Gyroscopic Investing

Here is a question. You have 25% percent of your life savings in SGOL. It's essentially paper gold and they say it's not the way to go. Your savings are in a IRA. Would you sell your stake in retirement fund (your over 55) and buy coins to put away and pay the tax by pulling it out or would you stay put in SGOL?

No. Try to acquire at least a little gold over time directly. But don't dip into retirement accounts and incur tax penalties. The physical is mainly disaster insurance. Yeah you should have some. But don't incur losses to that end.

Do you feel it is safe to have 25% of assets in SGOL? Isn't physical safer?

It's all about degrees of safety. Absent SHTF or a total collapse of the monetary system, paper gold will probably be fine and allows you to participate in gold's price movements, which is still a billion kajillion times better than not having any at all.

Pointedstick wrote: It's all about degrees of safety. Absent SHTF or a total collapse of the monetary system, paper gold will probably be fine and allows you to participate in gold's price movements, which is still a billion kajillion times better than not having any at all.

+1

I agree but I know Harry Browne wouldn't like it or endorse it. It's a different world now controlled by Uncle Sam's tax collections.

Something you could think about would be exchanging some of your SGOL for GTU or PHYS, which are both trading at a relatively low premium right now.  That way you are diversified in your paper gold.

Also try to get a few percent in physical gold.  Just start with one coin and see how that feels.  Then go from there.

stuper1 wrote: Something you could think about would be exchanging some of your SGOL for GTU or PHYS, which are both trading at a relatively low premium right now.  That way you are diversified in your paper gold.

That's a great point. There are killer deals to be had when those funds are trading at a premium. I recently exchanged my SGOL for GTU when it was trading at a 5% discount; I remember not even a year ago when it was trading at a 7% premium and like a sucker, I bought it. I can't wait to be on the other end of that deal! A free 10+% return sounds good to me.

To see when a good time to buy or sell crops up, this nifty Google Docs spreadsheet will show you the premium or discount: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... wb2c#gid=0

If you can afford the IRA custodian fees like Entrust then I would use an IRA to buy physical gold.  But you've got to have enough capital to make it worth it.

Personally, I would never put 100% of my retirement funds into the PP or any other single-minded investment approach.  It's all about diverification in my mind.  I have my age (as a percentage) in my PP and the rest in a VP.  My VP holds no gold. 

If it were me, I would keep the gold in the retirement account, but divvy it up between 2 or 3 different gold funds that are based in different countries.  Then once I started drawing down my retirement funds I would use the proceeds to purchase a gold coin here and there. 

portart wrote: Here is a question. You have 25% percent of your life savings in SGOL. It's essentially paper gold and they say it's not the way to go. Your savings are in a IRA. Would you sell your stake in retirement fund (your over 55) and buy coins to put away and pay the tax by pulling it out or would you stay put in SGOL?

"Your savings are in IRA"

So 25% or your savings are in SGOL in your IRA following the PP at age> 55? And all of your savings are in IRA? (Do I have that right?).

Personally, I don't get the concept of physical gold in the IRA AT ALL and I have looked into it. Mostly I think it's for people who are thinking like you that they have to have physical gold and so they want to give you that illusion. I would go by the policy if you don't get to touch it then it's not really physical gold.

I've been in the process of converting ETF gold to physical but only in my taxable accounts, not my IRA's.

If I were in your position (which I could very well have been, BTW) I think I would table the idea of physical gold until it was outside my IRA (like when you have to take MRD's) and then go for it if you don't need the cash.

Jut my opinion. Take it for what you paid for it.