Sure it does...higher spreads, storage, insurance and time in dealing with physical vs. clicking a button for paper. vs. ETF expense ratio.  Not to mention less... ahem... privacy. Right, and so going back to the original question, if you have physical gold, but hedge away any future changes in val...

What is the probability of Zombie Apocalypse versus the guaranteed loss from hedging/margin costs. In this scenario, I'd rather chance getting eaten than by losing out costs on this protection. It's too high of a cost for the minimal amount of probability it is protecting against. I see this as buy...

mathjak107 wrote: At least you got a 4%  return or so for 25 years of waiting . It could have been worse.

Where did you get 25 years and 4% from?

I believe the difference is the 0.15% expense ratio on TLT, assuming commission-free trading.

That's $150 per yer for a for a $100,000 investment (100,000 * 0.0015) or $15 per year for a $10,000 investment (10,000 * 0.0015).

I owned HMY for years until I realized that it wasn't doing what I bought it to do:  to do well if gold did well.  HB wrote that gold mine stocks could move in the opposite direction of gold.  He was right, big time. Just take it as a $70k education expense, be thankful it wasn't more, and move on a...

A basic question.  Two of the reasons for holding physical gold is that it will hold some value in a catastrophe and it will allow me to purchase some goods and services in a time of crisis.  However, if everyone has lost nearly everything, what will I be able to buy with a $1000 gold piece - food,...

mathjak107 wrote: there is a bit more to both sides but that is the argument you see over and over .

Shame on them!

Now that that's out of the way, I've seen a lot of arguments made here which I'm not certain you've fully addressed.

mathjak107 wrote:those who use the pp do so because they back test it and see how it worked in the past and then they assume the future will work as well as the  past with it.

I think there's a bit more to why we use the PP.

Any reason why Nickels over any other coin? Yes.  Since the metal value in nickels is so close to their face value, they will appreciate by either a strengthening dollar or increasing metal value, whichever performs better. Now if only we could always invest in something that would always give us t...

Mine says that I'm ingenious 

It kinda reminds me of this:

I have a good long term relationship with holding gold.  I have zero qualms about holding it and passing it to my children. However, I absolutely hate the short term gyrations.  I am convinced it will fall further all the time.  I am convinced that every event that should cause it to rise causes th...

These thoughts are far out there, but we've all probably heard discussions of nationalizing 401k/retirement accounts "for the retirement safety of the people/country."  I also at times wonder, all those portfolios we hold, so much of them are simply ones and zeros on a machine somewhere. ...

I like nickels.  With 75% copper and 25% nickel, they have built-in inflation protection.

But they are heavy, bulky, and currently not as easy to spend as paper notes.

Tyler wrote: The poor government officials were simply the victims of evil predatory lenders.

Doesn't government exist to protect us from this sort of thing? Yet it can't even protect itself

mathjak107 wrote: i think i still have some gold bug newsletters  from decades  ago.  they said the same thing .

Can you send me a copy?  I'd like to put today's date on it.

Phew!  As a contrarian investor, judging by the prevailing sentiment as demonstrated in this forum, I suspect that a rise in gold is just around the corner and now is a good time to buy.

No, besides Euros, they're using their own form of community scrip money they created out of thin air.  Gold isn't money anymore.  Seems to be really hard for people to understand that concept around here. ::) I haven't heard of USD being used for trade in Greece right now either.  It must not be m...

Further elimination of the middle class wouldn't be remote, IMO.  Nor would a general mistrust/declining demand for all things paper/digital, forcing the govt to clamp down and stop convincing everyone that its their friend.  Pessimism, I know, But I've already learned to not try to predict the futu...

Too bad we can't go back in time 146 years so you can make that bet.  Now the question is whether the next 146 years will be the same.  I don't know, but I sure am glad I have the option of owning physical gold.

I believe most here would perceive a portfolio of 100% paper assets as speculation.  Just sayin'.

The whole point is that the manipulation prevents the "true" price of whatever is being manipulated from being discovered.  No one knows what the "true" price would be absent the manipulation.  Presumably higher.  How much higher?  No one knows.  I've seen analyses that come up ...

Agreed with above. Not to complicate things further, but I'd add there are also situations where it makes sense to start out with a traditional IRA and then later do roth conversions.  This could enable you to defer taxes to lower income years and unlock savings before 59 1/2 so you can do things li...

Pointedstick wrote:So the real savings would be if I can get rid of both my gas and electric bills entirely by switching to electric appliances whose usage is entirely provided by site-generated solar PV, which would save me an average of $700 a year.

Have you considered propane?  Solar heating?

rickb wrote:Or, more precisely, the total amount of money speculators are willing to bet long vs. the total amount of money speculators are willing to bet short.

AKA supply and demand 

In the absence of an authority or government, what mechanism is there to force profit-seeking businesses to account for these [extra]legal negative externalities on the balance sheet and why hasn't it been done before now??? Maybe you mean that enfabled "invisible hand"?  Well, that's whe...