Gold
 

Gold still looking good for awhile, more govt debt and lower interest rates with a lower USD, and China and India buying hand over fist,

DYODD

It’s typically a good idea to have a 5-15 allocation in a diversified portfolio. Gold currently represents the largest unrealized capital gains in our portfolio and is at all time highs. I’m considering lightening up our holdings to realize some of the gains. It’s a tricky asset class because there are no interest or dividends and there are onerous precious metal taxes on gains depending on how you own the asset. We own ours in ETF’s in an IRA, so we can sell without precious metal taxes (or any taxes until withdrawal) . We also own some physical gold which has a large bid/ask spread, but can be sold in increments below $10,000 without being reported to the government.

The other side of your complaints that the .5% drop in interest rates is not fair, and affecting your retirement!
It's just gambling at a different casino.

Every investment is a gamble, that’s why it’s important to have a diversified portfolio with multiple asset with careful consideration of the correlation between each other.

the current biggest risk to the US economy and the US stock market is the geopolitical risk with Putin and XI working together for their own interests, at the expense of everyone else. Secondarily, the other risk is the inability to curb govt spending growth, without any increase in taxes to pay for the growth. . .

Let's call this relationship the DragonBear , and no one knows how it will end, but both are playing a game of attrition and distraction with specific targets and regions of growing influence desires. The game could change with kinetics, though a lower probability than more cyber based, grid or internet based constant chaos, and intimidation. . . any event in this space would definitely favor a percentage in gold.

If the government gets to a point where it has to borrow more through treasury funding vs

10% would be a good starting point in gold. . taxable account would not pay taxes on gains unless sold. .

10% of a typical Villager's total portfolio is $100,000 or more. Somehow, I doubt that all you gold bugs have a couple pounds of gold sitting in your safe. And that's the problem. If its not in your hands, it's not where you need it to be on the day the currency comes crashing down. Yes you can buy ETF's -- on the gamble that Vanguard (or whoever) will still be around to honor your electrons and pay you back in whatever passes for currency on the day the dollar collapses. But you should be aware that GLD currently holds their gold with HSBC -- the most corrupt bank in the free world. Unlikely there'll be enough to go around, for a peon like you, even if you can get a hold of them to pay you back in rubles or yen. So, instead, you buy one of those "Gold IRA's". Now you actually have title to the metal, but it's in some bank vault you've never seen, 1000 miles from where you need it to be, on the day your dollars won't buy anything. And you spent a fortune in fees and overhead to get it into that vault, so it's worth a fraction of what you spent for it.

What it comes down to is that gold is just another fake "investment" -- yet another way to bet that there will always be a greater fool (and a particularly volatile one, at that). So you might as well go the ETF route, and avoid the astronomical fees associated with any other form of "gold". Because if you're buying it to save you from the coming currency collapse, I guarantee you will be out of luck, unless you have pounds of the stuff in your safe at home, and a way to convert it into a small enough denomination to buy a loaf of bread.

If you ask me, the only thing that has any chance of saving your fortune on the day the gooberment destroys the currency, is prayer!

I haven't seen anybody pay for food with a gold bar yet.

The days of trading fiat currency for tangible goods is coming to an end.
BRICS is establishing a new global trade system that does not favor any specific currency.
A cryptocurrency backed by tangible assets such as gold will be the future.
The interest rate cuts help the government to manage ever-increasing interest payments,
but this will only trigger a new surge of price inflation.
Holding your savings in fiat dollars is a sure way to diminish your wealth.
Physical possession of silver coins is the best way to protect against a currency collapse.

So, where is a good place to buy Gold, and/or Silver?.....and which is better, coins or bars?

I don't know. But, I once called a gold company who advertised on TV and asked them: If I bought $1,000 worth of gold from them today and then sold it back to them the next day, with no change in the market price, how much money would I get. The answer was $920. So, that is how they make money.

My view is you have to decide what avenue you want to take that will give you safety with a reasonable return and stick with it.
At least once every two weeks the topic of investment appear on this site.
I personally have two types of investments one for safety and one for growth.
I believe getting involve in the investment dance is risky, I choose to leave with the partner I came with.

The world has changed and is changing quickly. Gold is now a long-term play. The USD is being weakened daily by the printing presses and the likes of BRICS. The USD will lose all buying power. Yes, it will collapse and buy nothing. Gold is being
bought by all of our enemies to back other currencies. The USD is no longer backed by gold and is nothing but paper. When the dung hits the rotating blades and people no longer accept our worthless paper for real tangible needed goods (food, fuel, etc), what will you do? At $35Trillion of debt and another trillion being added every 3-4 months, the end result is indisputable. Don't be one of those who says "I didn't see it coming" or "too big to fail". The USD will fail. Want to read future news now? Get a copy of:

When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany
by Adam Fergusson and Fergusson Adam

Or stick your head in the sand.

