Thursday, 10 November 2011

Gold Is The Safety Net From Your Investment Portfolio

By Jack Wogan


With the passing of time, humans have learned that there are certain events that they cannot control. In this category we find natural calamities, plagues, economic crisis and so on. All we can do in order to minimize the effects of such mishaps is take some measures in advance. One of them is to gather some money and keep them in a safe place. These days, people turn to banks for guarding their savings. We have been told that these are the safest places to keep our money in. Lately, the socio-economic events have shown that banks too can deal with many problems which put in danger their stability.

Ok, so banks seem to be the safe places we are looking for in order to keep our savings. The next question is what money do we place there? The most common answer would be the strongest currencies. These are the European euro and the American dollar. The euro, for instance, has a very troubled existence especially since Greece struggles to fight the economic contingency. The American dollar too faced hard times during the crisis and continues to be affected by national political instability. Add to this the fact that all paper currencies are printed out of thin air and you will surely think twice before placing your savings in euro or dollars.

Given this situation it is wise to diversify our investments portfolio with more stable or trustworthy elements. In this category there are the precious metals. Gold, for instance, is well known for its rarity. This is one of the things that make it a rather stable asset. There are no infinite resources of this precious metal in the world. Therefore gold reserves cannot grow beyond any limit like paper money reserves. This proves its stability. The shiny asset is preserved in form of jewelry, bullions, coins etc.

Gold was used in trade even by the ancient human civilizations, due to its homogeneity. It was a reliable monetary medium. But with the appearance of paper money, gold seemed to have faded in the dark of history. The truth is, as a law of economy explains, that the precious metal is considered "good money" and it was withdrawn from circulation by "bad money", represented by paper currencies. In other words, we tend to spend paper money and put aside gold.

Considering these aspects, it appears that putting our money in strong currencies alone is not a good idea. Therefore, our savings portfolio should also include bonds, stocks and, most important, assets which are not at the mercy of inflation. In this respect gold funds are far more reliable than currency funds since their value is rather stable regardless the shifts of financial markets.




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