May 16, 2009 - In that gold is one of the safest investments available, one of the key virtues to have is, believe it or not, a bit of patience and a sense of maturity. The fact is that when you purchase gold bullion it’s not going to make you rich overnight. If you want to make a ton of money right away, try the lottery. When you purchase gold bullion, it’s not about the quick buck or riding the trendy investments. Rather, when you purchase gold bullion you’re investing wisely into your future.

In fact, when you think about it, this is why gold investing makes a lot of sense. An investment that takes a bit of time to ultimately pay off in terms of growth is an investment that is relatively safe, secure and which will continue doing strong even while other investments become more and more unpredictable. This is also why it’s such a surprise that so many people waited until an economic crisis to buy gold bullion (and why it's no surprise at all that they eventually did turn to the metal).

To look at the spot price at the end of every day you would see a big up or down once in a blue moon but for the most part, gold tends to rise and fall in small increments, usually only making major rises over the course of several months. This may be what turns many eager young investors off of the metal. The fact is that the option to purchase gold bullion may not be quite as tantalizing as things like stocks and bonds or the housing market, but they are a smarter, safer and ultimately more rewarding investment. Again, you won’t get rich overnight with gold bars but then again you won’t go broke overnight either.

Perhaps this is why so many have chosen to purchase gold bullion for retirement accounts lately, contributing to the surge. With social security set to dry up before many of us reach retirement age and fewer and fewer companies offering solid 401ks to new employees, the young adults currently entering the workplace have fewer reliable options for ensuring that their golden years are truly golden, so of course we’ve seen the gold bullion price go up largely thanks to the people who are choosing to purchase gold bullion for the first time after becoming disillusioned with the usual forms of long term investing.

What it comes down to is just that: Investing for the long term. Ideally you want your financial resources to keep growing as you go through life and there are very few reliable ways to ensure that that happens. We can generally predict the stock market up to a certain degree (even in this market, although our predictions are often for the worse), but where do you think those stocks will be fifty, twenty, even one year from now? Who’s to say you’re not investing in the next Enron or that we won’t see another major crash before your stocks have had considerable growth?

Gold is a whole other story of course. We can’t make a precise prediction about where gold will be in fifty years, as in guessing the exact dollar to ounce amount, but historically gold has always been worth more than it had been a half century ago.

Article Archive

Kenneth Hansen 

May 16, 2009