"Safe" investment, maybe gold?
Discussion
Like bog roll and pasta, you've left it a bit late to be buying gold. You should have listened to the doom mongers a year or two ago.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
227bhp said:
Like bog roll and pasta, you've left it a bit late to be buying gold. You should have listened to the doom mongers a year or two ago.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If current policy is financial suicide, why is it late to buy gold?Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
egomeister said:
227bhp said:
Like bog roll and pasta, you've left it a bit late to be buying gold. You should have listened to the doom mongers a year or two ago.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If current policy is financial suicide, why is it late to buy gold?Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
Thank you for all your opinions, differing as they are!
Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Novexx said:
Thank you for all your opinions, differing as they are!
Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Have a look through here: https://www.bairdmint.com/gold/bars You can buy pure bars for a slight premium over gold market price. The smaller the bar, the greater the premium. Worst case is that you can sell it back to the provider or any other dealer for 'scrap' value. SIlver and Platinum are subject to VAT so poor investments. Small gold bars can be very, very easily hidden in the house - even under the edge of a carpet in extreme cases. Few burglars lift the carpets. UK coins are mostly GCT exempt and have a Sterling face value.Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Novexx said:
Thank you for all your opinions, differing as they are!
Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Surely you've missed the boat already.Bottom line is that I just feel a little nervous of virtual "stuff", s*** hits the fan & regardless of what a bit of paper promises, weather a certificate or currency there just isn't any guarantee that it will be honoured or worth anything / as much as it was.
If I'm not much concerned about profiting, prepared to take a small % hit & just trying to secure what I have, does a physical asset that's in my possession & readily tradeable not make at least some sense (World going beyond the Walking Dead aside)?
Current situation aside, what's the best way to but physical precious metal to minimise loss when the chips are cashed in - coins, bars.. There seems to be a wide variation in pricing for "retail" gold considering gold is gold is gold. I can see that the market does have high priced products that appear to have some BS attached to them, but even going beyond that, pricing seems pretty variable.
Once everything has gone relatively back to normal in a year you'll have an asset that you bought somewhere near the peak demand.
Over 5 years I think gold has averaged me 4%+ a year.
So it’s out paced UK inflation.
But the strong USD has weakened UK gold price.
US are walking a fine line printing to oblivion despite everyone rushing into USD.
I’d still get in gold now because imo nothing is priced in.
The gold market responds like a 70yr old does to a quarantine...
So it’s out paced UK inflation.
But the strong USD has weakened UK gold price.
US are walking a fine line printing to oblivion despite everyone rushing into USD.
I’d still get in gold now because imo nothing is priced in.
The gold market responds like a 70yr old does to a quarantine...
jshell said:
Mr Whippy said:
Just buy UK legal tender coins direct from Royal Mint as it’s less likely you’ll buy a tungsten core’d lump of gold 
Problem is the Royal Mint are more expensive for their own products than good dealers that re-sell. Very strange.I’m not so keen on sovereigns, the colour is weird.
The history in them is interesting though, I’ve a bunch from late 1800s through to 2014 ish.
Some of the 30s ones are probably 10% mass missing due to wear
Mr Whippy said:
jshell said:
Mr Whippy said:
Just buy UK legal tender coins direct from Royal Mint as it’s less likely you’ll buy a tungsten core’d lump of gold
Problem is the Royal Mint are more expensive for their own products than good dealers that re-sell. Very strange.I’m not so keen on sovereigns, the colour is weird.
The history in them is interesting though, I’ve a bunch from late 1800s through to 2014 ish.
Some of the 30s ones are probably 10% mass missing due to wear
ATG said:
Behemoth said:
Ah, that'll be the basket of goods that the govt carefully curates 
Inflation exists in many more places than measurements of the price of bread and a gallon of petrol.
Buy tin foil futuresInflation exists in many more places than measurements of the price of bread and a gallon of petrol.
Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
If you calculate your personal inflation level and don’t buy TVs and phones all the time, then it seems gold is a good buy.
But if you like to buy TVs and phones. Avoid the yellow metal.
My only advice on PMs is avoid silver
VAT + spread = insta 25% loss.
Mr Whippy said:
Just check out the graph which was posted.
Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
If you calculate your personal inflation level and don’t buy TVs and phones all the time, then it seems gold is a good buy.
But if you like to buy TVs and phones. Avoid the yellow metal.
My only advice on PMs is avoid silver
VAT + spread = insta 25% loss.
I must admit to having a few silver coins, but mainly because the look nice and you can play around with them like poker chips Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
If you calculate your personal inflation level and don’t buy TVs and phones all the time, then it seems gold is a good buy.
But if you like to buy TVs and phones. Avoid the yellow metal.
My only advice on PMs is avoid silver
VAT + spread = insta 25% loss.
I'd struggle to put forward a compelling case to own them on an investment basis.VAT can be avoided depending on where you buy...
I found the EU sellers with low VAT just loaded their prices.
So you got it with less VAT but paid more, so not a huge saving.
Plus it was often ‘used’ so the bullion stuff was a bit average too.
