considering it. I believe the spending by the current administration, along with the spending of all the previous administrations, has gotten so unsustainable that I feel the fiat currency is going to be in trouble sooner than later. Both, the mounting debts in the US and the world wide economic impact of the pandemic are making me feel there will be a large correction before long. I hope my pessimistic view is wrong, but the math just dosent add up for me to be optimistic. So, any input would be appreciated as I like hearing others views before making financial decisions.

Good idea. Although I would not advise it as ones only investment. I like silver because there is a lot less of it. That may sound odd, but almost all the gold ever mined is still around. Even if it is sitting on the sea floor
it doesn't go away. On the other hand silver gets used up. It is an excellent conductor. It is used in solar panels, and new style batteries and it is has anti bacterial uses. It has not yet reached the price where recycling is profitable. So supply and demand are roughly in balance. There are some interesting market forces in play right now. Also many mines are shuttered now because of the pandemic. One more point, there is a lot more of what I call paper silver than real bullion. Most people don't buy real silver. They send someone money and get back a piece of paper saying the will give you real silver when asked. The problem is if everybody asks for their metal all at once there is no way the dealers can come up with it. So they scramble to find some and the price skyrockets. That is called a squeeze. Many people believe we are on the verge of the largest silver squeeze in history.

 

[BillMasen]

FYI see my article on BITCOIN I just pointed, I dont understand much of it , but enough to think it could affect preppers investors.

 

[Petoski]

Most of the gold they are selling in the exchanges they haven't even mined yet. I am not convinced they even can mine enough to cover what people "own". Kind of the opposite to the diamond industry. I would say the safest investment you can make is in your own independent infrastructure.

I used to have some gold and sold it for a small profit but I have decided to not play with any markets now. Sure you can get rich or make a tidy profit but I think that if you don't like a broken corrupt system then morally it wouldn't be right to play their game.

Having said all that I think if you want to play then get some you hold in your hand, that way at least you know you really have it.

 

[bigpaul]

have seen some tv adverts for gold coins and gold bullion, not really my thing.

 

[Brent S]

In theory the exchanges that sell paper and hold your gold and silver aren’t supposed to be able to sell more than they have on hand. In the real world I’m not trusting anyone to hold a tangible asset like that. Sure stock certificates are just paper but represent a partial ownership of the company at least. I can easily picture the headline news when some little wall street dweeb goes bankrupt and looses millions for the people that invested in paper gold. The main reason I’m considering more gold is throughout mankinds civilization gold has been a store of wealth no matter what is going on. You can’t say that about any fiat currency out there. If inflation kicks in and the US dollar looses half its value gold should still be worth close to what it is today. In theory

 

[Arcticdude]

I believe everyone should own some gold. How much? Many "experts" recommend holding about 10% of your assests in gold. So if you have a million dollars of assests that would only be about 55 oz. I believe it should be more, but I'm no expert.
There are several ways to buy and own gold; buy it from your local dealer, open a pool account or buy gold stocks.
I've had a pool account for over 25 years. For a long time I was sending them $$ and they held my gold/silver/platinum/palladium in their vault. When I wanted to take delivery of my metals they'd send it to me. Never had a problem. I could also sell from my pool account if I wanted.
I recently sold some gold in order to payoff my medical bills. The dealer paid spot price for my American eagle coins and held back 1% on my bars.
Pay attention to the gold/silver spread too. It'll tell you whether gold or silver is a better investment option.
Just like with any investment; only invest when all of your other needs have been met.
I also believe that there will be a major correction in the stock markets within the next few years. But right now the stock market is still a good place to be. Wall Street loves the big spending plans from Biden.
Take advantage of any investment opportunity that comes along.

 

[LindaSue]

Gold and silver are usually decent investments, but I wouldn’t go overboard. It’s more of a “prepper” kind of money, if that makes sense. It’s tangible and if something ever happens where you can’t get your paper money out of the banks, or paper money goes away, precious metals can be of great value. Crypto has been going gangbusters, but started to tank this week. We own some, and last week we made over $14k, but this week we have lost almost our whole profit. Soooo....it’s a little bit of a risky investment right now. I still think it’s going to go back up, but people are also really sketch right now on the whole world economic forum and the big reset. That is making gold and crypto schizophrenic at the moment. I’m hopeful it will settle back down, but again I’m not a financial advisor! Just guessing. One final thing...even as oil is being shut down at the moment in the US by Biden, if you can buy stock at a lower price, the cost of oil is just going to keep increasing. It isn’t a horrible investment to make.

 

[Doreena]

I had a smallish 401 K that I put into a precious metals 401k. I cashed it in this year to help finance my move. Mine was if the type where you don’t have physical possession of it (since it was a 401k) so you still have to trust outside companies. The annual maintenance fee was steep in my opinion—$200+— and a hassle to close out as you have to find a buyer. Still, after 5 years I broke even with all the fees. That was gold and silver. I wouldn’t recommend that route just because it is a pain.

