Any diversified portfolio should have some gold and precious metals. They have made me good money in the long run and recently as well. I'd recommend gold right now, not silver so much. Silver is more volatile than gold. Commodities futures trading is for speculators. Owning commodities is another animal altogether. Like any other investment you make money by buying low and selling high. Those who pay attention make money. You snooze, you lose.
You would reccomend buying gold, with an average annual return of 3%,while it is at an all time high? Virtually any major index fund has out performed gold over the long haul, add that to the fact that the supply of gold is ever increasing I don't see it as a sound investment. I'll hold on to my heirloom watch, and my cufflinks, but I'm not using it as a hedge. It is way too volatile.
Over what period? 100 years? I don;t care if you buy gold or not, but I do and I also sell gold, just like any other investment, I don't hold it for 100 years. I buy low and I sell high and I have made money in gold bullion, gold shares, and gold mining mutual funds. I hear you talkin', but my portfolio says to ignore you and savor my profits. This is a curve you would approve of for most investments, I'd say. That's why most of my money is in mutual funds, stocks, and bonds. I didn't say put everything into gold, but putting nothing at all into gold seems short-sighted to me. But wise investors also have investments that do not track the market, they don't crash when the market crashes and they make profits when the market is losing. Gold and precious metals is such an investment, as is real estate, rental property, and other hard assets. Demand is outstripping supply, there will not be a gold crash. There will be fluctuation, but therein lies profits for the wise, losses for the foolhardy and nothing for the meek.
Time in a market > timing the market. That holds especially true with an asset as volatile as precious metal. I know of very few financial advisers with fiduciary responsibility who recommend buying gold. It looks very good over a very short period. Putting money into an investment with the track record of gold seems short sighted to me. I could use T bills as the hedge, not bear the risk and get similar returns over the long haul. Yes wild fluctuation. Here is a good rule of thumb. Don't use any products that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh endorse. They advertise income from home scams, identity lock stuff that doesn't work, and gold investment.
Basically, my read on the current economic situation is: -Almost all gov'ts are facing massive accumulated debts. -Most of the developed world's economies are not growing sufficiently. -Falling real estate prices have hurt individual consumers ability to spend. -Tax revenue shortfalls are making it difficult for gov'ts to maintain social spending. It seems to me the only way out is for gov'ts to make money cheaper through inflationary policies.....printing enough money to put a floor under real estate and produce enough inflation to at least make it appear as if the economy is growing. Deflation would be a disaster, so central banks will not let it happen. All of which means physical commodities should rise in price. Stocks should do well also. I don't see how bonds can be any good if gov'ts keep interest rates low. So basically, even though I agree about Limbaugh and Hannity not being the best place for investment advice.....I think they got this one right. Bernanke would be out of his mind to raise interest rates.....the US economy would tank immediately. He has no choice but to inflate. The real losers are people on fixed incomes. They are going to get crushed.
part of human nature is to believe some sort of disaster is coming. environmentalists do it, weirdo truthers do it, religious people always do it. those people are what i call "idiots".
Well, you can't really describe the last 40 years or so exactly stable, as far as economics go, can you? We've had oil shocks, internet bubbles, real estate bubbles, fall of communism, terrorism, debt crisis in Asia, financial crises in the US, eurozone possibly breaking up, etc. Seems like the thing to do would be prepare for the next crises. I'm guessing the dollar will have some sort of a crisis because of Bernanke's printing so much money but you could be right. It might be just internet blather.
yes. if you were smart you were not too involved with these various bubbles. things go up and down, its no big deal. the end is near oh no! of course. buy up the gold, junior, good luck with that. its always internet blather. hire supafan and let him manage your money, problem solved. life problems are so easy.
