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Investing in gold/silver?
Any financially savvy ladies here, or someone with a background in finances?
I figure by the time I'm old enough to get social security, that program will be bankrupt and nonexistent. H and I are trying to save with the assumption that we will have to fund our own retirement entirely by ourselves.
Currently we both have whole life insurance policies, 401(k)s, and will eventually own a practice that we can build equity in. However, with the current economy I worry about having so much of our savings based on an economy that could completely collapse.
At the risk of sounding like a crazy, delusional conspiracy theororist with a nuclear bunker...we're thinking of investing in gold/silver. Because of the field I'm in I've naturally watched the price of gold over the past 6 years, and it's only been going up. Paper currency is only as good as the gold backing it, so we've been thinking about starting to invest.
Anyone else do this? Thought about it? If so, where do you buy it & where do you keep it?
Re: Investing in gold/silver?
i had a friend that invested in gold, and actually had gold pieces that he kept in a safe deposit box at the bank. i think he inherited them from someone in his family
good luck, and let us know what you find out in your research on gold/silver investing.
My BFP Chart Danger Love Blog
OK, H is back. This is what he says:
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401(k)?s are a decent idea, but put more in a Roth IRA, these don?t pay taxes on the money you earn. You?re likely to be in a higher tax bracket later and will have to pay a lot of taxes on your 401(k) as the assets in it make money. So I actually have both, a 401(k) with my employer and a Roth IRA on my own.
Precious metals like gold/silver can fall as fast as they go up. It?s not a good idea to put a significant portion of your retirement money in either. They really could be on the verge of another bubble? just look at the housing market, for decades that was the ?place to put your money.? A vast majority of America was completely shocked their house could go down in value. They didn?t even think it was possible.
That being said, it?s ok to invest in gold, but keep it under 5% of your assets. It?s just not that safe of an investment. How you invest in gold depends on how much you have. You don?t actually have to have it at home, you can invest in a gold fund. To see how ?good? a gold fund is, look at a 5 or 10 year chart comparing the gold fund with the price of an ounce of gold. That way you can see how close it is to the real thing.
Some other good places to put retirement money
ETF (exchange traded fund) ? there?s a school of thought in investing that you can?t beat the market, so these funds are designed to invest in literally every stock security in the market evenly. A computer runs this and the fees are low, and these will essentially track right with the stock market at large. Look at some historical return charts over the last 10 years and you won?t find many mutual funds that can beat a Dow Jones ETF.
You can also get an ETF in the bond market or international equity markets too.
Cash ? A 12,000 point DOW is a little high for my taste, US employment is still weak, Europe is in trouble, and there could be some good investing opportunities in the next 5 years if you can wait. Inflation is very low 0-.5% so you?re not hurting yourself with cash.
Hope this helps!
*swoons* That's my man!