Is Gold considered as investment or insurance?

[chialc88]

wow! what a conclusion.

isn't it the same as 天下男人都是一样？

As for leasehold vs freehold, older generation still prefers freehold because of the desire to pass on their legacy to the next...
just like the tv commercial, you did not own it, but just taking care on behalf of your children. You will handover to them when they are ready.




A Life not Reflected is a Life not Worth Living.

[Temperament]

No GOV of the World can afford to be "泥 菩 萨 过 江"...... .
All of them have to look after their interest first before yours.
So in this sense, all are "天 下 乌 鴉 一 班 黑"

[viruskbs]

Just want to share with you guys my personal experience:

I was seriously considering putting some $$$ in gold 1-2 years back. One day, I passed by a jewllery retail shop that had some 10g, 20g, 100g and 1kg gold bar on display. I stood outside the store in front of the display for a while tried looking at the price tag. I couldn't see the 1kg price as the tag was placed upside down. I think it was deliberately done that way to encourage potential customer to walk into the store. A sales staff came out to talk to me. I then asked her about the price of the 1 kg gold bar. It was around something like $60k plus if I remember correctly. Sure it was the market value at that time. Then, I asked her the second question: How much would the store pay if I were to sell them the same gold bar? The answer was around $50k plus. 20% below market! In my mind, I concluded that the store was only interested in selling not buying back.

This is logical to me. Why would they need to buy back gold from a man on the street if it is not very much cheaper than what they could get from their regular source? So to me, this is not a good way to invest since the investment would need to appreciate 20% or more inorder to break even. I may be able to sell at a higher price at other store but that was not my consideration. What I don't feel comfortable is that we pay market price when we buy, but when come to cashing it out, we are at the traders' mercy.

Few years back someone was complaining in the media about a bank was not interested in buying back gold deposite certificate from investor who bought from them. Same thing, the bank are interested in selling but not buying back. People on the street are always at the mercy of the big player.

I considered buying gold eft like the SPDR but was put off by the fact that are cost involved like safekeeping, trustee fee blar blar blar... And also the counter party risk. So if the gold value remains unchanged, our holdings will be eaten up by the fees incurred.

So gold a good investment for ordinary man in the street? Definitely not for me.

IMO, for physical gold, we can classify into 3 categories

1. Jewellery - Unless it's special eg. designed by some well known designer (preferably dead, meaning limited nos. left in mkt) or an antique, Bid/Ask is the highest, IIRC 20-30%.

2. Collector - Depends on the nos. minted and the designs. The rare ones are sold at a much higher premium to gold price, same for resale. But, may be hard to sell at the market price unless you can find another collector. Bid/Ask depends on finding a buyer...

3. Bullion - These are the ones for investors. The bid/ask spread shouldn't be very high. I did a quick check using UOB prices and it's ~0.4% for the kilobar. I don't think they'll buy from you if your gold is bought elsewhere.

I have been thinking about 'investing' in physical gold for a while now.... Only started on (2) as a hobby but perhaps I better start collecting some bullion coins so that I can sew into my clothes or hide in my shoes in case we have to run away from Singapore like refugees in the future... Hee...

I went to a Jeweller today & saw some Mini Gold bars upto 100gms each. I asked about the return Policy. I was informed that If i need Cash they will deduct 4% from the prevailing price of the Gold. But if I am buying jewellery there will be no deduction. Much better than 20% deduction mentioned above. But they accept only cash or NETS for Gold Bar Purchase. If u use credit card there is 2% + surcharge. I did not have much cash & my wife is one of those kancheong ones so we bought only 50gms.

[Behappyalways]

you can try this

http://www.uob.com.sg/personal/investmen...etals.html

[arriyana]

Unless you are investing in extremely large value, you are almost better off with gold ETFs due to low spread, high liquidity and low cost of maintenance

[sgd]

many forgeries from china nowsadays remember "gold plated lead bars" looks just like the real thing with markings and all until you drill a hole in to it.

If I was a gold dealer and somebody brought me a large quantity of gold bars to exchange for cash I will insist they bring to get it assayed and certified before we can talk further.So also need to include assaying costs now.

[Behappyalways]

《经济半小时》 20140422 黄金这一年
http://jingji.cntv.cn/2014/04/22/VIDE139...8638.shtml

http://investideas.net/forum/viewtopic.p...9&start=90

[Behappyalways]

Using gold to treat cancer
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/20...d=HP_River

[Antifragility]

I see the dire lack of interest here, in Singapore and in the global mainstream news outlets as a positive sign of the next move higher for gold.

Always bear in mind that the ratio of paper to physical is levered over 100 : 1.

[Behappyalways]

The seven drivers of the gold price
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/perso...price.html