Jumping into ETFs

[lordmetroid]

I want to buy gold but holding physical seems very inconvenient and you would have to deal with premiums, spread, finding people willing to trade for a fair price etc. Way too cumbersome!
So I am thinking I should go all in on my gold portion in IAU. I already got TLT so it seems like an all out ETF portfolio should be fine, right?

[Libertarian666]

I want to buy gold but holding physical seems very inconvenient and you would have to deal with premiums, spread, finding people willing to trade for a fair price etc. Way too cumbersome!
So I am thinking I should go all in on my gold portion in IAU. I already got TLT so it seems like an all out ETF portfolio should be fine, right?

Yes, it should be fine.... unless and until something happens that requires that you actually have gold, which is one of the main reasons for having it in the first place.

[atrus138]

If I recall, The Permanent Portfolio book says that ETFs are fine, but recommends keeping maybe 5% of your total portfolio in physical gold.

[Pointedstick]

There is risk in owning physical gold, too. Risk of theft if you store it at home. Risk of theft if you keep it in a bank safe deposit box. Risk of counterparty malfeasance if you store it with a hold-holding service. In the end you have to decide which risks you're more comfortable taking on and which benefits are more important to you: the convenience of virtual gold or the safety of physical gold. There is no objective right answer.

[Libertarian666]

There is risk in owning physical gold, too. Risk of theft if you store it at home. Risk of theft if you keep it in a bank safe deposit box. Risk of counterparty malfeasance if you store it with a hold-holding service. In the end you have to decide which risks you're more comfortable taking on and which benefits are more important to you: the convenience of virtual gold or the safety of physical gold. There is no objective right answer.

This is true of everything, not just gold. But I'm sure you knew that. 

[Cortopassi]

Since most everyone here is in the PP and considers gold part of an investment strategy, my recommendation is to have at least some portion in physical, in your possession.  Sure, there are negative aspects.  But in the apocalyptic scenario, yes, not likely, (hopefully), having some physical gold and silver may mean the difference between getting something that you need vs. some very bad outcome.

Yes, this is the worst case scenario, and I know people will say if it gets that bad, gold or silver won't help.  But I would think in certain situations it will be able grease the skids or keep you alive, etc, while all your digital stock ETFs go poof.

I am not a tin hat conspiracy guy or gold bug.  Just makes sense to me to have that base covered.

[lordmetroid]

On the other hand of it gets known that in the case smuggler get to know you got gold bullions you may end up mugged and dead instead of safe across the border.