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Updated over 3 years ago, 03/23/2021
How do you hold & protect physical gold?
Personal safe at home or safety deposit box at a bank.
If you invest through places like Apmex, they partner with companies that will store your precious metals for a monthly fee.
From experience, the issue isn't how to store it...it's how to sell it once you own it. If you buy from places like Apmex, you can sell back to places like Apmex, but insuring a large lot of precious metals via the USPS is expensive (and Apmex won't accept shipments from UPS or Fedex).
There are local dealers but their definition of "spot price" is shaky...and much of the collectible metals (aside from straight bars) are worth more than spot price.
eBay is a good option...convenient for buyers (and sometimes there are deals) but a pain for sellers.
Jordan Decuir
Simply put, I don't. I don't consider physical gold to be an investment. I do not place any faith in shiny rocks.
I read up on this 17 yrs ago at the old Y2K. A wide variety of folks are emphatic about their gold. In increasing complexity:
- Lots of opportunities to invest in gold mining companies (most eschew this "paper gold"; it won't be there if there's a financial collapse)
- You can buy a Canadian ETF that has gold bullion in a bank vault and you own a few ounces or a lot of ounces. You don't have it, if they go bust.
- If you buy gold coins, keep em in your personal safe
- Keep em in a banks' safe deposit box (fails if there's a banking collapse)
- If you're worried thieves are coming looking for your safe, there were elaborate schemes to hide your stash behind the drywall inside walls, that won't be easy targets.
- If you're worried thieves are coming with a metal detector looking for your gold, you bury it in the back yard (or it might be a compound in the woods, because you need food, guns and ammo for the apocalypse); bury 50 pieces of junk metal car parts 2' deep in 50 locations. Only one of them has the real stash at 4' deep below one random one junk car part....a home made PVC pipe/sealed container. Dare the thief to have the patience to not give up when they find 50 false shows.
- :)
Originally posted by @Anthony Gayden:
Jordan Decuir
Simply put, I don't. I don't consider physical gold to be an investment. I do not place any faith in shiny rocks.
you might find this google query interesting
- "number of states accepting gold and silver"
- also https://www.soundmoneydefense.org/state-legal-tender-movement
Unless you buy when gold is low, you're not really going to make any money on a gold "investment".
Get a safe and bolt it to the ground.
I would be weary of storing in safety deposit boxes. The wise always say, "if you don't hold it, you don't own it."
I diversify my holdings about 65% in my immediate possession, the rest stored with GoldMoney.com (they store it for you in vaults)
I know you just asked about storing, but since it's related to the topic I figured I would mention
an interesting article relating the the price of gold to real estate. Linked below-
I think it's smart to diversify and hold precious metals but the article is pointing out that in most possible scenarios for the future, real estate will out perform.
Curious on anyone's feedback or input to the analysis in this article below.
http://danielamerman.com/va/GHratio.html
My opinion is gold is for security in crisis only and should be a very small part of your portfolio if you already have it, but I wouldn't buy it at these levels. A smaller hidden high-rated safe that has been bolted from the inside into a wall stud is fine. I have a friend who built his into his slab during a major renovation, and I liked that idea. Safe deposit boxes are getting expensive, but I have used them and they are fine as well as long as you set up auto-renew and remember to update your contact info and address. I had to travel back home once because the bank where I had my box was bought out and they were closing that branch. PITA. And I almost missed the notice as we had moved and I forgot to update the address. Also, in a crisis when you might need it, the bank might be closed, anyway. So I'd rather have it at home.
Originally posted by @Kevin Coggins:
Unless you buy when gold is low, you're not really going to make any money on a gold "investment".
Be careful when looking at charts like these - they are deceptive. I'm not defending Gold (or silver or any other precious metal) as an investment...but I want to point out the inaccuracies. The chart above doesn't take into account Executive Order 6102 which essentially made it illegal for Americans to own Gold coins and Gold Bullion. Nixon ended that by taking us off the "gold standard" in 1974. There's a reason why the Dollar and the price of gold tracked closely together from 1933 to 1974...and a reason why you see such a big change after 1974.
