Who says HP never gave you anything?
Bullion Vault, a partner I've used on HP for over a year to track live gold prices, is giving anyone who opens a free account a free gram of gold. I think that's like $15 or $20 at today's nearly $700 / oz gold price.
Hey, it's a start...
Interesting thing about Bullion Vault is you actually take possession of physical gold, stored at their facility (here in London, or Zurich or NYC) in your name. I have $$$ in the gold ETF "GLD" but I know many gold-bug HP'ers think that's a bit risky, since you don't have the physical stuff. Your thoughts on Bullion Vault, or any other ideas on easily and safely taking possession of the shiny stuff?
Enjoy your free gold...
April 24, 2007
Free gram of gold at Bullion Vault
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India's appetite for gold insatiable as ever
Women look at gold necklaces at a jewellery store in the northern city of Chandigarh in this June 14, 2006 file photo. Gold - it's the ultimate luxury gift and nowhere more so than in India where brides are draped in gold from dowries laden with jewellery. With around ten million brides getting married every year in India, many festooned with gold, it's no wonder that India is the world's largest consumer of gold. Women look at gold necklaces at a jewellery store in the northern city of Chandigarh in this June 14, 2006 file photo. Gold - it's the ultimate luxury gift and nowhere more so than in India where brides are draped in gold from dowries laden with jewellery. With around ten million brides getting married every year in India, many festooned with gold, it's no wonder that India is the world's largest consumer of gold. (REUTERS/Ajay Verma/Files)
By Atul Prakash | April 22, 2007
ALLAHABAD, India (Reuters) - Gold. It's the ultimate luxury gift and nowhere more so than in India where brides are draped in gold from dowries laden with jewellery.
With around ten million brides getting married every year in India, many festooned with gold, it's no wonder that India is the world's largest consumer of gold.
India accounts for 20 percent of annual global demand for gold, devouring 800 tonnes of the metal annually, mostly as jewellery.
Ruchi Midha, a typical middle-class Indian bride, received four gold necklaces, eight bangles, six pairs of earrings and five rings -- all made from 22 carat gold -- from her parents, relatives and friends for her wedding.
That's roughly standard for middle-class brides in India where gold -- known as "Stridhan," or woman's wealth -- is seen as financial security for brides.
"Gold is deeply entangled and interwoven with the Indian culture and no custom is complete without gold jewellery, be it marriages or any other ceremony," said Neeraj Mehrotra, a partner in Manmohandas Jewellers, a leading Allahabad jewellery store.
Gold prices hit a 26-year high of $730 an ounce last year and surged 60 percent in two years. But its glitter has shown no signs of fading in India, the world's second-most populous country.
It's seen as a portable form of wealth in a country where stocks and bonds are sometimes viewed with suspicion despite an economic boom that is bringing affluence to many Indians.
As the Indian economy steams ahead by more than eight percent annually in the past four years, an ever increasing stream of money is going into gold purchases.
"India looks poised to remain the world's foremost gold consumer for many years to come. Its dynamic population growth and strong cultural and religious affinity to gold will continue to underpin structural demand," said Natalie Dempster, investment research manager at London-based World Gold Council.
EXPENSIVE DOWRIES
Over generations, Indian households have accumulated an estimated 15,000 tonnes of gold worth $320 billion -- 40 times the amount of gold held by the country's central bank and nearly double the amount held by the U.S. central bank.
Marriages are costly affairs in India, where many families spend more than two years income on the wedding of a single daughter.
"Gold is considered an investment for life, so Indian women continue buying it, to be given away to their daughters or grand-daughters," said Rashmi Sanyal, a journalist in New Delhi.
Jewellery shops are packed with people who come to buy gold for weddings, which take place on auspicious days in the Hindu calendar. Demand jumps during the festive season from August to November when Diwali, the festival of lights, is held.
A symbol of wealth and prosperity in the Hindu religion, gold is considered so pure that Hindus never wear gold on their feet. Only silver is used for this purpose.
