I’ve been interested in purchasing a small amount of physical gold for our portfolio and trying to find ways to do so cheaply. The spreads and commissions from many gold dealers is higher than I like and the premium you have to pay for coins just doesn’t make sense to me. My reason for wanting to own gold are two-fold.

1) Gold is an inflation hedge/hedge against the falling dollar - over time, it’s value in real dollar terms remains pretty much constant. That being said, the price does fluctuate, sometimes dramatically.
2) Gold peaked in 1983 at a bit over $800 per ounce. If you were to adjust that price to today’s dollar it would be around $1,800, or nearly 3 times what it is worth today.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not normally the doom and gloom type but what I’ve been reading about subprime mortgage debt has me a bit concerned… I don’t know what will happen but one possibility is laid out below.

Read the rest of this entry »