Isn't collecting coins kind of like paying for life insurance every month? I mean, would coin collecting/investing be just as good as life insurance? You pass away, your wife or relative receives the coins, and are able to sell them.... And isn't it just so much more fun to see what your actually spending your money on. Life insurance decreases once you get older, if i'm not mistaken, but, with coins, in most cases, they only grow in value, as you grow old. Medical insurance: Same basic stuff applies, except one thing. You go through your whole life never visiting a doctor, never really needing the medical attention throughout your lifespan, all your money you COULD HAVE SPENT ON COINS Is now just poof, gone, no coins. Retirement funds: What if you don't make it to retirement, see the life insurance description. All that money into your retirement , and you are gone before you get there, what do you have to show for it? Workers comp: You eventually pay it back in the long run, but, if you would have spent your money on coins, you get sick, you have no medical insurance, you don't go to the doctors, you are fired from your job, well, you wouldn't have had to do that, you've been investing your money into coins, therefor, you always have a backup when you need the money. Well, it's now 7:40 A.M. Time for me to hit the bed Thanks for reading my incoherrent rambles, and feel free to post
Well your logic makes sense, but very rarely does it work out. First, spouses rarely share our passion for coins. All they know is that we spend hard earned money on money. How many times have each of us heard, you spent how much on a quarter? When you pass away, the spouse finds some dealer and tells then of your little collection. Don't know how much they are worth or where they bought them. If this logic is to work, detailed records must be kept. Each coin catagorized with price paid, where it was bought, and the guide used to determine value, along with grade. A list of good trustworthy dealers to see upon your passing.
It's sad, because my wife could sit down with you and tell you exactly how much I spent on coins this month, and the month before, up to a year back, and then tell you how much they are worth , and then slap you because you spent how much on a quarter? I believe it is a good plan for myself, not saying it's a solid plan for everyone, given each circumstance by each individual case. But, regardless of who inherits my coins, I have an online database of what i've sold, what i've traded, what i've bought, etc etc.... Everything is saved to a disk at least once a month.
I have specific instructions that state, "So you found my coin collection." I am sure that when my family finds this, they will think I was crazy when I wrote it. I have specific instructions along with inventory, photos, etc., of what they should do and not do! I have been in coin shops where that old lady walks into a shop with that "I don't have a clue" look and her late husband's collection is tallied up in less than 15 minutes. I understand that a dealer is providing a service and they have every right to make a fair dollar, but I get thoose "Felix Unger (Odd Couple)" nervous coughs when I see coins bought and sold for pennies on the dollar. I was in a coin shop in Florida (last week) and this lady comes in with her late father's collection. Most coins were late wheat pennies, Mercs, and what we would consider junk. After about 15 minutes, she walked out with $40 and she was happy because she told the dealer that tonight's dinner with her husband was on her! After she left, the dealer showed me the junk she brought it and I thought the dealer was very kind to offer as much as he did, considering he was running a business. But the seller was tickled she had money to buy a casual dinner. The dealer had coins that he could inventory, put in 2x2's and sell for about $150 to $200. I guess that it is typical, but for me I will spin in my grave if my kids and family treat my like-time hobby as "money for a cheap dinner". So...my instructions are quite explicit and I warned them NOT to deviate from my instructions because whether I look down or up at them, I will haunt them if they don't!
That is exactly what I am doing if you had read my post. I invest in coins and plan on passing them onto my son when I die. Note I buy overpriced retail and I also hoard all pocket change into big steel bins. I agree the best part is that I can have fun with my "life insurance" before I actually give it to my son. I will look forward to reading future posts from you as you are on the same page as myself. Thanks for brightening up my day!!
Coin collecting is not life insurance. Life insurance is to provide money in a quick way to support the family and hopefully maintain the family life style for a certain pre-set number of years in case a care taker of the family dies. You would want that money to be in your family's hands as soon as possible to ensure that the monthly bills are paid and life goes on for your loved ones. Now leaving ones coin collection as a family legacy is something else. That gives your loved ones the choice of keeping, enjoying, and adding to, what you devoted alot of time and money to assemble or to sell at their pace of pricing for needed or desired items in their own life. Coin collecting is fun and could be profitable but people should not get carried away with it thinking that it is the end all. There is no end all.