Sweets wrapped in gold foil are eaten at festivals. Gold is also used in traditional medicines and some silk dresses have embroidery with gold threads.
India, the world's largest exporter of cut and polished diamonds, is also fast emerging as a leading exporter of gold jewellery. Worth $3.86 billion a year, the jeweller is exported to the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Britain.
Most Indian jewellery is hand-made and contains 22-carat gold, with manufacturing costs accounting for 5-15 percent, against 30-60 percent in Europe, where 9-to-18-carat gold is popular.
PORTABLE WEALTH
Despite grinding poverty, rural Indians account for two-thirds of annual gold purchases as they prefer to put their money in gold due to poor banking services in villages and towns.
Gold is important for people hit by floods that kill hundreds and displace millions in India every year, as it means villagers faced with the dangers of flooding can carry their wealth with them in the form of gold jewellery which can be easily sold.
"Rural India becoming more sophisticated and realizing that gold is not always a great instrument is a far distant dream," said an analyst at IL&FS Investmart.
Dhirendra Mishra of the north Indian village of Thata said there were only two banks among about 20 villages in his area.
"Some people get scared of long bank queues and prefer to convert a part of their surplus income into gold," he said.
Most bank managers in Indian villages are still happy to take gold as a pledge for agricultural loans.
"For generations, Indians have a perception that one's worth is either measured by the amount of gold or the amount of land he has," said Azmat Siddiqui of a high-end jewellery store chain.
"Every household in India has some gold. It's a traditional form of investment. It is in the genes," he said.
Me, purchase some gold???? I dont know man,...I dont know!
Hmmmm....How did gold perform in the stock market crash of 1929?
Isnt $675/oz WAY to HIGH?
What if gold tanks along with the great G.Dumbya housing bubble crash of July 07?? I mean Bush's record of proximity catastrophic events have not eased up one ioda since he and his buddies hijacked 3-countries by lies, theft, mass-murder and deception. Or, should I just ignore the massive corruption and just let it all ride and hope for $1,000/oz?
I've had an account there for over a year. Excellent customer service.
Your choice of vault: London, NY or Zurich. Zurich is the most liquid.
Allocated gold. In your name.
If you are interested in"digital gold", I urge you to look at E-GOLD.
It commenced back in 1996 and has been doing very well since then.
You can start with any amount and they provide you with a list of "approved vendors" for ATM and checking. DO NOT USE A VENDOR THAT IS NOT APPROVED BY E-GOLD (EXAMPLE:GOLDxCASH).
I highly recommend Cash Card International. They have reasonable deposit/ATM withdrawal fees, and they also have checking! You can also go to ANY ATM IN THE WORLD and access your E-GOLD account.
I first discovered E-GOLD in a book titled "The Privacy Handbook".The chapter heading was "GET AN E-GOLD ACCOUNT."
Gold should be a part of everyones portfolio, whether in physical form via bullion vault gold coins or the ETFs. Only fools don't have gold
I bought some gold...not very much but just to play around in order to be able to say "I told you so" if it does skyrocket...but certainly not enough to hurt me if my few ounces drop to nothing.
I would only hold physical gold and only pamp suisse bars as they are sealed within the assay card and are accepted worldwide.
Let someone else hold it in a vault? You've got to be crazy. It's not like I need to take it out and look at it or anything but I feel comfortable knowing that I am the one holding the metal.
Paper gold? Yeah...whatever...I would want Wall Street holding my gold as much as I want them selling me MBS's
Would it be too far fetched to have an Enron situation with a Gold or Silver ETF? A Gold Mining Stock?
Physical has no corrupt CEO, no accountants to cook the books...it's not a "business" that makes it's profits that whipping your paper gold into froth just like mortgages.
It is what it is. Gold. Period. Brought to you by nature...not man.
But still...do not be greedy with gold as greed kills.
Personally...I think that the best investment will be toilet paper (Scottissue stock?), food (Cargil?) and water(dunno how). Eating, drinking and shitting will never go out of style...even in a Depression.
