I have all my savings, which is a pretty sizeable chunk, sitting in USD traveler’s checks. In order to protect myself, I was thinking of splitting my savings in EU traveler’s checks, but my friend said the safest way to keep money is to buy gold. You can never lose the value of your money when it’s gold, apparently.
Has anyone bought gold, and can give me any tips on how to go about doing this? Any reputable dealers?
Is there a secure place in Taipei where I could store my gold once I buy it? What if I leave Taipei? Would I have to put it back into traveler’s checks to secure its safety while I relocate or travel?
[quote=“owl”]I have all my savings, which is a pretty sizeable chunk, sitting in USD traveler’s checks. In order to protect myself, I was thinking of splitting my savings in EU traveler’s checks, but my friend said the safest way to keep money is to buy gold. You can never lose the value of your money when it’s gold, apparently.
Has anyone bought gold, and can give me any tips on how to go about doing this? Any reputable dealers?
Is there a secure place in Taipei where I could store my gold once I buy it? What if I leave Taipei? Would I have to put it back into traveler’s checks to secure its safety while I relocate or travel?
Thanks in advance! [/quote]
Well… your friend is wrong… you can lose the value of your money when its in gold. Thats why they have the price of gold on the markets… it is a tradeable commodity you know! and in fact you would be paying almost twice as much for that gold now than if you had bought it ~6 years ago. (actually I think u better look it up, but as far as I’m aware Gold now is at an all time high)
I’m not saying the price of Gold is not going to go up even more (which I do think it is). What I am saying is that since the price of Gold varies against the $USD and this means u can lose money. In fact the price of Gold tends to have an inverse relationship with the $USD.
My first question is why you have all the money in traveller checks and not in a bank? Or even better - invest it somewhere so that it grows.
Wouldn’t change it into EUR as you are then subjected to the exchange rate, and if you are from the US you might loose out when the USD gets stronger. Why do you actually want to convert it into Euro in the first place?
I don’t think this is correct - gold prices fluctuate, and what’s worth USD380 per ounze today may only be worth USD100 per ounze next week (prices made up to illustrate my point).
What is true is that you can use gold as currency when the actual currency isn’t worth much anymore (heavy inflation etc.).
Anyhow, I would strongly advise against changing all your money for gold, instead I would only convert a small part (~5%) of a more diverse portfolio into gold (if at all).
They’re right, gold has doubled form around US$250 a couple of years ago to higher than $500 today. Gold fans say it could double again. But it could also fall by half. Nobody really knows. And even serious gold promoters don’t advise putting ALL your assets into gold.
If you want to buy gold here, go visit your neighborhood jewelry shop. Many of them sell gold coins as well as jewelry. The good thing about gold is that the value per weight is pretty high, so you can keep a fairly large value in a safe place yourself. Keep in mind though that there are a lot of regulations about transporting gold internationally, which may make things difficult to take things with you. On the other hand, you can convert it to US dollars fairly easily at the jewelry shop.
If you don’t want to store it yourself, look into buying from goldmoney.com/ which is a reputable gold dealer who will store your gold for you.
Another option is a principal protected CD based on the value of gold from EverBank:
Because it is principal protected, you really won’t lose money, except to inflation.
Either of those two options are fine if you worry about inflation, but some people like gold to use as an asset in the case of collapse of the financial system entirely. If that’s the case, you really need standardized coins in your possession.
