Storing Physical Gold?

[mortalpawn]

How do you prefer to store your physical gold (or silver)?  Some options I've considered:

1 - Safety deposit box?
2 - Large (600lb anchored) fire safe (i.e. gun safe) at home?
3 - Hidden or common object diversion safes?

Option 1 seems to be favored, but I like the idea of being able to keep at least some physical gold or silver close to me if the bank is closed or the SHTF.  Two looks like a good option for most scenarios (relatively safe from robbery, fire, disaster) unless someone has a gun to my head, but in that case I'll worry more about keeping my head intact than the gold.  Option three seems weakest of all, but is certainly the lowest cost and there are hundreds of places to hide a few coins around the house.

Personally I'm not looking to keep a large pot of gold/silver at home - just a bit for emergencies.  I agree the rest could go in a safe deposit, storage or ETFs.

I've read the other threads on this - but thought I would ask again as there was not much talk about heavy fire proof or diversion safes.

Thoughts?

[Ad Orientem]

Home storage is inherently high risk. I don't care how big the safe is, how many dogs with large teeth you have or how many guns you own. If the word gets out that you have gold in your house there are violent people out there who will try to take it from you. And these people aren't the sort who get squeamish about blood or terrorizing family members until you hand over what they want.

Stick to bank safe deposit boxes.

P.S. if you want a little emergency stash, that's fine. But I would not keep much. And to be honest, I favor silver for short term emergencies. It's more liquid and you can use it to buy things like groceries and bottled water. You might have a hard time getting change for a 1 oz gold coin.

[Libertarian666]

And whatever you do, don't go boating!!!

[mortalpawn]

Thanks,
  Agree that silver makes more sense for small emergencies, and also agree it makes more sense to store large quantities outside the home, in the bank or an account of some kind.

  Given all of that -  most of us still have some valuables (jewelry, important papers, small emergency stash, backup hard drive, etc...) inside the home - so where to best store them?

[Ad Orientem]

Thanks,
  Agree that silver makes more sense for small emergencies, and also agree it makes more sense to store large quantities outside the home, in the bank or an account of some kind.

  Given all of that -  most of us still have some valuables (jewelry, important papers, small emergency stash, backup hard drive, etc...) inside the home - so where to best store them?

Anything you can't afford to lose, or that will cause significant inconvenience if lost belongs in a safe deposit box. Beyond that a mini safe that is fire resistant should work. Just understand that this is not for storing things you really don't want stolen or lost.

[MediumTex]

Davy Jones' locker works pretty well.

Bank safe deposit boxes also work fine.

[Libertarian666]

Davy Jones' locker works pretty well.

Bank safe deposit boxes also work fine.

And you can't beat the expense ratio on DJ's locker... until you need to rebalance out of that gold, of course. 

[Bean]

What ever you do, don't tell anyone.  Also, just my opinion, but I would trust GPS cached 6 foot deep holes in the ground over banks.

I lost all my gold in a terrible sharknado accident.

[l82start]

Home storage is inherently high risk. I don't care how big the safe is, how many dogs with large teeth you have or how many guns you own. If the word gets out that you have gold in your house there are violent people out there who will try to take it from you. And these people aren't the sort who get squeamish about blood or terrorizing family members until you hand over what they want.
Stick to bank safe deposit boxes..

i got curious and did a quickie Google search to try to find out statistics for how many home safes get robbed each year vs how many are owned, and found nothing,,,,. any idea what the realistic odds/actual statistics are for home invaders opening a safe or holding a home owner hostage and forcing them to open a safe? my hunch is "very slim to none" but i have no real idea...

[MediumTex]

Home storage is inherently high risk. I don't care how big the safe is, how many dogs with large teeth you have or how many guns you own. If the word gets out that you have gold in your house there are violent people out there who will try to take it from you. And these people aren't the sort who get squeamish about blood or terrorizing family members until you hand over what they want.
Stick to bank safe deposit boxes..

i got curious and did a quickie Google search to try to find out statistics for how many home safes get robbed each year vs how many are owned, and found nothing,,,,. any idea what the realistic odds/actual statistics are for home invaders opening a safe or holding a home owner hostage and forcing them to open a safe? my hunch is "very slim to none" but i have no real idea...

The crime story told in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was based upon a couple of guys who heard thirdhand that there was this safe at this guy's house and it had a lot of money in it.

Although the whole family ended up getting killed, I think that the safe wound up being empty.

