Gold

[Jerry1]

Happy with the ~$300/troy ounce bullion coins I bought (just after the U.K.'s decision to dump most of their holdings)...pure luck on the timing back then...wouldn't buy at today's prices.

I bought a little bit at around $300 also - in 2002. I was thinking of getting them for my daughters. I got two of each denomination (1oz, 1/2oz, 1/4oz and 1/10oz) so times 2 I have 3.7oz at about $1450 or just over $5000. About all I can say is that it's one of those times I wish I would have bought more.

I also have a small amount of gold and real estate in my portfolio but it's very small. I never gave much credence to holding gold for a crap hits the fan scenario because I don't think I can eat gold and I just don't think I could hold enough to make any real difference. If things get that bad, it's not gonna matter if I'm broke a few weeks or months than I otherwise would have been had I had more gold. I just like the small amount I have and will enjoy knowing that the daughters will get it someday.

 

[Car-Guy]

I bought a little bit at around $300 also - in 2002. I was thinking of getting them for my daughters. I got two of each denomination (1oz, 1/2oz, 1/4oz and 1/10oz) so times 2 I have 3.7oz at about $1450 or just over $5000. About all I can say is that it's one of those times I wish I would have bought more.

Great minds must think alike.... I bought my daughter a full set too... Actually I bought two sets, one for her, and one for me... Here's mine... Bought them a good number of years ago... I think I paid about $750 a set at the time so I'd have a nice profit if I were to sell now.

 

[TheRunningMan]

Coins in my gun safe. Reason? ...just in case I need some of the old shiny currency.

 

[Car-Guy]

Coins in my gun safe. Reason? ...just in case I need some of the old shiny currency.

Which brings up the age old survivalist question... Which is more important to have in a dog eat dog, survivalist crisis situation.

Guns or gold?


Easy answer....

 

[Just_Steve]

Which brings up the age old survivalist question... Which is more important to have in a dog eat dog, survivalist crisis situation.

Guns or gold?


Easy answer....

When everyone is armed you better have something to barter with beside brute force.

 

[Car-Guy]

When everyone is armed you better have something to barter with beside brute force.

From my POV.... Food, water, clothes, fuel, etc...

 

[COcheesehead]

When everyone is armed you better have something to barter with beside brute force.

Can of beans might get you more.

 

[calmloki]

We bought some Philharmonics back before 2000. Watched them go from $425/oz on 10/1999 to over $1800/oz and then down to $1450 today. doesn't feel much different having them in the safe deposit box than holding CDs or savings accounts or property or index funds. People agree that they are worth something.

 

[JDARNELL]

From my POV.... Food, water, clothes, fuel, etc...

Also small bottles of alcohol

 

[NW-Bound]

Gold is nice. If you had enough of it, you would not have to worry about stock bubbles nor inflation.

I only have a few ounces for keepsake, and I just gave some to my children. They never saw gold coins before.

I once made a trade of the GLD ETF and made a bitty amount of money. I do not have any gold ETF now.

 

[Starsky]

We keep physical gold, mostly in 1oz. Buffalos and Maple Leaf coins for SHTF. (And a bunch of silver Maple Leafs and Eagles). I personally prefer to hold .999 24K gold bullion coins, although it doesn't really make a difference.

We have about 3% of our holdings in physical PM - it's about double what I'd like us to hold - so I plan to sell half of it over the next couple of years to cover our IRA withdrawals and minimize our taxable income.

(Frankly, at one point I bought a lot of PM when I was moving to a new bank. In my research, I found out that in Dodd-Frank, Title II of the Act gives the FDIC authority to take your money via the “Orderly Liquidation Authority.” This section of the act essentially allows the banking system to freeze your funds and take 50% or more of it in order to save the bank’s balance sheets. And the Act doesn't allow you to increase the amount of FDIC protection by spreading out your accounts between different banks. After learning about how close the system was to collapse in the '09 crash - and subsequently seeing Wells Fargo get away with larceny on a grand scale - I wanted something completely outside the banking system so that in the event of a crash we would always hold something as a hedge against confiscation and currency devaluation.)

 

[haha]

Gold shares in multiple miners.

This is also my approach. I believe that in gold it’s best to market time. I started in the early 70’s. You don’t have to be smart, but overall I have made money. So much investing today requires a lot of technical industry knowledge. Way more money to be made lately with good knowledge of tech industries. But while you don’t always win with gold, neither do you have to be a genius to get a reasonable idea how the industry works.

 

[gerntz]

Have about 8% in gold ETF's. Up ~2.8x since bought around 1st of 2006 so it was a ~3% of assets then. Yea, down from highs & reasonably flat over last seven years. But I'm not going anywhere.

 

[gerntz]

I'm not a gold fan, I'd be hard pressed to give any explanation for why it is valuable beyond "because people think it is."