JM Bullion is a good and reputable company. Any sale of gold or silver over $10,000 is required to be reported to the government. Precious metals are considered collectibles for tax purposes, meaning any capital gains are taxed at the maximum rate of 28% federal tax. At a current price of about $2,625 per Troy ounce, that’s only about 3.8 ounces until you reach the reporting threshold. It would be impossible to sell gold bars and not have it reported to the government. Gold coins are typically 1 ounce, so at current market value, you could sell three coins per day without ever having anything reported to the government. Silver is only about $31.3 per ounce, so you could get away with bars and remain under the reporting threshold.

Remember 3 important things if you dabble in physical precious metals. The bid ask spread is large, making it a long term, not a quick flip investment. It needs to physically be stored in a safe and fireproof place. It pays no interest or dividends, so it’s like stuffing money under a mattress.

It is not problematic to sell gold bars. They have been available in weights that are well below the reporting level at current prices. For example, 1 ounce and 2 ounce bars.

If the USD fails and gold is the new standard, what is to keep our broke nation at that point, from seizing all gold and silver from it's citizens to keep the country running? If it mandates severe repercussions if one is caught with any precious metal after the mandate, what good is the hoarding?

I would have thought they had a higher markup.

Do not like assets that I have to store and earn no return while holding. I like dividends with companies that only return a smaller portion of their profits as dividends while continuing to grow.

I'm not suggesting that physical gold is a good investment, but there a lot wrong (imho) with your post.

First, $100,000 in gold at today's prices (approx $2,600/ounce) is only about 38 one ounce coins. 38 one ounce coins don't take up much space at all (about the size of a small water bottle) & could EASILY fit in a home safe or in the smallest bank safe deposit box.

You wrote that gold is just another "fake" investment--I'd be interested in hearing you justify that statement. While it's true that most Americans probably no longer invest in physical gold, billions of people still do in the rest of the world, especially India, China, and the rest of Asia. Gold has been a store of value & been considered "money" for literally thousands of years! It can't be destroyed (i.e. it doesn't decay, rust or burn) and has many practical uses today.

That said, I do think gold would be of limited use in an "end of the world" scenario, but I doubt many here are investing with such a scenario in mind. If that is one's concern, it would be much wiser to invest in guns, bullets, liquor, cigarettes, dried food, and silver coins, but again I doubt many of us here are investing with this in mind. Younger investors should be focused on growing their money (stock index funds!) while older investors are likely more focused on preserving the purchasing power of their money. Personally I don't think physical gold is a great investment (though I do own some), but that said I'd rather own physical gold vs cash under my mattress.

I wish I didn't see that.

I have a sealed 20 lb box of Kangaroo Silver Coins, that I hid inside my house (not in TV). I had a flaky gf for a while.

It's been 2 years looking and still can't remember where I put it.

Yep. As DaddyD pointed out, ammo and whiskey will be better barter material than gold bars if SHTF. If you are more worried about a general collapse of the dollar, Gold ETFs should be fine. If you trust that the electrons involved in Bitcoin or Stocks will work, paper gold will work as well. Or it all won't.

I have never been a fan of physical gold due to bid/ask and storage safety. But I like paper gold for a dollar hedge and real interest rate hedge.

:a20:

It would be difficult to accurately scrape off gold from a bar to buy a Big Mac. SATS would be a better idea.

Looks like Peter Schiff is finally right! LOL! Gold to $10K?

Agree that JM Bullion is a legit / reputable company. Closer to home Gainesville Coin (name is a bit of a misnomer, I don't think they are located in Gainesville & I don't think they have a physical location you can walk into to buy/sell metals) is legit.

With regards to the comment above that "you could sell three coins per day without ever having anything reported to the government" while you might be able to get away with that as long as you went to different shops, technically that would likely be considered "structuring" and as such would be illegal / considered tax evasion. I doubt many people would need to sell three coins a day, day in and day out, but I can easily see why someone might want to sell a couple coins a month for pocket money, to pay for gas, groceries, dinner out, etc., and doing that would likely not pop up on anyone's radar...

Myself, I like the Sprott physical silver (PSLV) and gold (PHYS) ETFs, held in my Roth IRA. Sprott (Sprott Homepage ) holds a huge amount of the actual metal in Canada (yeah, I know) at the Royal Canadian Mint as fully allocated and unencumbered physical bars. You can even redeem shares for the physical metal with some restrictions. Best practical solution I've found.