Precious metals (gold and silver) are a good hedge against inflation. Check the rate of inflation in 1980 (six years after going off the gold standard) vs the rate of inflation in 2000. I can remember my grandmother buying certificates of deposit at 12% and 16% interest back then.
You can simply put your gold in a safe. The good thing about Gold is you can have a tremendous amount of wealth and a relatively small space.
It's silver that's more difficult. When I moved, transporting my silver was literally a difficult process. Whereas I have an equivalent amount of wealth and gold and it was very easy.
If you were buying gold for SHTF Insurance (as I am) then you definitely need to hold it. As the saying goes "if you don't hold it, you don't own it"
Anthony Gayden that's fine. But you're arguing against thousands of years of human history.
I don't put my faith in pieces of paper from a government. I'd rather have "stuff". Buildings for income, precious metals for liquidity and SHTF insurance
Originally posted by @Jordan Decuir:
I always hear Kiyosaki (and countless others) talking about owning physical gold in addition to real estate. I get the thesis, but how does one technically hold, store, and (most importantly) SECURE physical gold holdings? (Especially taking into account the actual costs of securing the physical gold)
You can store gold at the bank.. sure you can try to store it at home in a safe (or under a mattress) if you have Fort Knox type security.
Originally posted by @Account Closed:
Selling is the easy part. Like most precious metals, there is quite a market for gold. While there are many things you can do online, buying gold on eBay as you suggested can be... disastrous. Unless of course you plan on getting into countless brawls with eBay over its refund policy.
Originally posted by @Steve K.:
I read up on this 17 yrs ago at the old Y2K. A wide variety of folks are emphatic about their gold. In increasing complexity:
- Lots of opportunities to invest in gold mining companies (most eschew this "paper gold"; it won't be there if there's a financial collapse)
- You can buy a Canadian ETF that has gold bullion in a bank vault and you own a few ounces or a lot of ounces. You don't have it, if they go bust.
- If you buy gold coins, keep em in your personal safe
- Keep em in a banks' safe deposit box (fails if there's a banking collapse)
- If you're worried thieves are coming looking for your safe, there were elaborate schemes to hide your stash behind the drywall inside walls, that won't be easy targets.
- If you're worried thieves are coming with a metal detector looking for your gold, you bury it in the back yard (or it might be a compound in the woods, because you need food, guns and ammo for the apocalypse); bury 50 pieces of junk metal car parts 2' deep in 50 locations. Only one of them has the real stash at 4' deep below one random one junk car part....a home made PVC pipe/sealed container. Dare the thief to have the patience to not give up when they find 50 false shows.
- :)
Seems really complicated. Doesn't exactly sound like an advert to buy gold ;)
Also, gold doesn't pay me every month! I never understood why many billionaires keep 5% or 7.5% of their portfolio in gold. I guess when I get to that level, maybe it will dawn on me.
It's getting harder to find true gold.
Fake Gold and Silver Coins ‘Flooding’ Market HOW TO DETECT A FAKE TUNGSTEN GOLD BAR
Originally posted by @Andrey Y.:
Originally posted by @Steve K.:
Sometimes they just like the feel of this Andrey
Safety deposit box. I've also got a couple shares of GLD. Even if it's not backed by true gold, seems to go up when volatility happens.
I've got some gold kumgerdeons (spell?), but that's it. My hedge is BUD stock. Not a huge gold fan....
Gold and silver can stay in a safe at home. If you're really getting up there in $$ invest in a safe bolted to the foundation and find a way to hide it. I'm not a fan of purchasing precious metals that someone else stores for you and you never see. Pretty much defeats the purpose of precious metals.
I currently invest in silver more so than gold. Current prices are not following historic trends. Going by history, either the price of silver is going to sky rocket, or the price of gold will plummet, possibly a mixture of the two.
