Precious metals investments

George9292

Is Precious metals investments in gold/silver monthly a good idea alongside other investments.

Would love here peoples opinions if they are into Precious metals 
Thanks 

Ocelot

I'm not sure how such schemes work, but gold is close to an all time high at the moment, and silver is 33% down on the 2011 value (and you have to pay 20% VAT on silver, unless you buy at auction).

Not convinced there is much value in physical gold or silver at the moment.

I'm not an expert on precious metals, BTW, but have approximately 8kg of silver in the form of antique items bought many years ago.

km1500

gold is your best bet (krugerrands) but they are not generally held as investment but as a hedge against the collapse of the financial.system.

GrubbyGirl_2

Don't forget there is capital gains tax to pay when you sell gold unless you hold coins

wmb194

km1500 said:

gold is your best bet (krugerrands) but they are not generally held as investment but as a hedge against the collapse of the financial.system.

Why Krugerrands? If you're domiciled in Britain you're better off with British coins as, so long as they're not pre-1837, they don't attract CGT.

wmb194

George9292 said:

Is Precious metals investments in gold/silver monthly a good idea alongside other investments.

Would love here peoples opinions if they are into Precious metals 
Thanks 

As a hedge it can be but historically it's been suggested not to put more than 5% of your portfolio into gold. Silver is very volatile and isn't usually recommended.

Personally I've never bothered with it as there always seems to be something better to invest in.

plumb1_2

I bought some some coins in 2015 for £1160 each, today worth about £1580. So a gain of £420 in 7 yrs.  don’t know if I would have been better off paying £1160 into my pension and getting £230 25% added by Hmrc. Plus the up/ down side of the investment in the pension.

coyrls

plumb1_2 said:

I bought some some coins in 2015 for £1160 each, today worth about £1580. So a gain of £420 in 7 yrs.  don’t know if I would have been better off paying £1160 into my pension and getting £230 25% added by Hmrc. Plus the up/ down side of the investment in the pension.

That's roughly a 3.8% annualised return.  Taking Vanguard Life Strategy 60 as a proxy for pension performance, its annualised return over the same period was roughly 5.8%.  Even without the benefit of tax relief, the investment option has outperformed your coins.

(sorry my initial post had a wrong calculation for the Vanguard return)

Albermarle

It is easier to invest in precious metals via an ETF, but it depends on your motivation for wanting to invest.

If it is to have some alternative investments in your portfolio, that might help if share/bond markets are not behaving themselves, then it is much easier just invest in an appropriate ETF.

If you want some gold in your hands in case of global financial Armageddon, then an ETF would not be suitable. Although it is less than certain that  possession of a shiny inert metal would be that helpful in such a situation either.

Millyonare

The problem with gold is, its (US dollar) price can do nothing for 2 or 3 decades, and then spike to the moon in weeks. That makes it a pain to invest in. Warren Buffett is approaching 100yo and he never buys / bought serious gold.

km1500

The premium on krugerrangs is about half that on sovereigns