A lot of things fit into this catergory, by this sort of broad definition - coins, art, pottery, your house, your car, even your electric razor and Elvis commemorative plates. But more than insurance, what you have is an asset - and in some vague sort of way, assets are insurance against financial hardship, because you can liquidate when necessary and convert your holdings into cash. In the end it's all the same. I have never been much in the business of buying insurance.
could be. I'm not a CPA, but I think assets are only taxable if you sell them for a profit - then you have capital gains tax...
After i'm dead i don't think i'd care less where the coins go.* I've enjoyed them, even if a dealer rips off my family inheriters then it's there own fault for not having read up on it, i means it not like there'll not be coin value books next to them with a whole page devoted to grading. *Only thing that might bother me would be if they were damaged by cleaning or something. To think they could survive all those centuries to be damaged by a future child with a tin of polish would upset me a little. But i would be my fault for not making clear about it.
What you said struck a chord All of this talk about what benefit a collection would be to a survivor makes me smile and think about some of the guilt that I have about my collections right now. My wife and I both work and we have three children. We don't live an extravagant lifestyle but we seem to pay the bills and I have a 401K which I fund not too shabbily. I always put the family first but yet I always feel guilty when I spend money on my collection. I don't play golf, I don't fish or hunt, I don't go out drinking with the boys and yet I always feel guilty when I spend money on my collectables. Coin and stamp collecting is the perfect diversion for me because I can do it in my own home with as much or as little money as I have at the time. I truly derive a great deal of pleasure from it. I grew up with nothing and I think seeing a collection grow and enjoying the pride of ownership is one of the things that draws me to the hobby. When my wife or anyone else asks "How much did you spend for a quarter?!?", I try to explain to them that collecting is one of the few hobbies that you might get something out of one day. Lets face it, people that spend $10-$15 a weekend on renting movies a weekend or $50-$75 a month on name-brand clothing will never see one red cent return on their diversion but even if I sell for half (heaven forbid!) I'll get something out of these binders. No one seems to get this line of logic around here. Anyone have any thoughts? (Oh, and please excuse my lying down on the couch for psychoanalysis)
You make a good point ernie, but I think - in the end - it amounts to one of many avenues of justification. I, myself, came to the realization that I work hard for what I have, and nothing (in a material sense) gives me as much pleasure as this hobby does. I have heard a lot of people that say 'you should spend x percentage of your earnings on entertainment, and x percentage to this...' and so on. Many people say you should only have x percent of your total net value in your coin collection. I guess, in the end, nobody knows what your value of x really is, and those people that come up with those values don't earn your money, so why should they tell you the best way to spend it?
Exactly... You've got that right.. You're the one who worked the job so spend it the way you want! That's what America is all about. I love the Grover Cleveland vignette on your icon. I've got the 1914 Fed Res $5, and $10. I need to get the $20 next. ARe you a ragpicker?
Now there's a term I haven't heard in loooooooooong while. Ernie - I do believe you are given away your age Oooooops - guess I am too
thanks! I was worried that he made me look to grumpy. I never realized how surly he looked until recently.
Life insurance should not be taxable. Life insurance means that your kids will not lose the house that they are growing up in and will not have to move away from their friends. Life insurance means that your wife will only have to deal with her grief and not be overwelmed with how to put food on the plate for the kids and have a roof over their head. A coin collection can be an asset that your loved ones could keep as a warm memory of you or sell to pay for an unexpected need or even for your own grandchilden ,whom you may not even have yet, education I happened to also have a nice stamp collection. Most of my stamps were my mom's. She gave them to me even thru she is still alive for I was the only son who showed an interest with not only the stamps but with sharing them with my sons. So every once in awhile when I bring mom down from Sarasota, I open up the books for all the family to share and add a stamp or two to watch both my kids and mom's eyes gleem. I too plan on giving my collections to the sons who show the greatest interests and will carry life insurance until they are finished with college which could be sometime from now since my youngest is six weeks old.
