Purchasing Gold

shaun_from_Africa

If it did ever get to the stage where people had to rely on stockpiles of tinned food to survive and paper currency was worthless for anything apart from using as toilet paper, a 12 bore shotgun and a few boxes of cartridges would probably be a lot more use than a handful of gold coins.

I've got a reasonable stock of gold, but this isn't anything to do with a doomsday scenario. They are simply part of my long term pension plans.

shaun_from_Africa

If you do decide to go ahead and buy gold, don't go into it wearing rose tinted glasses.

Yes, a lot of people have seen the value of their gold rise drastically over the past few years, but an awful lot of people have seen the opposite in earlier years. (such as the people who paid $500 an ounce at the beginning of 1983 and saw it drop to $300 by the end of the following year).

Venusflytrap

For me the key is balance, which is why I asked questions, and I will not be throwing all my cash on gold and tinned foods obviously! At the same time I do not have a huge amount of disposable income to build a worthwhile investment portfolio so just need to have a few beneficial and 'easy to manage' possibilities.

mike88

This is a ludicrous thread and believe the original poster is winding everyone up. Armageddon will not happen and, if it did, gold will not be of much help as goods to preserve life - food, medicines etc will assume far greater value. You can't eat gold so what are you going to do with it other than run the risk of having it stolen and pay increased house insurance premiums?

Gold is an unstable investment where volatility is the order of the day.

Jegersmart

mike88 wrote: »

This is a ludicrous thread and believe the original poster is winding everyone up. Armageddon will not happen and, if it did, gold will not be of much help as goods to preserve life - food, medicines etc will assume far greater value. You can't eat gold so what are you going to do with it other than run the risk of having it stolen and pay increased house insurance premiums?

Gold is an unstable investment where volatility is the order of the day.

I agree gold will be worthless at some point, however I am pretty sure "Armageddon" or whatever your definition of it will occur when we run out of oil. Energy is what keeps about 5 billion of us alive at the current time - unless we find another source that can replace hydrocarbons there will be far less of us around in the future......

J

mike88

Jegersmart wrote: »

I agree gold will be worthless at some point, however I am pretty sure "Armageddon" or whatever your definition of it will occur when we run out of oil. Energy is what keeps about 5 billion of us alive at the current time - unless we find another source that can replace hydrocarbons there will be far less of us around in the future......

J

What makes you think there is a shortage of oil? There is plenty of it but the problem is that the more inaccessible reserves are too expensive to drill. When the price of oil rises the reserves will become more economical.

If you really think there is to be an oil shortage you might be better off buying shares in an oil company.

But my main point is that the whole concept is ill conceived. I see absolutely no point in buying gold as nobody in their right mind will trade gold for food if the worst ever happened.

Jegersmart

mike88 wrote: »

What makes you think there is a shortage of oil? There is plenty of it but the problem is that the more inaccessible reserves are too expensive to drill. When the price of oil rises the reserves will become more economical.

If you really think there is to be an oil shortage you might be better off buying shares in an oil company.

But my main point is that the whole concept is ill conceived. I see absolutely no point in buying gold as nobody in their right mind will trade gold for food if the worst ever happened.

Agreed on gold.

I think you are a bit confused with regards to the oil discussion. I am not discussing an investment angle, rather the vital importance that hydrocarbons has to our civilisation. I don't think there is an oil shortage now, I am talking about the coming decades. No one can know when we will run out, but I don't think anyone argues that reserves are infinite? Or do you think so?

On the subject of reserves, there is a lack of transparency in general compounded by different methods of reporting reserves and of course reserves that we have not discovered yet. As a proxy for that information I tend to look at trends of actions of nations aimed at securing supplies, which has become increasingly aggressive in the last 20 years. I predict that the actions of the West and the big emerging powers will become more and more extreme in the coming decade, if possible in the name of "democracy" or "humanitarian" missions - because it is currently absolutely vital to have access to oil and gas in the long term.

I am not saying that will we run out of oil in 20 years, it could be a far longer time frame than that - but it is very important for all to understand the reliance we have on HC's and what the consequences of these becoming scarce or exhausted are on a civilisation-level.

J

sabretoothtigger

Fallacy alert!

:laugh:

Gold is not used for anything really, there is tons of it around either as bullion or jewellery. But checking history on goldsmiths and credit notes they issued I think its easier to see the basis for modern currency.
The modern gold reserves probably do exceed silver but that does not mean its not used. The bank holds the gold then issues credit notes or known to us as cash!

The whole apocalypse now deal is linked to USA holding only a small amounts of gold compared to 15tn of debt plus another 3tn a year added per year. They will have a bank run on all their IOU notes

food, medicines etc will assume far greater value. You can't eat gold so what are you going to do with it

Totally correct but also misses the point. The whole world will not starve, somebody does have food or medicine like you say.
And that is more useful

However in order to gain the trust of Ali Barbar selling his food to me thousands of miles away I must convey my payment to him.
This is the worth of gold

You can only argue against gold really if you tell me you will not trade with anyone except in person. Now cross off all fruits from your next shopping list and I will agree

Otherwise gold is useful and will rapidly become more useful in future. USA is the linchpin to credit notes and paper money, if it should degrade or falter in any way gold is worth more tomorrow

Venusflytrap

mike88 wrote: »

This is a ludicrous thread and believe the original poster is winding everyone up. Armageddon will not happen and, if it did, gold will not be of much help as goods to preserve life - food, medicines etc will assume far greater value. You can't eat gold so what are you going to do with it other than run the risk of having it stolen and pay increased house insurance premiums?

Not winding anyone up; got no time for that game. Like I said before, i'm simply looking for alternatives other than having cash in the bank which, at some point, may become obsolete.

Stock piling food is sensible if they have a long expiry date and one has ample storage, but we do not have enough room plus want to 'pack light' should we need to suddenly up sticks.

I guess different people prepare different portfolios which still may not hold solutions as no one knows what the reality will be at any given time.

Jegersmart

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Fallacy alert!

:laugh:

Gold is not used for anything really, there is tons of it around either as bullion or jewellery. But checking history on goldsmiths and credit notes they issued I think its easier to see the basis for modern currency.
The modern gold reserves probably do exceed silver but that does not mean its not used. The bank holds the gold then issues credit notes or known to us as cash!

The whole apocalypse now deal is linked to USA holding only a small amounts of gold compared to 15tn of debt plus another 3tn a year added per year. They will have a bank run on all their IOU notes



Totally correct but also misses the point. The whole world will not starve, somebody does have food or medicine like you say.
And that is more useful

However in order to gain the trust of Ali Barbar selling his food to me thousands of miles away I must convey my payment to him.
This is the worth of gold

You can only argue against gold really if you tell me you will not trade with anyone except in person. Now cross off all fruits from your next shopping list and I will agree

Otherwise gold is useful and will rapidly become more useful in future. USA is the linchpin to credit notes and paper money, if it should degrade or falter in any way gold is worth more tomorrow

There is no gold standard anymore. What happens to gold if they decide to use land or anything else as basis for a currency? What would that mean in terms of territorial conflicts?

The question of gold or not is to me irrelevant in the longer term - there are far more vital things to consider as discussed above. Globalisation will die at some point - how are you going to communicate or do anything with "Ali Barbar" without energy potentially?

Many different discussions here in the same thread - and probably my fault!

J