A Fresh look at Gold and Silver Investing

It's been about 7 years since I started this blog and, being honest, I have not updated it as much as I should have since I find myself thinking about Gold and Silver daily.  To help refresh my thoughts, I have decided to publish my book How to Invest in Gold and Silver online for FREE.

I know this is a big decision which could deny me a few royalties, but I think it's worth doing to review what was written and look ahead to the next few years.

You can read How to Invest in Gold and Silver for FREE here.

Precious Metal Mining Shares to Watch

Fresnillo is the world's largest silver producer and has two things going for it as far as I can see (1) It is in Mexico, the only country left in the world that still uses silver in it's currency and (2) It's next to the USA, which is still a huge consumer of silver and where a lot of the world's silver, both paper and the real stuff is transacted, through COMEX.

Goldmoney Special Offer - UNMISSABLE

I have for a long time been a great fan of Goldmoney and right now they are doing a rather unmissable special offer.

Until January 11th you can invest in gold or silver in their Singapore vault and pay a reduced commission of only 1.99% for silver and 0.98% for Gold.

The way I see it, this has several benefits :-

- For new gold investors, it provides the opportunity to take a gold and/or silver stake with one of the most reputable providers out there at a reduced price.

- For established gold investors, it provides the opportunity to diversify your holdings into a new location. This is something most investors greatly advise. Especially when the location is one of the world's new financial centres, with none of the baggage associated with New York, the City of London or Switzerland. Three countries whose reputation for financial freedom is becoming somewhat tarnished lately.

- Singapore definitely feels like a safe location to me and when one of the world's greatest investors, Jim Rogers decides it's the best place for him to make his home, you have to take notice. You can check out their offer and open an account here. Fill your boots!

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!

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SUCCESSFUL TAX-FREE ISA INVESTING / HOW TO INVEST IN GOLD AND SILVER

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Valid until 19th Feb 2012. Great offer from a great website.

InvestGold India

India has long been reknowned as the last gold standard nation, where, perhaps, the memory of some long-ago fiat money crisis is so ingrained into the population, that they still perceive gold as the ultimate store of value. With this in mind, Invest Gold has now launched an Indian version of it's site, which can be seen at InvestGold India.

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.