I just want to share a story of a Chinese businesswoman whom I just recently met and had a chat with regarding business and growing one's money. She shared her story when she was still starting in the business world. She didn't have any decent education and didn't know anything about investments or business but she said that a good friend of hers advised her to invest and stock up on gold. She was still a young lady at that time, I think that was still in the 70's or 80's. There were a lot of small scale mining operations during that time and she didn't know where to put the money she earned from her work as a sales lady so she decided to take a risk at investing in physical gold as what her friend told her. Then after a few years, when the value of gold has increased, she decided to sell them and was able to make a big profit out of that. She no longer stocks up physical gold now but she now has a dry goods shop that she owns and manages. Part of the money she used to start that business came from the money she earned from selling her gold. Have you also invested on physical gold? What are your experiences so far?
I really don't like gold or any of the commodities really... the problem I see is that they do not generate money. With profitable companies the company is constantly generating money... money that is either being used to fund further growth or distributed to shareholders. Gold just sits there.
I got 1% in my portfolio of physical gold. I am guessing she sold it when it was sky high, it's come back since then. I am more into companies that produce resources then the resources themselves. Except gold companies, they stink.
Gold can be a good investment especially at a time when you are certain there's going to be a stock market crash. Back in 2008 gold shot up 25%. Not bad for investors. At the moment though as lots of people are dumping stocks and going for gold [literally] I expect that the prices will either increase a little [not great for investors since the prices eventually will drop] or remain unchanged.
Yes. I've always kept at least a modest amount of my assets in gold and silver. I've done well with it over the years. We keep physical metals too, though there are costs associated with doing so (e.g., shipping, storage, etc.) that can turn some off. I'd rather have at least some of our funds in actual, physical, metals I can hold, but we don't go nuts with it.
I agree with the gold investment because gold is the most stable commodity on earth according to a rich friend. However, not everyone can invest in gold because it requires a big amount particularly for the ingots or gold bars. If you are small time then you can just invest in golden jewelries. But there is a caveat because gold is very easy to fake and once you buy a bogus gold bar then it's goodbye to your money. As an advice, buy gold only from reputable establishments and never buy from individuals who can sweet talk you.
This week we saw the biggest one week increase in gold since 2008. There is probably more increases to come, but in many cases, when it hits the news, we are seeing what will, usually be, the tail end of a big deal. Black and yellow seems to go together too, and green going the opposite direction. So, with the rally on Thursday, oil being up, gold being up, hopefully we are seeing signs that the market correction is at the first stages of stabilizing. OPEC decreased oil production too, so over the next 6 months we should see oil start to stabilize as well.
This is definitely good news for everyone in the investment market. I hope this is indeed a sign that the market in general will continue to recuperate from this latest downfall.
ETF's such as GLD can be a great way to get a little gold exposure in your portfolio without having to pay 1200 or more an ounce. I typically have somewhere between 5-10% of my portfolio in metals (mostly gold), sometimes a bit more. Buffett won't touch it, but Dalio thinks it's essential. [video=youtube;PXVG2CKUcb0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXVG2CKUcb0[/video]
It's hard to choose between two business tycoons who have different ideas on a subject. I always admired Buffet's advice and ideas when it comes to doing business but hearing another reputable businessman talk on the opposite side as him makes a makes a novice like me confused when it comes to who to listen to.