How do I buy Gold ?

Jack_F

Hi everyone,

I recently retired after working with the same company for 35 years. I feel that the best way to protect my savings is to buy gold.
I've never bought shares or commodities before in my life.

How do I go about buying gold ?
Where should I store it ?
Is it easy to sell at a later date ?
Will I incur any fees or taxes for purchasing gold ?

Thanks for your time and help.

J

samson09

Bearcat wrote: »

Jack talk to a stockbroker like davys etc who will guide you. There's no getting away from it but you'll be paying commission fees to buy. Likewise the nuggets of gold wont be arriving on a trailer to your house so you wont have to worry about storing it.

Gold is at an all time high so when the markets do return and they will return,gold prices will soften.

You might look at bonds etc.

Don't listen to this guy Jack, he doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. First of all, there's absolutely no need for a stockbroker. You will have to pay commission fees but the % fee varies wildly depending on who/where you buy from.

There are several options available but the ones that I would recommend are buying physical and having it delivered or buying physical and having it stored for you. When starting to buy gold its best to buy one ounce coins such as Kruggerands or Canadian Maples. Try ebay or online sellers such as Kitco/Ampmex for the physical stuff. Alternatively, you can buy from bullionvault.com or goldmoney.com and choose to store the gold in Zurich, London or New York. You pay storage fees and commission, see the web sites for further info. At the moment gold is still a bit overbought so wait for another week or two and see if you can get some in the $800s. Silver is also another option and in my opinion will outperform gold in 2009.

Dont expect the markets to turn around anytime soon tho, so if gold doesnt fall in next month it probably wont hit 800s again for a long time.

Dont go anywhere near bonds if you know whats good for you.

Or the banks.

samson09

Bearcat wrote: »

stones in glasshouses etc......thats a new one getting gold bars delivered....load er up there boss!!

Have you actually ever bought gold? A 12K euro bar of gold is about the size of a matchbox so there wont be any need to get the forklift out when accepting delivery of your metal. Do you have any idea what you're talking about?

Bearcat

forum is all yours sam! sorry my education was lacking.

silverharp

also gold.ie are very good they do physical and the Perth Mint scheme for storage

ZYX

Jack_F wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I recently retired after working with the same company for 35 years. I feel that the best way to protect my savings is to buy gold.
I've never bought shares or commodities before in my life.


J

To be honest, if you want to protect your savings you are best to put it in a high interest savings account. Only buy gold or shares if you are willing to risk your money. It may go up but it may go down. Having just retired are you willing to take the risk?

Bytheway

I think silver may out perform gold also but I would not be buying them now. Gold does well in times of crisis. When we emerge out of this CC, the money will pour out of Gold and other precious metals and bonds into stock.
Gold has been hanging on the $900 mark for a while now and it hasn't broken into the $1000. I think it may well retreat soon back down towards $800 mark.
To be honest, everybody now is talking about gold, in all the magazines and the news.......very bad sign.

You would be far better off getting a Brent oil ETF when oil hits the $25 mark and holding on to it for a few years or when there is light at the end of the tunnel, get etf that follow the DJ, FTSE or NAS.
Gold is more about preservation of wealth than creation, but thats my opinion.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

silverharp

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Interesting point , assuming someone has their house paid off and only has say a 5 fig savings , I'd say higher , 6 fig 5/10% would be a good insurance policy and hope you never need it:pac:

gold should only ever be bought on a decent pullback cant rule out $800 over the next couple of months.

However longer term over the next decade I am convinced gold stocks will be a great asset class, history rhymes and all that jazz

kowloon

samson09 wrote: »

Try ebay or online sellers such as Kitco/Ampmex for the physical stuff.

ebay? :eek:

Hanley

So if gold's heading for a decline, would it not be a good time to short it?

silverharp

Hanley wrote: »

So if gold's heading for a decline, would it not be a good time to short it?

depends on your timelines , if your timelines are longer term you buy on pullbacks its safer and the rewards are bigger.

