do you know you can buy gold bullion for £20 upwards from royal mint?

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  • grey_gym_sock
    grey_gym_sock Posts: 4,508 Forumite
    markj113 wrote: »
    Also try to ignore the retards here that think if you purchase some gold that somehow equates to you to being an end of the world, zombie apocalypse prepper.

    the arguments for gold are all over the place. some good, some silly.

    some people do keep bringing up the idea that gold will retain value if economies or civilizations collapse. (mentioning zombies is just a colourful exaggeration.) that's at the silly end of the spectrum. gathering gold is a dreadful way to prepare for that. a sensible way would be to move to a more stable country, and/or to a remote part of the countryside where you can grow your own food.

    the better arguments for gold are mainly about how allocating a fixed small percentage of a portfolio to gold may improve its performance (meaning: improve the combination of returns and volatility of the portfolio). that is a fair enough approach, though it is also reasonable to omit gold from a portfolio. it's debatable.
  • Pincher
    Pincher Posts: 6,552
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    edited 18 April 2017 at 5:29PM
    a sensible way would be to move to a more stable country, and/or to a remote part of the countryside where you can grow your own food.

    Twenty years ago, Switzerland was more amenable to foreign property buyers, but you needed a Swiss person to recommend you.
    Now they have bunkered in again. Ski chalets are still a way in, but I'm not sure you are allowed to stay permanently.

    Nobody with money wants to go to the USA, the world wide income tax regime is just too much to bear. Dubai is talking about stopping their tax free status.

    Does anyone really want to live in Monaco?

    London is the BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD. :j

    I wish they would do a DUBAI version 2 in Siberia.
    Very fertile soil thawing, Use green house to grow food.
    Lots of natural gas for central heating in winter.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    edited 20 April 2017 at 7:11AM
    kdwood001 wrote: »
    The gold is protected by the ministry of defence and held securely in the royal mint in wales.
    What happens if Wales has a snap referendum and decides to quit out of the UK and join the EU? I presume there'll then be a travel visa to pop over there and international tariffs to pay to move the stuff? As part of the current craze for elections maybe they'll also organise a snap referendum to decide if those wanting to access the gold have to speak and write Welsh?
  • A more cost-effective way to invest in gold is with a gold ETF such as iShares SGLN
  • Carrieanne
    Carrieanne Posts: 122 Forumite
    the arguments for gold are all over the place. some good, some silly.

    some people do keep bringing up the idea that gold will retain value if economies or civilizations collapse. (mentioning zombies is just a colourful exaggeration.) that's at the silly end of the spectrum. gathering gold is a dreadful way to prepare for that. a sensible way would be to move to a more stable country, and/or to a remote part of the countryside where you can grow your own food.

    the better arguments for gold are mainly about how allocating a fixed small percentage of a portfolio to gold may improve its performance (meaning: improve the combination of returns and volatility of the portfolio). that is a fair enough approach, though it is also reasonable to omit gold from a portfolio. it's debatable.

    I view owning gold as an insurance policy against financial chaos. It has been used as money for thousands of years and has never been worthless, unlike a great many currencies. I accept it would be worth nowt in a Mad Max scenario. Governments worldwide hate gold because they don't want its price to reflect reality so are content for its price versus their fiat to be suppressed.

    Outside of forums such as this one, I doubt whether 1 in every 100 Britons would be able to state within a 5% margin of error the price of gold expressed in pounds today, and for half of that 1% it would be a lucky guess. To my mind, anyone capable of critical thinking would gauge that behind the curtain the situation is perilous from years of record and absurdly low interest rates.
  • Biggles
    Biggles Posts: 8,209
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    kdwood001 wrote: »
    gold is commonly used in times of upset when shares may be volatile.
    I can vouch for that. I did all my local shopping with gold bullion during the last financial crisis in 2008 and all the shopkeepers were most impressed. At least, I think that was their expression.
  • ColdIron
    ColdIron Posts: 8,904
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    Carrieanne wrote: »
    Governments worldwide hate gold because they don't want its price to reflect reality so are content for its price versus their fiat to be suppressed.
    That'll be why Venezuela, the Netherlands and Germany amongst others have been repatriating much of their gold in the last 5 years. China and India can't get rid of it quickly enough :)
  • grey_gym_sock
    grey_gym_sock Posts: 4,508 Forumite
    ColdIron wrote: »
    That'll be why Venezuela, the Netherlands and Germany amongst others have been repatriating much of their gold in the last 5 years. China and India can't get rid of it quickly enough :)

    quite. if they wanted to depress the gold price, they'd be selling all their gold. supply and demand.
    Carrieanne wrote: »
    I view owning gold as an insurance policy against financial chaos.

    this doesn't make sense.

    i assume you're not thinking about temporary IT glitches (ATMs not working). to prepare for that, it would be best to keep slightly more cash at home than your neighbours do, and perhaps to have accounts with multiple banks.

    in case banks in the UK go bust, you just need to keep within the FSCS deposit protection limits, or to keep any larger deposits with (the State-backed) NS&I. as the currency issuer, nothing can prevent the UK from ensuring all FSCS & NS&I promises are kept, so long the government wants to. and the political influence on the government of relatively wealthy voters (which is always stronger than the influence of voters in general) will ensure that the government does want to.

    if you live in a country with a less credible government / currency, you might reasonably not want to rely on equivalent promises (if they are even made). in which case, you might want to hold some of whatever more stable currency is accepted locally - mostly commonly, this is the US dollar. that could mean holding dollars in cash, or in banks (possibly, banks outside your country).

    (look at what people actually do when they don't trust the local currency, or when it actually collapses. usually, they use US dollars as money. they never use gold.)
    It has been used as money for thousands of years

    it was used as money. until about 1971. (in other news, the beatles have broken up :))
    and has never been worthless, unlike a great many currencies. I accept it would be worth nowt in a Mad Max scenario. Governments worldwide hate gold because they don't want its price to reflect reality so are content for its price versus their fiat to be suppressed.

    paranoid nonsense. governments don't care about the gold price.
    Outside of forums such as this one, I doubt whether 1 in every 100 Britons would be able to state within a 5% margin of error the price of gold expressed in pounds today, and for half of that 1% it would be a lucky guess.

    nor could most people tell you the price of most other commodity. these are obscure technical details which most people don't need to know.

    the prices of energy, oil, etc, have much more effect on most people. and people (or at least drivers) are mostly aware of the price of petrol; and of their home energy bills. there are some commodity prices that might affect things like the price of a smart phone. gold is pretty irrelevant.
    To my mind, anyone capable of critical thinking would gauge that behind the curtain the situation is perilous from years of record and absurdly low interest rates.

    the situation is that we now use credit-based money, not gold-backed money, and you are in denial about this.

    this are a number of credit bubbles which will need to be deflated, and this is not being tackled. but returning to gold-backed money is not the answer. that would be far worse than the disease.
  • Cogs44
    Cogs44 Posts: 15 Forumite
    Just buy bitcoin. No VAT or charges to hold and you can email it to yourself (or hold on a usb pen drive) for easy access in the time of zombie apocalypse or government collapse.
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