Posted on 05/27/2006 10:32:04 PM PDT by roostercogburn
My wife and I have recently purchased about 11K worth of gold. Our average buy price is at $650 per ounce. We have about another 15K of "mad money" we are not sure what to do with. We both have IRA's and money in some mutual funds. No debts outside of mortgage. This money is not emergency type funds. This is absolute "mad money". But I do not want to sit in a bank for 4%. With everything going on in the world, how safe are the banks anyways?
WOW, another grouch who cares more about making a name in a thread than offering someone courteous advice. If you do not appreciate my questions, do not reply.
I sense a little jealousy that I can afford to just let it rip. I have made my money by working hard all of my life. Not by playing the market. So I may be a little naive. But I do not need to get a lecture from someone when all I am asking for is opinions.
I cannot believe how the manners here have degraded over the last year or two.
Also, you can "invest" in gold directly via GLD, much easier to sell too (if you don't mind capital gains taxes).
My wife and I separated two 5 gallon containers of coins about a month ago. What a job that was!! Lots of pre 1964 coins.
Have about 200 ounces of silver that we had bought at $10 per.
I love silver coins more than gold I do believe. As far as beauty goes. I just have always loved the look of silver.
Since gold is at record levels already (and slid last week) it's probably not a good time to invest. I would sell what you have and wait until mid-Fall or so to re-invest in a mutual fund.
Your profit margin when gold is so high is very likely going to be too low to justify the risk of investing right now.
Then I would look more towards higher risk or foreign mutual funds (looking for the dollar to keep falling due to inflation) or stock options a year out for major corporatons that slip in the market for those big returns on "mad money".
I don't know about GLD, but the new silver ETF is taxed as a "collectible" e.g. 28 per cent. Ouch.
I think that if it gets bad with Iran, and the Russians and Venezuela begin to sell oil based on Euros, gold could go through the roof. Over $1200 is realistic.
I am certainly going to keep what we have now. I am leaning towards holding off on many more purchases. But I may change my mind. I really have many concerns with foreign countries doing anything they can to undermine us.
I have worked for my money all of my life. And I have socked away much of it. I have never let it work for me. Our broker wh manages our IRA's and mutual funds really doesn't like me buying gold. But I am not sure if I trust his motivations. And he poo poo's my fears of political or terrorist turmoil.
So any courteous advice from folks who have is welcomed.
Here are some sites that I use to keep informed on gold and silver.
http://321gold.com/ Has articles from various sources.
http://kitco.com " " " "
http://www.jsmineset.com/home.asp Commentary by Jim Sinclair and one of his employees. Owner or part owner of a gold mine in Tanzania. Long time trader in gold.
http://www.financialsense.com Articles about the overall economy including gold/silver
http://www.galmarley.com/ Real time price of gold plus a great deal of information on storing, buying, etc.
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=FOREX_XAUUSDO Delayed gold price and charts.
Brokers are salesmen. Treat anything they say just like you would if any used car salesman said it.
You have some silver, you have some gold, you have an IRA and probably another retirement account (plus Social Security, if you are that close to retirement), so you are probably pretty well set or secure for the immediate future and/or retirement.
I think you should give some thought to what you would do with this "mad money" if you doubled it in a year. Would you take a vacation or cruise? Expand your house? Add a swimming pool maybe? Endow your children's/grandchildren's education?
I think, if the answer is any of those above, you should just take the money and do it now. For example, here in Florida, you can prebuy any child a full four year college education including all tuition and housing for a ridiculously low price (the younger, the cheaper, and even transferable out of state).
But if you double your money and plan on continuing to gamble it, then recognize that is what you are doing. And enjoy it while you can. And I don't mean to say that that is necessarily a bad idea - just that you recognize that high-risk investing without any goal or endpoint is really that stark a concept and is not the same as simply parking your money where it will earn the highest return over some fixed period of time.
A commodity. Look up the Hunt brothers, It'll give you insight on risk.
Gold ready to crash?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1641771/posts
"Silver shines but equities decline..."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1588981/posts
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