That said even my 20 sealed tubs of RM lunar stuff from 2015/16 have gone a bit milky.
Either way if silver went sans VAT I’d probably have more.
As it stands it takes up loads of room, is a bit boring, and hasn’t made me any money unless I literally sell one coin at a time on eBay kinda thing.
Gold 1/4oz is the way to go if you’re dabbling at first imo.
So you got it with less VAT but paid more, so not a huge saving.
Plus it was often ‘used’ so the bullion stuff was a bit average too.
That said even my 20 sealed tubs of RM lunar stuff from 2015/16 have gone a bit milky.
Either way if silver went sans VAT I’d probably have more.
As it stands it takes up loads of room, is a bit boring, and hasn’t made me any money unless I literally sell one coin at a time on eBay kinda thing.
Gold 1/4oz is the way to go if you’re dabbling at first imo.
Mr Whippy said:
Just check out the graph which was posted.
Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
Consumer inflation is a side show for now. The real story is asset inflation. See what the stock market growth over the past few decades looks like when mapped against the money supply. There are lots of analyses around on S&P500 / US M2. I'm sure there's a similar picture for the UK.Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
egomeister said:
227bhp said:
Like bog roll and pasta, you've left it a bit late to be buying gold. You should have listened to the doom mongers a year or two ago.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If current policy is financial suicide, why is it late to buy gold?Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If you study the charts for long enough you see a pattern emerging and it drops in value at the same time every year which is the time to buy.
227bhp said:
egomeister said:
227bhp said:
Like bog roll and pasta, you've left it a bit late to be buying gold. You should have listened to the doom mongers a year or two ago.
Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If current policy is financial suicide, why is it late to buy gold?Where the heck all this money is coming from I have no idea, it's not like we were exactly rolling in it before this hit and the current costs must be astronomical. They're actually paying mine and thousands more wages to stay at home, it's bonkers.
Obviously I understand why, but it still looks like financial suicide.
If you study the charts for long enough you see a pattern emerging and it drops in value at the same time every year which is the time to buy.
Maybe I’m used to watching BTC, now there is an apparently uncorrelated and rocketing (up and down) price.
The whole point of physical is that it’s not a paper promise and it’s undervalued because of that.
Any point is a good time to buy because the paper market is keeping the physical value suppressed.
Having a paper gold position as a hedge on stocks seems to be like an inverse stock ETF, so why not just hold that?
Physical is a different thing.
Hold for 5 years and it’ll trend ahead of the underlying currency in the times of QE/money printing... though not the stock/asset market... but that’s why it’s a good hedge because if they drop gold often goes the other way.
BUT, gold is in hand and relatively liquid, while money in the markets isn’t.
Just look at all the ‘liquid’ bonds freezing redemptions and so on.
Physical gold has its place. It’s fun. It’s interesting. Most decent home insurers will cover it under usual policies. It’s unlikely to lose you any money unless you buy in a mania (now isn’t one imo), so why not just buy some?
My biggest worry getting mine was fakes/scams etc, not the price per se.
Mr Whippy said:
ATG said:
Behemoth said:
Ah, that'll be the basket of goods that the govt carefully curates
Inflation exists in many more places than measurements of the price of bread and a gallon of petrol.
Buy tin foil futuresInflation exists in many more places than measurements of the price of bread and a gallon of petrol.
Internet, TVs and telephones are cheaper, so win win... inflation is low
If you calculate your personal inflation level and don’t buy TVs and phones all the time, then it seems gold is a good buy.
But if you like to buy TVs and phones. Avoid the yellow metal.
My only advice on PMs is avoid silver
VAT + spread = insta 25% loss.
In the UK we do see politicians picking whichever of RPI and CPI sounds best when taking to Joe Public, but that doesn't make either RPI or CPI wrong or a distortion of reality. They're just different in the same way that a Ford Focus is not a Mondeo.
Inflation guides gov policy. That influences the environment you’re operating in.
As an individual making investments and managing their own affairs, inflation to gauge performance is ultimately a personal thing.
Basically it’s just another number on a spreadsheet.
As long as you’re happy with what you get vs what you need, great.
As an individual making investments and managing their own affairs, inflation to gauge performance is ultimately a personal thing.
Basically it’s just another number on a spreadsheet.
As long as you’re happy with what you get vs what you need, great.
ATG said:
The accusation was that the govt picks the items in the inflation basket to deliberately understate inflation. They don't. Even if they did, it'd be entirely pointless as they are hardly the sole source of inflation measures. The monetary authorities model the economy with whatever inflation measures they deem appropriate and they don't have a vested interest in persistently underestimating inflation.
In the UK we do see politicians picking whichever of RPI and CPI sounds best when taking to Joe Public, but that doesn't make either RPI or CPI wrong or a distortion of reality. They're just different in the same way that a Ford Focus is not a Mondeo.
You entirely miss my point, which was that consumer inflation isn't the only inflation. By any means.In the UK we do see politicians picking whichever of RPI and CPI sounds best when taking to Joe Public, but that doesn't make either RPI or CPI wrong or a distortion of reality. They're just different in the same way that a Ford Focus is not a Mondeo.
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