Posted: 4/28/2008 4:55:32 AM EDT
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I have a friend that is buying gold in case of a SHTF. My question to him was what can you do with it?" Are you really going to carry all the extra weight around if you have to BO? Are you going to make jewlery out of it? Going to eat it? Going to shave your bricks to make change. Trade them in for "Ameros"? Really, what is gold good for??? |
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Short answer, preservation of wealth or an inflation hedge. I made the mistake of first buying guns, gold, and now food stock. First I would tell your friend to rearrange his priorities so establishing an adequate long-term food supply is his top priority, second he should possess means to protect his food, and if he has fulfilled those two suggestions I would than look into buying gold and/or silver. This is assuming your friend has no high-interest debt. Buying gold is the last preparation you or he should be doing. |
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I did do a search before I asked but nothing came up. I was sure it had probably been discussed here and beat to death, but since I'm new, I wanted to get some opinions. I doesn't register on my to do list as I see no value in it in terms of survival. I guess you could melt it down to make bullets...pretty bullets. |
Indeed this has been discussed here many a time. You, like many before you are confusing the terms SHTF and EOTWAWKI. I assure you that during a SHTF you will be able to convert your silver and gold into US greenbacks with no problem. Katrina was a SHTF, undoubtedly one of the largest to have hit the US since 9/11. While many banks, coin stores and jewelry stores in N.O. were closed during the initial storm and for a week or 2 afterwards, there were banks and coin stores within a few hours’ drive that were conducting business as normal, and where you could have traded in your PMs for a buck above spot value. A SHTF situation only lasts for a few hours to a few weeks, but then the world gets back to normal and other than rebuilding, the world as it was known still exists outside of the impact area for the SHTF event. An EOTWAWKI event is a bit trickier to theorize on as one has not taken place for a few dozen lifetimes. At best the use and value of PM’s during such an event is speculation. |
SHTF comes in many flavors, not all of them Rambo-esque. I wouldn't buy bars, maybe not even full ounces right now. But it's hardly worthless. It weighs more than paper money but holds international value better if the paper of choice suffers massive devaluation (and is physically more durable). It weighs less than, say, a Barrett and is more portable and "cross-border sneakable" than one. For reasons I don't understand, it appears to always be desired by someone at any given time so it can therefor be traded directly or for the currency of the day. And funny you should mention jewlery - here's a link to FerFAL's blog. He's living SHTF on a daily basis in Argentina and it seems to be a commodity worth having down there.... FerFAL's Blog |
I have the same issue with 100 dollar bills. McDonalds will take them, but won't make change. So I read on here that 22LR is the SHTF currency. So I tried to buy a BigMac with them. They called the cops. |
Lead is much cheaper for bullets. You can buy lots of bullets with a wee bit of gold.  Really, it depends on your other preps. Do you have enough food, water, meds, a couple guns and ammo? Gold is pretty expensive right now, I’d try silver instead. Mind you, this is something I’d do if I have my other points covered. But I do think it’s a good idea to have a form of wealth that can withstand or even increase it’s value during the crisis. There’s are certain things you can’t predict, and for that you’ll need savings, preferably inflation proof ones. Don’t forget some paper money stashed away too, at least a few bills to get by in an emergency. Quick real world example of how gold could be put to good use: Never in a million years would I have thought that I’d need gas masks as a prep item down here. I’m at the south end of the American continent, in place not worth bombing, with no ill relations with Islamic countries. In my book that translated into zero chances of dirty bombs so I thought I didn’t need to worry about it. You need a few things to stay alive; air, shelter, water and food. In that order of importance. Without air you wont last 5 minutes, so yes, I screwed up overlooking that. The thing is, due to a political struggle between farmers and our government, someone had the bright idea to set half the province on fire, directly upwind from Buenos Aires. For two weeks it was very hard to breathe, visibility was reduced to 100 yards or less. You could see people on the streets covering their faces with clothing, some had masks. This lasted until a few days ago and if wind changes again well go back into the fog. What’s gold got to do with it? If I has stored some gold coins or even some jewelry gol away before the crisis(I do have some gold jewelry I could part with), I could take if downtown, sell it in one of the many places that buy gold, and walk to the shop where air purifiers with HEPA filters are being sold. That purifier would allow us to breathe relatively clean air in our house. Same could apply to a life saving surgery, ransom money, expensive car parts, or just buying good old food. Maybe you’ve noticed that food prices have gone up quite a bit. Just don’t forget that gold has gone up greatly as well.  That’s the beauty of it.If the item you stocked away 5 years ago was paper money, it would have lost an important amount of it’s purchase value by now, if you stocked food, it’s already 5 years old, some food lasts that much, most don’t, but food does degrade ( which does nothing to reduce the importance it has in your priority list), if you had stored gold… you could sell it if needed you buy whatever you may need. Some people claim that according to them a bar of gold isn’t worth a pound of meat. But the thing is, individuals don’t determine the value of things, the market does that, and since the beginnings of civilization gold has always been pretty valuable. Check you list and make sure you have other things covered. If you do, then precious metals aint a bad idea for spending some money. At least, 20 years from now, it will still be worth something.  FerFAL |
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If you rlooking for wealth protection I would just invest it in another currency. Hell, get an OANDA account and pick whatever currency you want. Point is, its a hell of a lot easier to haul around $100k in Euro's or whatever versus gold. Flip side is, just about anyone will take gold on the spot. It may take a few days to move euro's to dollars. That and any paper currency is worthless in a global SHTF, gold is not. I dont really plan for global SHTF though, so paper currency for me. You can have the gold. EDIT I should add, I do actually keep a very small amount of gold on hand. Its only purpose is for a local SHTF situation and I need something NOW. But aside from a very small amount for that reaso, no, you can have the gold.  |
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Euros are nice and it’s much more solid. IF things keep going south, you’ll soon find people and shops willing to buy or sell euros on the spot. I’d keep a month worth of paper money (USD and Euros), and part of my saving in precious metals. Careful, gold is not an investment. Investments generate profit, gold just sits there, unless you buy and sell depending on the current price, but it’s not and investment per say because it doesn’t generate profit on its own. For investments I’d go for real estate and a smaller portion in a less safe portfolio that generates more income. FerFAL |
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To all that posted, thanks for being patient w/ the noob. I guess the root of my question should have been, what makes gold valuable as its use seems to be limited these days to jewlery and maybe some parts/coatings for space vehicles. In a Global SHTF/EOTWAWKI, it would seem that food, clean H2O, fuel, ammo, guns would be more valuable than some heavy metal bricks. I understand that if a civilization is trying to re-build itself, gold could be used as currency as it was before. But since the US and other nations are not on the "Gold standard" anymore, what is the value? Why would you trade any of your preps for gold unless it is "the" currency? I'm sure this question can get into tinfoil hat territory so I better go get mine.. |
hahaha  I have a bunch of cash in the bank right now. I can buy all sorts of stuff with my cash, but there is the possibility that the dollar can become worthless. If i have precious metals, those will always retain some value. Am I going to be able to be able ot use gold or silver to buy groceries when SHTF? probably not. Will I be lugging around a couple extra pounds of silver on me if i have to walk out of an area? probably not. Will gold and silver be worth SOMETHING to SOMEONE when the dollar is worth nothing? yeah, i think so. --DarthZeth http://survivalistwiki.com/ |
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Really, it depends on your other preps. Do you have enough food, water, meds, a couple guns and ammo? I wouldn't sell you my bullets for your gold; however, I might trade you for some food, like a $20.00 gold piece for your next meal.  |