It's all good until a government, like the U.S., siezes it's citizens gold. Afterall, they did it under FDR.
That's like Google giving away 1/16th a share of stock if you buy today.
Sounds like a great deal.
If it is not in your hand, there is no real guarantee that it is yours....
Paper is paper, whether it represents a nation's currency, or in this case - gold.
Buyer beware
Anonymous said...
It's all good until a government, like the U.S., siezes it's citizens gold. Afterall, they did it under FDR.
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Yeah, well, how do you think all the gold can be confiscated from everyone who has taken physical possession?
I don't think they "got it all" in 1933, either.
If you have banks holding it for you, or if you have it pool accounts, it could be confiscated much more easily. If you've got it buried in a hole in a location known only to you, good luck to the Feds when they come looking for it, if they know about it at all.
Let's recap the last 27 years:
Gold 1980: $700
Gold 1990: $420
Gold 2000: $280
Gold 2007: $690
Compare that to the DOW:
1980: 500
1990: 3,000
2000: 11,000
2007: 13,000
For the long term, I'll stick to stocks thank you very much.
when Gold was confiscated 80 or so years ago they paid 75% over thee $20/oz value or $35/oz.
I'll gladly let them confiscate it and pay me 75% over spot when the price starts to go parabolic in a couple years.
>> Gold should be a part of everyones portfolio, whether in physical form via bullion vault gold coins or the ETFs. Only fools don't have gold.
Then why is it that financial guys like Dave Ramsey (radio show) and others have said gold is a terrible investment?
Seems to me gold would be good, ONLY if things don't get as bad as some here expect; good if there's not a total collapse of the banking system.
IF it did collapse, then how would having a gold bullion under the bed help? How does that help you buy a loaf of bread down the street, i.e. how do you make change?
Funny, as all the brotha's walking around with the gold chain and bling are well-positioned in the event the market collapses; they probably have available firearms and ammo, too.
Methinks illegal drugs (crack, marijuana) might be a staple that people will desparately need, and will spend whatever they have to get it. Heck, people already lose their homes over crack! Maybe crack is the target for the next asset bubble!!
"It's all good until a government, like the U.S., siezes it's citizens gold. Afterall, they did it under FDR. " This is 100% true and that's why (I using BullionVault for almost two years,(good no TAX on profit)) I think it's good idea to cash out at least 50% of my holdings and buy a physical gold in Swiss and keep it in Swiss bank safe deposit box. What do you people think ????
By the way in 1933 IRS sealed all USA banks safe deposit boxes, so the only way to dig a hole. And that time it was illegal to own and sell/buy gold. So it was safe to have it only in a hole.
Let's recap the last 27 years:
Gold 1980: $700
Gold 1990: $420
Gold 2000: $280
Gold 2007: $690
Compare that to the DOW:
1980: 500
1990: 3,000
2000: 11,000
2007: 13,000
For the long term, I'll stick to stocks thank you very much.
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Good comparison. Gold is like a persons home, NOT AN INVESTMENT.
DO NOT USE A VENDOR THAT IS NOT APPROVED BY E-GOLD (EXAMPLE:GOLDxCASH).
GoldXCash stole almost $300 dollars from me. Was trying to transfer from egold to goldmoney. E-Gold basically told me I was SOL. Probably safer to always transfer directly into or out of a bank account (U.S. dollars) rather than going through a cambio.
From what I gather, gold and other metals are just as inflated from the cheap-money asset bubble.
Gold also has overhead (storage fees, etc.) that cash does not.
The deal-breaker for me, though, is that gold is a dead investment. It does not create new wealth or new jobs, nor does it work to provide any solutions to human problems that a well-placed equity or bond investment will do.
And if you really think financial armageddon is on the horizon, probably a sack of rice will be a better investment than a gold bar.
This should interest the idiot who believes the Dow is going up; Zimbabwe stock market was up 912% in 2006!!