Same for other collectibles like artwork. I haven't heard anyone say they don't like how gold looks.

 

[gcgang]

Summer of 2015 was my last purchase. IAU is up 33%, but a couple of miners bought at the same time are up about 175%.

I've also got a small amount of coins.

I think the equity related companies will perform better.

Total % of portfolio is only about 3%. Probably should increase to at least 5%, maybe more as I'm dumbfounded by the actions of Central Banks nowadays.

 

[gcgang]

I I'd be hard pressed to give any explanation for why it is valuable beyond "because people think it is." .

I feel the same way about the major fiat currencies like the dollar and euro. People have thought gold is valuable a lot longer than any currency has been around.

But gold is a relic, it's impractical to use for everyday transactions. Blockchains like bitcoin are a lot easier to exchange than gold. Maybe we should start a gold backed cryptocurrency.

 

[audreyh1]

No metals here

 

[gcgang]

If you've got S&P 500 index you've got about 2-2.5% via the 2.7% weighting in Materials Sector.

 

[GravitySucks]

Good Point!

If you've got S&P 500 index you've got about 2-2.5% via the 2.7% weighting in Materials Sector.

 

[Koolau]

If you have gold in your portfolio how do you hold it?
ETF? Mining Stocks? Bullion? Coins? A necklace of the teeth of your enemies?
Also, why are you invested in gold?

Any gold stocks I have would be in one of my index funds and basically unknown to me. While I have no problem with folks gold-investing in that fashion, it's just not for me.

In terms of owning gold, I've concentrated on small gold coins (1/10 oz or smaller). Additionally, I like to own some silver coins - US (primarily) 1964 or older dimes, quarters, halves - even a few dollars and "war" nickels. It's true that the premium (above bullion price) is higher for smaller denominated gold coins. Still, IF a 'crisis' comes along, smaller is better since most folks won't have the correct "change" for a 1oz Krand or Mleaf, etc.

I always chuckle when folks imply (very politely so far this time) that gold is about "survival" during the "apocalypse" rather than being a multifaceted investment. Gold is one of the few investments that TENDS to be negatively correlated with both stocks and bonds (sometimes at different times, sometimes at the same time.) It has often (not always) been anti inflationary. It CAN be a good "crisis" investment, but it would all depend on the crisis - thus, it shouldn't be one's only crisis investment IMHO. For instance, I like to keep a few hundred in small bills in case one of our semi frequent power outages knocks out CC readers, etc. (Dollar bills probably wouldn't be much good in the apocalypse either, but YMMV.)

It's true that gold (and/or silver) MIGHT be of some value during the 'apocalypse' but lead (or beans) are probably better if it gets that bad. MOST historical financial crises have NOT been the apocalypse. Come to think of it, none of them have been. Still, if you wanted to escape from Nazi Germany in 1939, a few gold coins probably were more valuable than a hand full of Marks (or even Dollars) and especially beans.

I consider gold (and/or silver) only for those of us who are FI AND have extra cash not specifically needed for "real" investments like stocks and bonds. Again, YMMV.

 

[Winemaker]

If you've got S&P 500 index you've got about 2-2.5% via the 2.7% weighting in Materials Sector.

But that also would include coal stocks as well as some concrete, sand and other quarried material.

 

[DrRoy]

I have a few US collectible and bullion coins, but as part of a coin collection, not to hold gold.

 

[LRDave]

Just another flavor of commodity speculation IMO.

I can't imagine how gold coins would be of much value in a SHTF situation.

 

[cooch96]

I'm not a gold fan, I'd be hard pressed to give any explanation for why it is valuable beyond "because people think it is.".

Gold is a very useful and fascinating metal. To wit:
It is fully malleable at room temperature, making it easy to work with. It is very corrosion resistant. It is one of the best electrical and heat conductors, and the best reflector of infrared waves. It has many niche mechanical and chemical properties. Despite its cost, it has been and frequently still is used in electronics, coinage, photography, red stained glass, dentistry, jewelry, catalytic converters, solar films and screens used by NASA, nanotechnology manufacturing...

Um, that science report was a long time ago. That’s all I can remember off the top of my head. There was a bunch of study in using it more in the Nano-medical field, but I believe silver was found to be better in every respect.

Now don’t get me started on silver! I’d be here all day.

 

[gerntz]

Just another flavor of commodity speculation IMO.

I can't imagine how gold coins would be of much value in a SHTF situation.

Why do you think other flavors of commodities are buried inside the walls of structures or in catalytic converters or inside batteries whereas almost all gold is used where it can be viewed? Why are fenders of cars painted versus letting the metal underneath show thru? Do you think gold leaf fenders would be painted over? If you made marbles of gold and 10 other commodities and put them in front of a two year olds, which marble do you think would be selected first by the babies most often?