I also keep my precious metals here at my house protected by my .45.
If you don't have it in your possession then it is pointless when/if the economy collapses.
I view gold more as insurance than as an investment (though I've done okay with a few gold coins that are now collectible) and I like the idea of hiding gold in limited access locations better than using a visible safe.
I did read a memorable comment on gold as insurance once. It said, "gold is for optimists, I'm investing in canned goods".
Gold/Silver, is a part of a diversified portfolio. It's a good inflation hedge. It also provides no yield or monthly return such as real estate.
Don't buy gold from a broker. they will charge a 30% commission and will deeply cut into your returns. I made that mistake my first go around. Luckily gold went up a lot in that time.
It's extremely liquid.
An important thing to keep in mind is that gold coins don't have value just for their weight in gold (of course that would not be true in the oft-lambasted apocalypse scenario). Gold coins also have a "numismatic" or collector's value.
For instance, if you buy a 2016 Gold Buffalow coin just issues, it's worth about the spot price of gold.
If you buy a rare 1 oz. 1906 gold, no motto St. Gaudin dollar coin which was only produced for 6 months in 1906, it's worth a lot more than that ounce of metal. This numismatic value can offset the loss of value incurred as bullion and metals are pretty volatile.
I personally hold a few gold coins and a bunch of silver for the unlikely apocolypse scenario. In that case, having silver to have smaller coins to trade would be good, then some gold for large purchases so as not have to carry around as much silver.
Also, I don't plan on divulging where I keep my gold, but it is not in a safe deposit box or held by an outside company. The majority of thieves won't go hunting for your safe that's bolted to the concrete slab or floor joists behind the water heater in your basement and will just go for the easy stuff like ipads and phones and get the hell out of dodge.
Originally posted by @William Walker:
Gold and silver can stay in a safe at home. If you're really getting up there in $$ invest in a safe bolted to the foundation and find a way to hide it. I'm not a fan of purchasing precious metals that someone else stores for you and you never see. Pretty much defeats the purpose of precious metals.
Sorry to hear.. many invest in stock and never physically 'hold' the stock or stock certificate. The primary concern is what direction the price goes. Trying to keep gold at the house so you could physically caress or touch it can be risky.
Jordan Decuir I think the attractiveness of gold really depends on your definition of "crash". We went through the 2006 housing crash and it's not as though the world devolved into some barter-system trading economy. That said, you can look at a few EU nations and think "I'd rather hold gold than their currency". For the US, you might consider gold a hedge against inflation. Sure, that works, but it works a lot better once you've made your money. Preservation vs. Acquistion if you will...
For what it's worth, if the banks collapse so suddenly that you can't get to a safety deposit box (or the banks somehow bar access to them) then you have a lot more to worry about than money. You'll probably want to have "invested" in more than a few AR-15s.
This guy has a pretty solid (get it?) relationship with gold:
Having spent quite a bit of time working on private yachts which is largely a cash business I also know some people who use gold as a way of transporting money across borders, since it is a lot easier and less suspicious to carry around a few pieces of jewelry or an expensive watch than large bundles of cash.
If you don't live in a mansion with 24/7 security and are worried about someone potentially sneaking in and grabbing your hard earned gold I would perhaps look into ways of investing in gold without physically holding it. If you are interested in leveraging your trades there are gold CFD's that will expose you to the market, with the leverage of your choice. Another, perhaps safer, option is gold funds, like the SPDR Gold Trust ETF that has as an objective to follow the price of gold.
There is a very informative article on investopedia discussing the matter, which can be found here:
Invest in Gold without holding it
Cheers
@Account Closed
No need to be sorry, hopefully my investment choices don't affect you.
Each type of investment has its role, the benefit of precious metals is that you can physically have them in case of emergency (or to caress). It defeats the benefit of precious metals if you have them in paper form or store them where you can't get to them in an emergency.
I'm not a domesday kinda guy, just recognizing the role of precious metals in an investment strategy.
