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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 348523, member: 11521&quot;]True Story</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Thursday I went to Wendy&#039;s for lunch. In my hand was the latest issue of Coin World. (I like to read while I eat. What better to read about than coins?) The guy behind me in line says, &quot;So, are you one of those numismatic collectors?&quot; I said, &quot;I&#039;ve been called worse. Yes, I collect coins.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>He proceeded to tell me that he bought 24 St. Gaudens Double Eagles 28 years ago and they had never been worth what he paid for them until now. (In other words, he bought at the top in 1980.) He said that now, finally, after 28 years, he was selling those coins and getting his money back out of them. He said he listed the coins on eBay.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I told him he may have timed it just right as gold may have peaked. In fact, gold dropped $59 just yesterday (Wednesday). He turned a little pale and said he had not heard about that. He wanted to know what gold was trading at and I told him I don&#039;t follow it closely but the last I heard it was below $940. He turned even paler and said that he listed his coins on eBay last Saturday for a 7-day auction. He set the starting bid at $950 - and he didn&#039;t have any bids yet. (I thought before that he meant he had already sold his coins on eBay.) </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It was obvious that this guy had been waiting for 28 years for gold to reach a price to bail him out and when it got there he got a little greedy. Instead of selling to a coin dealer he decided to sell the coins on eBay hoping to ride gold just a little higher. After all, it was steadily increasing every day. Now he appears to have gotten caught in a correction.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I hated to be the bearer of bad news for him. He sure looked disappointed.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So, General, my advice to you is . . . If you want to invest your money find something that you are comfortable with. If you want a safe investment (i.e., low risk) you cannot expect high returns.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If you want the potential for high returns you must accept the high risk that goes along with it. If you decide to speculate you should only use money that you can either afford to lose or can wait 28 years to recoup. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You may be captivated with the huge gains that gold and silver have made over the last several months. Repeat this mantra when you think about using your $15k to buy gold or silver - Past performance is not a guarantee of future performance.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You should think twice - no, thrice - before jumping on the gold or silver bandwagon. You don&#039;t want to get in at the peak and then ride it down, down, down and have to wait 28 years to break even. (Note: I am not saying gold and silver have peaked. For all I know they could go to double their current spot prices.) </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Like others have said, precious metals are very volitile right now. I would not feel comfortable speculating on gold or silver at the moment. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Brit had the best advice of all. If you have any debt - especially credit card debt - pay that off first. Then you can think about investing. Or speculating.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Good luck whatever you decide to do.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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