 

[Helen Back]

I'm thinking about trading all of my cash for the Yuan. Seems pretty clear Hiden is selling America to the Chinese and the dollar will be worthless soon enough.

 

[Schattentarn]

The gold buying price of $2200./oz vs. gold selling price of $1800.00 per oz kept me out of this. Gold is great if you find it prospecting, though. My son has done this and sold gold. There is an isolated river near me which has gold in it. I hope to take a little trip there soon.

 

[Ram619]

Gold is and always will be a good hedge against inflation. I prefer physical gold as opposed to gold stock. In an all out SHTF scenario you probably won't even be able to get your cash out of the bank, never mind getting some brokerage firm to send you your gold.

 

[Proud Prepper]

I invested in gold jewelry and gold scrap. I bought a scale, acid test kit and studied how to determin gold karat level. Studied about gold fill and metalergy.

From 2007 to 2011, I bought as much jewelry from people as I could get at a 65% of spot price. Then I sold it to a gold smelter in early 2011, a few months before the high, if I had only known to wait! Anyway I sold just over 780 pennywieghts of various gold 10 karat to 24 karat to them for 24 karat 1 troy ounce bars. I got 6 of those and a few of 1/10 of an ounce ingets.
I got 94% of the spot on all the gold.

At the time I also bought a lot of sterling silver jewelry and silver dimes, quarters, dollars and half dollars. I still have the silver coins and the jewelry, which I smelted most of into ingets.

 

[Schattentarn]

I had a friend with a strange investment method. He was also a neighbor. At the time we lived about an hour and a half outside the northern tip of Los Angeles County and periodically we would drive into the city together for something or other. My friend would seek out prostitutes. Not for sex, he found they often had bits of gold which they had gotten from customers and they were willing to sell those bits of gold. He bought them. In fact, he had a silver dollar collection from this source also. These prostitutes have no scales nor did they keep up with the daily price of gold so this was all just eyeballing negotiation. My friend did very well at this.

 

[Arcticdude]

The gold buying price of $2200./oz vs. gold selling price of $1800.00 per oz kept me out of this. Gold is great if you find it prospecting, though. My son has done this and sold gold. There is an isolated river near me which has gold in it. I hope to take a little trip there soon.

I dont know where you're buying your gold from but you don't have to pay a $400 premium. For example you can buy 1oz bars from Kitco for about $75 over spot.
I owned a gold placer mine for a number of years and that was the best way to get gold. The gold from my mine assayed at 96% and I sold all I could find for 94%, nuggets sold for much more, sometimes for 2 or 3 times spot.

 

[Schattentarn]

My information came from Goldline. They still bomb my email with ads. Do you have a link for Kitco?

 

[Arcticdude]

My information came from Goldline. They still bomb my email with ads. Do you have a link for Kitco?

Try kitco.com. I’ve been using them for over 25 years, never had a problem. For many people I recommend opening a Pool account. You can invest any ammont you choose and only pay the commission when you decide to take physical delivery of your metals.
If you're in California I'd recommend getting a mining claim and finding your own gold. Selling your placer gold is extremely easy.

 

[Helen Back]

When things go sideways, you are not going to want to part with an ounce of anything for something small. So, how do you barter it for smaller items? I bought a bunch of shot. That way you can trade much easier.

1 Kilo Silver Shot l JM Bullion™

 

[Schattentarn]

Try kitco.com. I’ve been using them for over 25 years, never had a problem. For many people I recommend opening a Pool account. You can invest any ammont you choose and only pay the commission when you decide to take physical delivery of your metals.
If you're in California I'd recommend getting a mining claim and finding your own gold. Selling your placer gold is extremely easy.
[/Q

That is the idea. In California gold was melted by volcanic activity on Sierra slopes at about 4000 ft.. There is an isolated river where gold is found near the mouth in the Central Valley. There are old logging trails over to the river near where I live and from there I can work my way down until I find some color. My son will be able to join me next summer and together we can wench away boulders in the stream and pan behind them.

 

[Arcticdude]

California has thousands of miles of gold bearing streams, plus many more miles of gold bearing desert dry wash's and even gold bearing beach sands. Not far from LA is the Yuba and American rivers, both famous for producing massive amounts of gold.
Further north is the famous Mother Load, most if not all streams have gold. Up towards the Oregon border is the Klamath, Trinity and Smith rivers, plus countless gold bearing streams and rivers.
In my opinion the gold pan is only useful for looking for color. Get a high banker or a 4" to 6" dredge. At the very least get a sluice box and an auto panner for for cleaning up your concentrates.
I'm currently in the market for a good gold placer. The area where I live now is covered in old gold mining claims, but they're all load mines not placer.