Is it time for an emergency stash of cash?

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 26 Sep 2008, 22:53

I have 2 credit cards, cocked and locked and ready to spend

Post by **mikepepler** » 27 Sep 2008, 21:38

I keep about £100 in cash at home, separate from what might be in my wallet, just to cover situations like the power temporarily being off - no ATMs, no credit/debit card readers - some shops will still function, but only with cash.

Apart from that we're going down the "spend it on useful stuff" route.

chris25 · Post by **chris25** » 28 Sep 2008, 20:20

Budgie wrote:Someone explain something to me about buying gold. I have no clue about gold, but consider it a safe option to keep some "real" money when currencies go down the drain.

My question is that currently gold is valued at about 472 GBP per ounce.

So does that mean I should be able to get ounce coins for about £472?

Cos if that is the case then would I be getting ripped off for buying A canadian maple for about £600 like the one here?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MAPLE-LEAF-ONE-OU ... 286.c0.m14

Gold coins have a premium of about 12% compared to gold bar, as they are often limited in number so collectable and have historical value (IMO making them a far better investment than gold bar).

Coins on Ebay are also very expensive.

And also the Canadian Maple tends to be a very expensive coin compared to others.

I brought a few 1/10th ounce gold coins (with mega premium but highly desired and collectable) but stayed away from Canadian maples as they were 10% costlier.

Also, some advice don't get a one ounce coin, get 1/4 ouncers or soveriegns (one ounce coins are like the £50 pound note in the gold world, i.e. too big for a lot of small purchases and harder to sell)

oilslick · Post by **oilslick** » 28 Sep 2008, 20:26

I emptied my wife and my cash card over the weekend. It's not over the top to say if a deal doesn't get done and a system wide collapse happens then everything might stop. I also stocked up on tins and things that will last a while just in case. Sure it won't be needed but they wouldn't be locked away for the weekend trying to pinch trillions from taxpayers without being close to the end of the financial system.

If you buy physical going get Britannias as they are legal tender so you don't pay CGT on them assuming you make some money. Bullionvault is also pretty good for gold that you don't want to hold phycially...keep in mind that who knows what would happen to your gold if things really went pear-shaped. I have both but I'm open to the idea something bad might happen to BV.

If you're feeling really tin-foil-hat, gold necklaces and the like might be good as well. In Argentina people with gold coins were targets as they probably had more whereas someone with a bracelet was just someone pawning whatever they could.

Erik · Post by **Erik** » 28 Sep 2008, 23:21

oilslick wrote:I emptied my wife

er... Should I empty mine too?

Budgie · Post by **Budgie** » 29 Sep 2008, 11:45

chris25 wrote: Gold coins have a premium of about 12% compared to gold bar, as they are often limited in number so collectable and have historical value (IMO making them a far better investment than gold bar).

Coins on Ebay are also very expensive.

And also the Canadian Maple tends to be a very expensive coin compared to others.

I brought a few 1/10th ounce gold coins (with mega premium but highly desired and collectable) but stayed away from Canadian maples as they were 10% costlier.

Also, some advice don't get a one ounce coin, get 1/4 ouncers or soveriegns (one ounce coins are like the £50 pound note in the gold world, i.e. too big for a lot of small purchases and harder to sell)

Thanks for that. It clears up a few things. With regards to bars however, can you actually get bars in something like 1/4 ounce, 1/10 ounce etc?

Andy_K · Post by **Andy_K** » 29 Sep 2008, 12:31

Budgie wrote:
chris25 wrote: Gold coins have a premium of about 12% compared to gold bar, as they are often limited in number so collectable and have historical value (IMO making them a far better investment than gold bar).

Coins on Ebay are also very expensive.

And also the Canadian Maple tends to be a very expensive coin compared to others.

I brought a few 1/10th ounce gold coins (with mega premium but highly desired and collectable) but stayed away from Canadian maples as they were 10% costlier.

Also, some advice don't get a one ounce coin, get 1/4 ouncers or soveriegns (one ounce coins are like the £50 pound note in the gold world, i.e. too big for a lot of small purchases and harder to sell)
Thanks for that. It clears up a few things. With regards to bars however, can you actually get bars in something like 1/4 ounce, 1/10 ounce etc?

I am pretty sure you can, but the premium on a 1/10 ounce bar would be such a high % of the value of the bar that it tends to invalidate it as a serious investment, perhaps more as a novelty gift.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 29 Sep 2008, 12:32

I must admit, I feel a little concerned this morning. The bail-out is now official and it clearly isn't the free money the big banks were hoping for. European stocks (and banks in particluar) are down again. It seems likely the US money will be better for US banks than European ones - was it ever going to be otherwise?

Stocks, pound and Euro all falling. That hits my pension on all three fronts.

Which bank next? I thought Lloyds was pretty safe, but they have just bought HBOS...

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 29 Sep 2008, 12:58

RalphW wrote:I must admit, I feel a little concerned this morning. The bail-out is now official and it clearly isn't the free money the big banks were hoping for. European stocks (and banks in particluar) are down again. It seems likely the US money will be better for US banks than European ones - was it ever going to be otherwise?

The bail-out is just clutching at straws: a way of postponing the inevitable - as has been virtually every strand of US economic policy for the past 15 years, as far as I can tell.

Stocks, pound and Euro all falling. That hits my pension on all three fronts.

Maybe you're older than me but I stopped thinking about pensions a long time ago. Pensions, being meaningless without the concept of growth, are entirely incompatible with the reality of PO. (I'm still paying into my pensions but I probably ought to have stopped.)

Budgie · Post by **Budgie** » 29 Sep 2008, 13:15

Andy_K wrote:
I am pretty sure you can, but the premium on a 1/10 ounce bar would be such a high % of the value of the bar that it tends to invalidate it as a serious investment, perhaps more as a novelty gift.

As an investment they probably would be pointless, but I'm thinking I might buy a bit of gold as a emergency stash of cash. When the GBP and any/all other currencies go down the drain I am quite sure gold and silver will probably be a couple of the the most useful things to have. They will be the only "currency" that will live on I reckon.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 29 Sep 2008, 14:11

Hi Ludwig,

I think I am only a bit older than you. I always saw personal pensions as a rip-off and failed to start one in the 80's. Finally persuaded to join a company pension a few years back (shortly before PO awareness) on the basis that the company put in more money than me.

I never expected a large pension, and now I really don't expect any pension. Even so, it is hard to pull the plug and there is a certain fascination to seeing 'money' evaporating in front of your eyes.

Now that money is becoming tighter (personally and for the employer) maybe it really is time to stop putting good money after bad.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 29 Sep 2008, 14:28

Budgie wrote:They will be the only "currency" that will live on I reckon.

Stroud
Totnes
Ambridge

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 29 Sep 2008, 16:49

Thanks for the advice on buying gold. I've now ordered some 1/4 Krugerrands and Sovereigns. Can't say I really know what I'm doing but it seemed best not to muck about...

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 29 Sep 2008, 17:05

OK, so did we decide where the best place to buy gold in small quantities is in the UK?

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 29 Sep 2008, 17:17

Vortex wrote:OK, so did we decide where the best place to buy gold in small quantities is in the UK?

I went to http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk/, as recommended by Aurora. I don't mind not getting the absolute best deal, I just feel better for feeling I've done something. (It was straightforward - you phone up your order, they give you the price - which currently is more than listed on the site - then you send them a cheque and an order form.)

Gold is currently dropping along with other commodities -

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6fd448a0-8e0b ... fd18c.html

- but I'm not convinced the renewed "optimism" re. the dollar will be long-lived.