IMHO, the greatest risk from a home safe is some random person who gets a glimpse of it or hears a casual reference to it and it sets in motion a series of communications that end with someone with a gun telling you to open the safe one day.

The best security system is not appearing to have anything worth stealing.

[sophie]

A safe is just a marker that says "Look in here.  Valuable stuff inside."  I especially don't get the point of safes that are small enough to be carried.

If I were planning to stash gold coins at home, I'd opt for the "hiding in plain sight" approach.  Think about places your average thief wouldn't think of looking, such as in a bag of lima beans in the freezer.  There are even better options of course...use your imagination.

I'd be more afraid of things like forgetting where I stashed the coins, doing a renovation and forgetting to retrieve the items beforehand, losing the stash in a fire, etc. 

[l82start]

Sophie and MT are both making good common sense points about home safe security, big and bolted to the ground is better than small and removable, secret is better than known.

with the huge number of guns in America and the number of gun safes out there i suspect owning one is fairly common, i cant think of any news items reporting one being broken open or where the owner was forced to open one, that doesn't mean it hasn't or cant happen, it is definitely possible....  but i still wonder how common it truly is...

[MediumTex]

If you must have a big fancy safe, think about having a small plain safe somewhere else, and keep your good stuff in that safe.

[Tyler]

I lost all my gold in a terrible sharknado accident.

LOL.  Nothing to add -- just wanted to acknowledge your genius.

[dualstow]

When I think about home safes, I think about the homes and neighborhoods, too.

In the city where I live, I think I would be paranoid that one of the safe delivery & installation men would target me later for robbery at gunpoint. However, my parents have a couple of large safes in their home in a gated community, itself in a very low-crime town. Maybe I'm naive, but I don't worry so much about them being targeted. They're more likely to get into trouble for driving a nice Lexus.

They also use safe deposit boxes, as do I. At first, I stored all my ounce coins at home. When I bought my second dozen, it didn't feel right keeping them around, especially with an upcoming renovation project. I feel much better having most everything at the bank. Now I've just got a single coin and a key in the drawer.

I get to use the box free of charge, and I keep other things in there, like a hard drive with important document back-ups.

[dualstow]

P.S. Here's an older thread on the subject, one of many:

http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/go ... ical-gold/

[WildAboutHarry]

A safe is just a marker that says "Look in here.  Valuable stuff inside."  I especially don't get the point of safes that are small enough to be carried.

A small safe that can be carried can be filled with third-tier valuables (the ashtray you made in metal shop, souvenirs from your trip to Tijuana, your jar of change, etc.).  Makes a more tempting target to a thief than a large, bolted-to-the-floor safe.  They may just grab the little safe and be gone.

[GT]

Funny timing, I was just reading an MSN list about -Worst money advice in songs-

This one still seems to apply to a person that goes overboard on home storage security measures.

From the band the "WHO"

The Who


"Once upon a time there lived an old miser man

By the name of Silas Stingy

He carried all his money in a little black box

Which was heavy as a rock …



He bought a safe to put the box in

And a house to put the safe in

And a watchdog on a chain to make quite sure

And his face was very funny

When he counted up his money

And he realized he hadn't any more"

[dualstow]

C'mon, you know Daltrey has one of those little black boxes, too. 

[GT]

Daltrey has a squeeze box..  

[dualstow]

Daltrey has a squeeze box..

lol

[mortalpawn]

P.S. Here's an older thread on the subject, one of many:
http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/go ... ical-gold/

Thanks - ironically too I just lost everything in a terrible boating accident (read the thread above...) but this will help.

[Ad Orientem]

P.S. Here's an older thread on the subject, one of many:
http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/go ... ical-gold/

Thanks - ironically too I just lost everything in a terrible boating accident (read the thread above...) but this will help.

I have just come to the conclusion that while most of the people on the PP forums are incredibly nice and well informed...

I AM NEVER, EVER, EVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, GETTING ON A BOAT WITH ANY OF YOU!

At the rate things are going we are going to have academic studies being done on the propensity for marine related accidents among PPers. Did one of you have an ancestor take a boat trip back in 1912?

[reevesj]

Speaking of boating accidents... I had a friend of mine some time ago who was moving house to an island off the coast of Florida. Had his strong box on the duckboard with 10ounce of gold and assorted cash just before he got into an argument with his wife. Totally forgot about it as he got in a huff and sailed off. He spent the next 3 days going up and down his route trying to find it with a depth sounder - never found it... poor bastard. He still reckons it was why he ended up divorcing her.

[Reub]

That sounds like as good a reason as any.