GoldMoney Explained

 This was the brainchild of highly-respected gold watcher James Turk.  Goldmoney was structured with a cast iron guarantee that there will always be 100% gold backing of every unit of currency (called “goldgrams” in this case) in circulation, and they claim that some others do not have the same cast-iron guarantees in their small print.  Whether this is true or not is hard to say, as for an ordinary investor the small-print is difficult to understand, but the discussions and articles available make interesting reading when deciding on the safety of providers you are considering.

Goldmoney, like e-Gold did, also tries to offer the use of Goldmoney as a medium of payment.  This however is not very heavily used right now, and the majority of investors are gold bugs simply buying gold and silver and holding it.

What could appeal to British or EU citizens about Goldmoney is that it is Jersey-based.  You may trust and understand the rules of Jersey more than those of the Caribbean or Panama.  This is not to say that other organisations are unsafe.  A US-citizen may just as easily understand Panama and believe it to be much safer than Jersey.

As time went by, Goldmoney has opened a variety of vaults to cater for the requirements of international buyers, including London, New York, Zurich, Singapore and Hong Kong.

GoldMoney also has a Silver option, and this represents an excellent opportunity for European Union buyers to buy Silver bullion without legally paying any VAT.  More latterly they also introduced the ability to hold the national currencies of Dollars, Pounds or Euros in your Goldmoney account and receive interest on it.  You can then switch your holding between any of the five denominations (including the two metals), as you see fit.

Knowing that it’s the fees that make investors poor and brokers rich, you are probably best off not utilising this feature.  The fees will quickly eat into your returns, and a buy-and-hold strategy is probably best.

Payment into GoldMoney is by bank transfer.  Payment out can be made by direct bank transfer.

One other aspect of GoldMoney worthy of mention is that at one point the terms and conditions said that if your account is not logged into for 12 years the ownership of your gold reverted to Goldmoney.  Okay,  it sounds unlikely, but consider what would happen if you died and never told anybody about your holding or even if you were unable to use the internet for 12 years due to some kind of accident or national crisis.

Overall, a highly respected organisation with the reputation of a known “gold-watcher” behind it.  Even if you don’t buy Goldmoney then there are articles available for free on the website that make interesting reading.

Gold is a Risky Investment

I have not updated this blog in a while, but thought it was worth reminding people of something that has not been true for many years - Gold is a Risky Investment. Now, this might seem ridiculous, especially considering I will further quantify it by saying I believe in the long-term fundamentals, international inflation prospects of Western nations and the will of government to do all it can to save it’s own skin at the expense of your life savings. Given that last factor, especially, nothing will do as well in the next 10 years as gold…except maybe silver…and food…but that is for another day.

However, look at where the price of gold is now. No-one should be surprised to invest and see it fall, even short term, by 40-50% back to the 900$ level. What am I basing this on? It is exactly what happened in 1976, when it fell from 200$ to 100$, even as the long term trend was for gold to move another 5 times higher in 4 years. 1976 must have been a very hard year to sit there and talk to your friends about gold and reconcile the long term belief with what was really happening in the market.

The point I want to make is that anything is a risk, but gold is much more of a risk at 1800$ than it was at 400$, when it really could not have fallen much further at all.

What can you do about it, even if you want to invest in gold or silver now? Invest monthly in small amounts, via physical bullion ETFs or the internet gold sites such as BullionVault or Goldmoney and promise within yourself to keep those monthly savings going, after all, falling prices mean you actually buy more ounces each month!

When is investing in gold and silver not investing in gold and silver?

I just saw a fresh review of the book on Amazon. While I am slightly disappointed "Grasshopper" wasn't a fan, and I do apologise, I am grateful to those people who contacted me thanking me for an insight into an alternative world of hard currency that most people have never known existed. Given that spread betting and options are, as most experienced gold investors would agree, investments on the price of Gold or Silver over a given timeframe, rather than an investment on the long-term value of the metal itself, only a short amount of page space was required to explain them. Reading between the lines, you'll see that my only real recommendations are gold bullion coins (preferably sovereigns although that's because I live in the UK), or a trusted internet gold supplier such as Goldmoney, where you can access your gold and spend it from any location worldwide.

When it comes to Gold mining stocks, I agree the returns can be explosive, but they are very exposed to the vagaries of governments, who during a crisis will probably stop at nothing to confiscate assets, etc. and when you look at ETFs and Perth Mint certificates, there are rumours that the gold and silver behind them is not as real as it could be, if you know what I mean. Even more galling when you consider the storage fees often charged.

Buy WOW Gold

I recently noticed a huge increase in the number of hits to my core site, www.investgold.co.uk. One of the major search terms was that displayed above. aside from any thought of "Wow, gold has done well these past few years...", I must explain that WOW is an acronym of World of Warcraft, where gold is the main currency used in trade, in this fantastic, multi-player game, with millions of players worldwide, all connected through their PCs and an internet connection. Funny how the creators of this game, probably unwittingly, identified gold as the one true worldwide currency. (Actually, I wonder if inflation can be created in this game through over-issue of currency units?)

Anyhow, to deflect such visitors, I recommend they visit www.wowgold.eu, and check out some of the books for sale advising of the multitude of ways to obtain more gold through the game, legally and 100% above board. The US Fed, bank of England and EU central bank could all probably learn a thingor two....