Gold

timjury

Is there anyone with an opinion on the merits of buying gold as opposed to cash investments such as stocks, shares Isa’s etc?

Thrugelmir

Plenty of previous discussion if run a search on the forum. 

Alexland

timjury said:

Is there anyone with an opinion on the merits of buying gold as opposed to cash investments such as stocks, shares Isa’s etc?

Yup there are several people around here who have opinions on gold.

Another_Saver

We have a few Aurumians in the forum (sounds nicer than gold bugs/diggers/fans/huggers/meisters/mites etc.), but mostly ... No.

It's a metal. You pay someone to dig it out the ground. You buy it off them. You pay someone else to look after it in a vault.
It doesn't pay you any interest, dividends or rent. So you only make a profit when you buy or sell it. With normal investments you can just sit back and let the income roll in (depends what you buy), so you have to decide when to buy and sell it.
It does nothing for any other human like lending them money for a mortgage, wedding, business, car; renting them a home; or funding a company or government does.

It just sits there.
In a vault.
Waiting for human civilization to end so it can get back to whatever it was doing before humans turned it into a bar.
You don't really own it, it's like a cat with an infinite lifespan.
Also the price is kinda high right now and the returns are way worse than most stock markets and imho the price will crash like a Tesla shorters wealth when Elon starts mining it from space.

coachman12

timjury said:

Is there anyone with an opinion on the merits of buying gold as opposed to cash investments such as stocks, shares Isa’s etc?

If you have plenty of shares and a large diverse portfolio that increases your wealth over a period of time, THEN you should think about gold. I have a large shares portfolio and that is what makes me wealthier with each passing year. But the gold I keep in a Swiss Bank is there for me even if every share price was wiped out tomorrow. And I will always be holding gold. 
It depends on what sort of amounts you are talking about. If you hold a high share portfolio         (particularly the Blue Chip less risky variety with high diversity rating), I heartily recommend buying gold.

EdGasketTheSecond

Gold is a good investment as a protection from continual debasement of currencies but just see the other threads on here as we are all tired of repeating the same arguments for and against.

Alexland

It's not often we get broad agreement on a gold thread - we are all tired of talking about it!