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Is Buying gold still a good investment / insurance ?

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Comments

  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 41,010 Forumite
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    18cc wrote: »
    try buying a chocolate bar with bitcoin in a bombed-out city...
    One of these perhaps? ;)

    gold-bar.jpg
  • londoninvestor
    londoninvestor Posts: 1,351 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    eskbanker wrote: »
    One of these perhaps? ;)

    gold-bar.jpg

    Is it true that you don't pay tax if you put it in a nicer wrapper?
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 41,010 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    londoninvestor wrote: »
    Is it true that you don't pay tax if you put it in a nicer wrapper?
    You can't have your cake and eat it too, that really would be taking the biscuit.... ;)
  • markj113
    markj113 Posts: 256 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    masonic wrote: »
    There's no need for gold any more. Now we have bitcoin ;)


    Tell that to the people that bought in at $19k
  • masonic
    masonic Posts: 29,845 Forumite
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    edited 16 March 2019 at 8:14AM
    markj113 wrote: »
    Tell that to the people that bought in at $19k
    Do you mean $1.9k per ounce of gold in 2011 or $19k per bitcoin in 2017? I guess those who are fans of either could argue they will bounce back.
  • ColdIron
    ColdIron Posts: 10,332 Forumite
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    *cough* $1.9k
  • Nasqueron
    Nasqueron Posts: 11,488 Forumite
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    18cc wrote: »
    imho gold is not an 'investment' and never has been

    what it is is an insurance policy against catastrophe and as such performs that function very well

    try buying a chocolate bar with bitcoin in a bombed-out city...


    Try buying chocolate with gold in a bombed-out city.


    Gold is a lump of metal, it's worth what people decide it's worth. In a stable economy it has value, in an apocalyptic future it could become worthless if everyone uses another form of currency / bartering

    Sam Vimes' Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Unfairness: 

    People are rich because they spend less money. A poor man buys $10 boots that last a season or two before he's walking in wet shoes and has to buy another pair. A rich man buys $50 boots that are made better and give him 10 years of dry feet. The poor man has spent $100 over those 10 years and still has wet feet.

  • atush
    atush Posts: 18,731 Forumite
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    the price ( seems to ) doesn't change much over time

    Wrong, it changes greatly over time.
    it can be exchanged everywhere in the world

    Quite possibly, but in an extreme event that means you would need gold, how would you get to those places in 'the world'once airt travel was no longer easy/available?


    Where you are curently (or at the time ) located migth mean a good water source, canned and dried foods, defensive measures incl weapons andsecie sheltermight be far more important.

    Markets work on what is needed at the time. Gold will work better than bitcoin in this sense, but depending in the level of event you may find canned goods more valuable.
  • coyrls
    coyrls Posts: 2,548 Forumite
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    atush wrote: »
    Markets work on what is needed at the time. Gold will work better than bitcoin in this sense, but depending in the level of event you may find canned goods more valuable.
    Or a tin opener.
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