Stock markets appear to go up when prices in a currency that is devaluing.
Now look at the Dow in Gold:
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/images/4-Dow-Gold.png
It has crashed 53% since 1999.
If you can take 20 minutes away from FOXNEWS, you may want to read this and learn:
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/2007/0416.html
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BullionVault stores gold for you in Switzerland and it is verified by Brinks. This is required by the bullion market and professional traders, so there is no chance of debasing.
You have to fund it from a US bank account to transfer funds in, and that is how you get your money back, but if the US Gov attempts to seize your bank account or gold, you can break the connection to your US account and reconnect your sovereign BullionVault account to your new safe Swiss Bank account.
They are super-responsive and you can file all our documents with them electronically.
====
But if you do not like tangible assets, there is always the Zimbabwe stock market!
http://www.goldline.com/images/content/precious-metals/articles/conf-order.pdf
Read and learn
Gold 1980: $700
Gold 1990: $420
Gold 2000: $280
Gold 2007: $690
Compare that to the DOW:
DOW 1980: 500
DOW 1990: 3,000
DOW 2000: 11,000
DOW 2007: 13,000
LOL, I think you've missed out on the fact that the DOW numbers are reflecting U$D hyper-inflation and to some extent rampant market manipulation and insider corruption in the financial markets.
At this point only a fool would take equities over Ag & Au...
One more thing, the Feds went so far as to drill safety deposit boxes, without warrants, replacing Gold with U$D IOUs the least time around, so what makes anyone think that anything short of physical possession is a good idea this time around the sheet-stem?
Word to the wise: If you think ol' Helicopter Ben is printing a lot of loot now, just wait for next year ;-)
Then why is it that financial guys like Dave Ramsey (radio show) and others have said gold is a terrible investment?
Because they'd lose their Wall St. insider positions if they didn't support the fraud? LOL
If you think equities are a good bang for the buck (return v. risks), I've got some GREAT condos for you to invest your funds in around Phoenix...
Let's recap the last 27 years:
Gold 1980: $700
Gold 1990: $420
Gold 2000: $280
Gold 2007: $690
While we're at it, why don't we recap the last 37 years, an even longer term:
Gold 1970: $35
Gold 1980: $700
Gold 1990: $420
Gold 2000: $280
Gold 2007: $690
And your Dow 1980 figure is off. The Dow averaged around 900 in 1980. Started the year around 840. Ended the year around 960.
The Dow started 1970 around 810 and ended 1970 around 840. The Dow was essentially flat for 10 years from 1970 to 1980 on a nominal basis, and was negative taking into account inflation.
Since 1970 gold has gone up ~20x and the Dow has gone up ~16x. For the long term, you'd be a loser.
Did anyone pick up their free gold? I got mine.
PUT AWAY SOME SILVER EAGLES ALSO
For GreedKills looking for water stock I found and hold some PHO, Power Shares Water resources. Got Gold and Silver too.
no one mentions the producing gold lands confiscations or the medicinal properties of gold
I for one would like to see the Government try to seize all privately held gold in America. Can you imagine the Feds and their swat teams going door to door in your neighborhood kicking in doors and tearing homes apart. I think after a short while of that Amerika might finally wake up and fight back. And you can bet it won't be only gold they are going after. While they are there they will probably help themselves to your firearms and ammo too. Go ahead and make gold ownership illegal. That's what black markets are for.
JAFO
Since 1970 gold has gone up ~20x and the Dow has gone up ~16x. For the long term, you'd be a loser.
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Yeah well, we are not all as OLD as you. I was born late 70's so investing in equities has been way better for me. Buying gold seems like something old farts do. Same guys that want everything FDIC insured too.
Seems like these vault operations are exactly what the central banks want to see. When the time comes to confiscate the bullion, they know exactly where to get it!
I see a time, not far off, when possessing precious metals will be illegal, and and cash will only be permitted for transactions less than $100. Everything else will be tracked on a debit or credit account. Now move along citizen, all of this is in your best interest...
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