[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

What’s good for the country is those who have a lot paying more taxes and lowering the deficit and the national debt.

No, what's good for the country would be to cut spending and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse.

Good luck with that.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by RoboVil

tech stocks in general, with a focus on AI stocks (NVDA, DELL, SMCI) and an eye on quantum computing stocks (waiting for a big pullback after the hype fades). Tech is the future (Always).

Ah yes. QQQ did great in 2000-2002...

With a sizeable portion in high-yield, safe investments.

What "high yield" investments are also safe? Usually mutually exclusive....

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by RoboVil

I have had some pretty nasty tax surprises with mutual funds. You don't get tax surprises with ETFs

Absolutely false. I have some Schwab index ETFs that have thrown off an insane amount of unwanted distributions over the years.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by oneclickplus

Ummm, according to the US constitution, gold and silver are the ONLY legal money. Money itself can not be subject to a capital gain. There is no capital gain when spending that gold for anything including fiat paper currency. Valuing gold in fiat currency or land or food or goats does not constitute any gain. It is fraudulent for the USG to value everything in fiat dollars in order to confiscate / tax any perceived gain. Gold and silver (constitutionally) are not subject to any capital gains.

Try reversing your thinking. Gold is not $3300 / ounce. Rather:
a fiat dollar is worth 1/3300 of an ounce of gold (today)
a loaf of bread is 1/660 of an ounce of gold
a new car is worth 10 ounces of gold

Eventually, a fiat dollar will be worth nothing but a loaf of bread will still be 1/660 of an ounce of gold or other adjusted value (supply / demand). Same with cars, furniture, ovens, cattle, etc.

Good luck using that explanation when the IRS comes calling.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by opinionist

Physical gold/silver has no counterparty risk, unlike every other asset.

True, sort of. Do you store it yourself? If not you have counterparty risk. And storage costs.

If you self-store, you have storage risk.

Both ways, you pay excessive spreads.

I prefer Gold ETFs for those reasons.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by Peachbelle

My problem with buying gold is you buy it at "spot" prices plus fees but when you sell it it is only bought at "scrap" prices plus fees. There's about a 25% difference between spot and scrap prices. So unless you can buy at "scrap" prices you are not getting a good deal. If anyone knows a way to buy at "scrap" let me know.

As I stated earlier, while there are fees, they can be in the area of 5% round-trip if you know what you are doing. 25% is ridiculous.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by kingofbeer

Agreed. Mutual funds in taxable accounts will create taxable events. In some cases, the funds have lost you money, but do report capital gains and distributions which will create taxable event.

You are correct. But, to me, as long as you have sufficient funds to pay the taxes, you are just paying taxes that you will have to pay eventually anyway.

[dewilson58]

Gold is only as good as people continuing to believe gold is safe.

Sounds like Bitcoin.

[HappyTraveler]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Gold is only as good as people continuing to believe gold is safe.

Sounds like Bitcoin.

Also sounds like fiat currencies. Caveat emptor to all, about everything.

[kingofbeer]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I may not have been clear. What I said was that income that is "removed" from an IRA is taxed. If you have money in an IRA that was funded with after-tax money, it is not taxed when you remove it. You do not pay tax on IRA income until you remove it from the IRA.

The term used is withdrawn

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Gold is only as good as people continuing to believe gold is safe.

Sounds like Bitcoin.

Just like everything else purported to be "valuable".. stocks, cash, diamonds and so on. They're only worth what one believes they are worth.

Another viewpoint to share.. if the world financial system collapses as espoused earlier in this thread this won't be like the Great Depression. That world of people with character, integrity, class and dignity is long gone and probably the only winners will be the people who are armed.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by kingofbeer

The term used is withdrawn

If it's withdrawn, it's removed. Geez..

[dewilson58]

Originally Posted by Aces4

Just like everything else purported to be "valuable".. stocks, cash, diamonds and so on. They're only worth what one believes they are worth.

Another viewpoint to share.. if the world financial system collapses as espoused earlier in this thread this won't be like the Great Depression. That world of people with character, integrity, class and dignity is long gone and probably the only winners will be the people who are armed.

Yep

[DaveZ]

Originally Posted by dewilson58

Gold is only as good as people continuing to believe gold is safe.

Sounds like Bitcoin.

I think that for some this is true because they will always have something to sell even if at a loss (never nothing) and for others both BTC and gold are attractive because of their scarcity which is an opposite (or hedge) to printing more currency.

[crash]

Originally Posted by Normal

Amen… 1970 is long gone. Gold hasn’t nearly improved as well as stocks. We have about 20 % in cash and CDs of various banks. The stocks keep rolling it in.

Now we have a trade deal with China brilliantly crafted to our advantage. I say steady as she goes and enjoy your life.

The trade deal with China is back to the status quo before all the drama. Yes brilliant.