Gold has been the foundation of wealth as a monetary base for centuries. Steve Forbes once said “Gold is constant. It’s like the North Star.” It has timeless value and can be easily passed on to future generations. American Bullion has created a Free Gold Guide to help investors learn why owning gold may help protect their retirement while giving them peace of mind. This easy-to-read guide will help you understand your options for owning gold and answer some of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding physical gold to your Individual Retirement Account.
Physical gold and other precious metals offer true diversification,
solid protection, and profit potential for any portfolio. Gold can
reduce the overall volatility of your portfolio and help you create a
safe, stable, and profitable future for you and your loved ones. While
other investments falter, gold and other precious metals offer the
comfort and security of physical possession, intrinsic value, immediate
accessibility, simplicity, and ease of liquidity worldwide.
When you buy gold bullions be aware of its purity, or fineness. This
represents the amount of precious metal in coin, bullion or jewelry. The
gold by itself is a very soft metal which you could scratch even with
your nails. In order for it to be harder some kind of alloy is added.
The purest gold is 24 karats or .999 parts per thousand, the other most
common grades are 22 karats (92%), 18 karats (75%), 14 karats (58%) and 9
karats (38%).
Physical gold is worth holding because it’s a universal finite currency,
held by most central banks. The rich old speculator Bernard M. Baruch
forehandedly bought gold and gold shares after the 1929 Crash. Years
later a suspicious Treasury Secretary asked him why. Because, Baruch
replied, he was 'commencing to have doubts about the currency.' Many are
beginning to doubt the strength of the dollar as they well might.
Following Baruch's example, they should lay in some gold as a hedge.
Gold is a good way to ensure wealth preservation and for passing wealth
from one generation to the next. Once you’ve got some gold bullion in
your portfolio, then other investments such as mining shares, investment
funds and other more speculative gold investments can be considered.
Modern bullion coins allow investors to own investment-grade gold legal
tender coins at a small premium to the spot price of gold as quoted on
the markets. The value of bullion coins and bars is determined almost
solely by the price of gold, and thus follows the bullion price. Gold
are all available in the form of bullion bars and coins, minted in the
UK, the US, in Canada, South Africa, Austria, Australia, China and other
countries.