Hanley

silverharp wrote: »

depends on your timelines , if your timelines are longer term you buy on pullbacks its safer and the rewards are bigger.

Let me preface this by saying I've zero practical experience and limited theoretical knowledge here...

So you buy while the price is declining?? Presumably the advantaged offered here is that you can just sit and weight for it to go down without having to worry about possibly accumulating losses as a result of an increase in the price after you've shorted it?

Buuuuut does that not greatly increase the horizon on any gains that can be recognised? Since you have to wait for it to go down so you can buy, and up so you can sell? I know as a long term plan it would probably work, but given the current climate and how everyone seems to be saying gold is overvalued, and any advance that it does make will be pared back soon enough, does shorting now seem like a reasonbaly decent punt?

Is there not some way of covering yourself in the event of a price rise anyway? Like go long and short? Presumably any advance in gold at this stage is more than likely going to be lower than the eventual decrease that seems to be projected?

So say if you were to buy $10,000 dollar's worth at $940 an ounce, and sold $10,000 worth at the same price.... Gold subsequently goes up to $970 (long gain = $320 at this point, short loss = $320 too) before peaking and starting to decline (there's the option to sell out at a price above $940 and nab a profit there, hoping the slide will continue, or just hold to it goes below $940 and cash out of the long position at a nil profit/loss), eventually running out of steam at mid 800's - if you got out of the long position at 940, and got out of the short position at 850, you're looking at a gross gain of $950ish.

Would that be the sort of trade that has any chance of coming off in your favour?

EDIT: And then once you're confident near bottom has been reached, or a new uptick has started, you can get in on the up, but still at a lower price than you would have originally paid - effectively gaining from the up and down?

Anyone feel free to chip in!!

silverharp

Hanley wrote: »

Anyone feel free to chip in!!

I didnt understand holding an equal long and short position at the same time, not something I have ever heard of, if you know how to trade options you can write options against your long position.
If you are a longer term investor you find a bull market and go long , even if you dont pick a bottom which is tough to do the bull market will rescue you even if you had bought at an interim top.
Shorter term for instance I took a big position in goldstocks at the end of Oct. most doubled between Nov and Feb. I sold half and in fact went short gold this week, I'd expect a low over the next couple of months, I'd have covered the short well before then. If I'm wrong and gold blasts though 1000 then I'm covered with my core position. However as Cramer is bullish on gold I would say that is a low probability event:pac:

patnor1011

hehe.... so many experts here with speculations if it will go higher or crash down?%$£^*^$????

You forget about one simple thing... That man who asked is not going to spend his retirement money speculating on markets. He want simply protect his money. In that point gold is much better investment than high interest savings account as there is no such a thing expect in some south african banks. Here all he is going to get is some 2-3% p.a. if he is lucky minus DIRT. Ask yankee hows he feeling after obama print truckloads of new money. $ is falling like leaves from tree in autum. If you are able to get your hands on gold on spot price or less you consider yourself lucky, buy your gold from reliable sources prefferably with certificate of some sort and hide it well. I dont trust these gold vaults which store your gold somewhere in zurich as this companies can go bankrupt too and easy and youll never see any of your-their gold. Ask lehman brothers or city bank..... Good oportunity how to invest your money wisely is to buy silver as price is going to be higher than current one. We have to keep in mind that any of this is not going to give you profit in short term. These investments are for longer term and will protect your money from inflation and government unable to pay you your money stored in bank which went bancrupt...

silverharp

patnor1011 wrote: »

..... Good oportunity how to invest your money wisely is to buy silver as price is going to be higher than current one. We have to keep in mind that any of this is not going to give you profit in short term. These investments are for longer term and will protect your money from inflation and government unable to pay you your money stored in bank which went bancrupt...

I agree with what you said , but there is more risk with silver then gold. Silver weds you to an inflation play , if we get a chronic deflation the gold/silver ratio may go to 100 , gold will do well either way