Buying gold -a good or bad idea!!

Where can I buy gold to protect myself against inflation? I mean I am looking to buy gold in small quantity each year and keep them as future investment. I have people talking about physical gold coins and some talking about gold certificates. Any one who has eny experience please educate me.
Thanks

Go to your local pawn shop, ask to see all their gold, and say "I'll take it!" Gold never goes down in value. Ever. Like houses.

Goldmoney.com

You looking for street cred?

PMonkeyDishwasher said: Go to your local pawn shop, ask to see all their gold, and say "I'll take it!" Gold never goes down in value. Ever. Like houses.

I think its a good idea to borrow money to buy gold since it can't go down in value. Ever.

If you want to protect yourself against inflation then buy instruments designed to do so (TIPS, I-Bonds, etc). Why do you want to invest in arbitrary industrial metal?

Time to sell gold

desitoyota said: How will TIPS protect you in long run when govt. deficit in Trillions.
I thought you asked about protection from inflation not from government deficits.

You can buy "paper gold" through an ETF such as GLD. I'm more of a fan of CEF, however, which includes both gold and silver, and which I'm more confident actually has all the gold in their physical possession that they claim they have.

HKnight said: You can buy "paper gold" through an ETF such as GLD. I'm more of a fan of CEF, however, which includes both gold and silver, and which I'm more confident actually has all the gold in their physical possession that they claim they have.The problem with GLD (along with most other hard asset ETFs) is two fold:
1. Counter-party risk - even if the price of gold shoots through the roof, you still may not get your just rewards.
2. By purchasing the ETF, you do not contribute to reducing the supply of the actual metal - so collectively the purchasers of ETFs to not get the benefit of their contribution to the assets scarcity. This is because the fund can contain "equivalents" designed to mirror the price, but not the actual metals implied.

Disclosure: My 410k is 90% gold ETFs at this time.

catanpirate said: delzy said: Disclosure: My 410k is 90% gold ETFs at this time.All joking aside, now may be a good time to trade out of gold. GLD is nearing an all-time high.

Thats not true! It was much higher in the 1980s - adjusting for inflation.

Buy gold-pressed latinum.

Go to kitco forums- you will get more help there. Gold is not an industrial metal, but it has been a store of value for a few thousand years. It is not an investment- it is more of a hobby.

If I were to buy gold, I would buy it only in physical form - ETFs etc. are nice and convenient but the tax consequences and fees over long term when you sell it need to be taken into account. Physical gold is beautiful- whether it is a coin (Eagles, Krugerrands or maples) or pamp suisse bars or jewellery- you could buy 22kt jewellery from a south asian joint. If I were to spend the money to buy gold I would atleast like to hold and admire it. Apmex.com, kitco.com, tulving.com, eBay with msft CashBack, nwmint.com are good places to buy the coins.

I personally prefer having silver to gold for holding longer term as a part of the portfolio mix - but then the one cannot wear/store/sell equivalent value in silver easily. I personally would not hold more then 5-10% of my porfolio is precious metals.

desitoyota said: Buying gold -a good or bad idea!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Question_mark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclamation_point

Gold is a good hedge against a systemic collapse. It's also a good hedge against deflation. I believe a systemic collapse is is a very real possibility & to be dismissive of the thought is foolish given the insane levels of U.S. government & personal debt. The U.S. government is basically insolvent. So, we have an insolvent government bailing out insolvent banks. Without going into it, the math does not add up. Other countries know this. China is moving in the direction of having future funding of the US debt denominated in the yuan, not US dollars. Many countries are pushing for a move out of the US dollar as the reserve currency. This weekend the UN came out saying there should be a new reserve currency. It's impossible to say when, but there will be a dramatic drop in the U.S. dollar.

Gold mining stocks could be a little vulnerable if there would be a big drop in the stock market....a dropping tide lowers all boats. There's more upside potential with gold mining stocks. There are some issues with gold ETF's, such as GLD, like the fund not actually having the exact amount of physical gold it should have. Do a search. Having said that I have an IRA in GLD. I also own EGO.

Physical gold is probably best. There's the Perth Mint in Australia that is supposed to be very reputable. It could be beneficial having physical gold outside of the U.S.

I wouldn't call myself a gold bug, but I clearly believe it has the most upside potential and the biggest hedge against some type of collapse. Mark my words, the price of gold may teeter around for a while, but it will be higher 1 year, and 5 years from now. Those that ignore the real possibility of a systemic collapse are foolish. I'm not saying go put all your money in gold, but i would recommend having at least 10% of your portfolio in gold related investments.

tripleB said: PMonkeyDishwasher said: Go to your local pawn shop, ask to see all their gold, and say "I'll take it!" Gold never goes down in value. Ever. Like houses.

I think its a good idea to borrow money to buy gold since it can't go down in value. Ever.
Good point. It's important to leverage yourself as much as possible to buy gold.

geebeebee said: delzy said: xerty said: delzy said: Disclosure: My 410k is 90% gold ETFs at this time.
And I bet your 410k investments have made 10x as much as everyone else's 401k investments.You be the judge!Wow, it must be stressful to live your life in fear and in belief that the government is out to get you. What's the use? Just move to a third-world country already, where you at least KNOW these things to be true, and don't have to deal in constant conspiracy theories, and guarding your door through the night, waiting for the agents to barrel through at any time...Actually, I am quite relieved of stress. If anything truly terrible were to occur (maybe something like a lockdown of the transportation system due to a deadly flu pandemic), I would be completely prepared. While you are off standing in line at the gathering center to get your food rations and mandated vaccines, I will be enjoying the comfort of my preparedness. That, my friend, is why I live in stress-free state of preparedness rather than a stress-free state of geo-political narcolepsy.

GDX

davef139 said: I love how these threads pop up around the 1k mark, in past history it would be wise to short and not buy as its never held the 1k mark

You are probably right. The current economic difficulties are not much different than the ones in the past. I also believe the US debt is going to hold the line at 12 trillion. People are just silly thinking we aren't going to be able to pay that off. The banks are rock solid. Social security is very well funded for at least 2 more years. It's not going to be that expensive paying for all of the medical care of the baby boomers who are now coming to the age when their health starts to fail....Healthcare reform will fix all of that. China loves being heavily invested in the US. I'm sure they'll keep funding our debt into perpetuity. Our service based economy is strong. Yeah, I agree, gold will never go above $1000 because it's never done it in the past & this time is no different.

Does anyone know of an ultrashort gold etf I can buy? I'm going to make a fortune from all of these dummies who have bought gold.

Im pretty sure its GLL

nycll said: Yeah, China's domestic demand of gold is strong, since everything there points to higher inflation and the lack of alternatives as an inflation hedge. But its decision makers seem to have read the short term trend correctly (my view is a trenthening of dollar is going to depress gold).While I agree with your short term observation, the dollar's strength right now is only relative to other fiat currencies. We always know when all currencies are sliding by the new bottoms gold finds. I believe that due to globalism, the price of gold is inversely proportional to the strength of ALL global currencies. This pretty much goes for all commodities, but I believe gold is the leading indicator.