How much GOLD is enough, to provide security for your family ?

There are other forums where the OP's question might get some traction and discussion. Probably not here. Just saying.
I don't have strong opinions, I kind of agree that it probably would be a pretty narrow set of circumstances where PM's would be hugely useful.

 

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You have to have something to trade, under a moderate set of circumstances
and taking in to affect things will improve where adequate food, shelter and
security will return.

 

The list of what the farmer would trade for his perishable crops is vast.

Medical supplies
Toothpaste/brushes
Feminine products
Diapers
Toilet paper
Soap
Gasoline/kerosene/fuel
Alcohol
Cigarettes (not for me )
Batteries
Communications (HAM, CB)
Replacement water filtration: sediment & carbon
Iodine
Clothing
Books (instructional/reference and entertaining)
Pens/pencils
Paper
Items for entertainment (no more TV or internet ):
Musical instruments
Paint and brushes
Games

And plenty more. PM's don't even get mentioned on a list when it's TEOTWAWKI.

 

Not to mention the nameless Chinese businessmen buying up potential farmland, then leaving it to rot. It's happened in my town a few times.

 

They're not buying it to grow food on it themselves. They buy it and then rent it back out to farmers. Passive income. Great way to make money if you can pull it off. I doubt end of the world theories enter into the equation at all.

 

Since gold is a preservation of wealth you can never have enough
Stack on

 

I don't know. Wealth isn't really like an egg; you don't increase it by sitting on it.

Wealth ought to do stuff. Some of that stuff can make it grow. Growing is better than being preserved, right?

 

I'm not saying put all your eggs in one basket, but I believe physical gold in an excellent investment. Gold has long proven itself over the last 5,000 years of being used as sound money. According to Google the Average annual return of gold and other assets worldwide 1971-2022. Between January 1971 and December 2022, gold had average annual returns of 7.78 percent, which was only slightly behind the return of commodities, with 8.3 percent average annual returns.

 

I think I'm looking at the same source you are (Statistia), and I can't see whether their figures are nominal or inflation-adjusted dollars...?

 

As far as the idea of silver and gold as a barter item when the local currency crashes, appearently this happened in Venezuela in the near past. There are stories of people carrying small bits of PM's wrapped in the old paper money.

 

It's not gold coins but tangible financial assets -- stocks, bonds, and cash -- that give you financial security.

Gold is simply disaster insurance -- MAYBE. Some people think long-term U.S. Treasury bonds provide that and the last 40+ years, they'd be right.

Your coin/gold collection is simply something you can look at and admire and it's an additional source of money IF you need it. A source of money that could be worth the same, more, or alot less so unlike cash/bonds/stocks you have risk with uncertain future values.

With C/B/S you know they go up over time.

 

Since most of us do NOT have a lifespan of 5,000 years.....gold's return over that time period isn't of much use.

Cherry-picked data like from 1971 -- before gold had an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime move up 20-fold -- are similarly useless.

Using rolling time periods -- which eliminates timing and beginning/end period bias -- gold is a TERRIBLE long-term investment as are most commodities.

Stocks are your best long-term investment and now with yield bonds aren't bad, either.

 

In the same time period, the S&P 500 returned 12.1% with much lower volatility and risk.

In other words....$1 invested in gold or other commodities grew to $50 or $63. But the same $1 invested in stocks returned $380.

I don't believe in investing or buying stuff in preparation for Armageddon, but the way to prepare for it is to buy stocks (or better yet, a diversified portfolio of stocks/bonds/cash) and build wealth that way, preferably selling a few days before Armageddon.

 

Don’t have much confidence in paper,
stocks are very sluggish right now
for me atleast and my kids and grand
kids like GOLD for inflation protection

 

That's what the world runs on. If you want some gold for disaster insurance, I get that. But you can't possibly think that tying up the bulk of your financial assets and net worth in an asset that pays no interest or dividends is sound financial management.

It isn't -- it's malpractice, with all due respect.

Stocks go up and down. I'm not saying to go out and put 100% into stocks (I'm actually bearish ST right now) but you can get 5% in 1-year Treasury bills with no risk....6% in high-quality corporate bond or bond funds....and 7-8% with modest risk.

We just had a bloodbath in the bond market, why wouldn't people here be looking at that sector ? If gold fell 40% in a year, wouldn't many of you be loading up ?

 

even though I do BTC, I like assets that
I can physically hold like GOLD fluctuations up or down don’t really
bother me as I don’t buy to flip, all
of what I own will be passed down
so it will just average out on the cycle

 

I have NO problems buying gold or gold coins as part of our hobby or even as a small % of a non-wealthy person's portfolio.

Gold, commodities, and PMs can NOT match the returns from stocks or even bonds (when yields are normalized) over the long haul, as I posted above.

 

with the recent pandemic, who knows
what the new normal is ? things have
changed so drastically, I am not sure
what you can count on anymore, it’s
a sad state of affairs, went to Chili’s
last night for dinner and the staff shortages are so much there offering
$30 an hr for someone to wash the dishes ! and that’s a full tome position
and no takers !