I like gold and other metals among other "alternative investments" as part of my portfolio. I also invest in foreign investments via ADRs, emerging markets bonds, etc.
I just don't see gold or anything else alone as the one be-all end-all of everything. Oil and recently gas have also been very good to me.
And if somehow the dollar ever truly becomes worthless and institutions like Goldman, Wells Fargo, and JPM ever truly totally crumble, and the stocks of all publicly traded American companies also become worthless, I think water, nonperishable food, guns & ammo, etc will be far more likely to help one survive than physical gold.
To think that the stocks of all publicly traded companies are essentially worthless is to certainly say that all private companies are the same. Why even bother starting or maintaining a business?
water, non-perishable food, guns & ammo etc., are always good to have as a form of insurance IMO, however, I'm not talking survival insurance, I'm talking about what I choose to do as a form of financial insurance.
If big institutions were to crumble, I'm sure there will be all sorts of bails-in before that occurs, but who knows?
What I see is a systemic issue that will result in an inevitable outcome. Too many lies, too many liars, and a lot of systemic institutional corruption leaves me with little confidence. It matters not to me how honest my broker, or banker may be. I see an issue systemically that leaves me with little confidence in their system.
In any event, whatever dustup occurs, a reset will take effect, and in the meantime, commerce will need to continue, ...and economic energy & purchasing power will be preserved until we are able to see ourselves out of the other side of the reset.
I'm not very confident in the markets, so I am exchanging currency that I would otherwise put into a savings account, into gold, as a preservation of value & purchasing power. I'm using the gold as a storehouse for the economic energy contain in the currency at the time of my gold acquisitions.
I'm talking about
SAVING, not INVESTING. Investments are a whole different matter.
When I choose to invest, I will allocate currency from my investment accounts into suitable investments, if & when I find something worthy of my investment. Until then, I am choosing to preserve the value, economic energy, and purchasing power of the currency that I allocate for savings into a vessel that will retain & preserve their value.
I'm of the opinion that paper derivatives, stocks, bonds etc., are like buckets with holes. They leak value & purchasing power. The numbers of dollars on the balance sheet may go up, the listed "value" (priced in dollars) may go up, however, it means nothing to me when inflation has outpaced the rate at which those stated values (priced in dollars) have gone up. Smoke & Mirrors.
In 1971:
- $1 in paper currency bought 4 loaves of bread.
- 1 gram of gold bought 5 loaves of bread
Today:
- $1 in paper currency barely buys 8 slices of bread
- 1 gram of gold buys 20 loaves of bread
Even with a 500% return on that initial $1 in paper currency, I would not have preserved value, and still have a 75% loss of purchasing power of my initial capital, even though I'm thinking I'm doing well with a 500% increase in value (priced in paper currency)
And I'm suppose to use paper currency as a means of storing wealth, economic energy or purchasing power??
I DON'T THINK SO. So for me, my conclusions are obvious... GOLD is my preferred vehicle to preserve the value, economic energy, and purchasing power of my money.
I see too much counter-party risk in a traditional savings account for far too little return. The
possibility likelihood of bail-INs, the certainty of inflation eating away at it's purchasing power... no thank you. Therefore, instead of putting savings into a digital or paper currency savings account that will never pay me enough interest to stay ahead of inflation, I choose to put it into a form that preserves it's economic energy & purchasing power that cannot be hacked or printed out of thin air.
$100,000 stored in paper currency from 1913 has the same purchasing power of $2,000 today.
The same $100,000 from 1913, had it been saved in gold, rather than in paper, or as a digital ledger entry would have the purchasing power of close to $4.5 million today.
Because of this, I am choosing to use Gold as my long term vessel for my savings in order to preserve it's value.
When we choose an institution or entity to store our savings, most often the savings are held in digital or paper derivative, and the only perks they offer is a toaster, an iPad, or some such nonsense... before they fee you to death, or penalize you for withdrawing your own savings before they're done profiting off it, and further devaluing it in the process.
The entity I have chosen with which to accumulate my savings, provides me with better perks & incentives, and rewards me with cash amounts that are well ahead of inflation, gives me free gold, and doesn't penalize me if I want to withdraw my savings.