Originally posted by manta
Nobody here is an expert, so maybe go see one. Hell push the boat out, go see as many as you like but remember its your money and dont let them bully you into doing whats best for them or their company.

I agree with seeing an expert - for advice and learning how things work only (take a free class or free online seminar). When you invest, do it by yourself - have no managers as they only are interested in their own welfare and making money off of you. Read, read, and read some more. Then, open an account with one of the online brokers (I use TDAmeritrade) and do all of your transactions thru them for stock. For other things such as metals, do that yourself also. Real estate? My wife sold our last house herself - no real estate commission. We bought our current property from the person selling - saved as the person was able to have a lower price do to no commission. Just read a bit into what you need to make sure of (like title searches/insurance).

You don't get wealthy or maintain your income by paying others to do what you can easily do for yourself..

Good luck.

P.S. I am selling this bridge if you are interested

Everyone here has already stressed the importance of diversification... at the very least I would still invest in other metals such as silver, maybe even copper or steel.

Personally I don't own any physical gold, but only gold ETFs/indexes and individual gold companies. If I inherited that kind of money I would strongly consider putting it into real estate. Even with the whole housing crisis right now (not as bad here in Canada) it's still worth it. Pick up some duplexes, triplexes, maybe even a small apartment. Find some good tenants and you'll make your investment back in no time. Most people will tell you that the best investment they ever made was buying their house.

If you decide that you really want to put that much money into gold, there are two other things you should buy:
1. One hell of a good safe. (You don't really trust the bank with $500k worth of your gold, do you?)
2. Spend a few thousand and get yourself a nice gun, and stock up on some ammo (the common theme here in Survival.) If the economy completely collapses to the point that money is worthless, I think bullets will be worth more than their weight in gold.

[edit on 1/3/2008 by Yarcofin]

i just had to disagree with the notion that gold would ever be worth less than chickens...

if one thinks about the inherent properties of Gold.. super conductivity, wont oxidize, super malleable... shiny.. its been currency before there was currency. and gold does not multiply on its own. someone will always want it.
to wax metaphysically, if there was an intergalactic currency.. gold would make the list.

Thanks for all the replies and advice. I guess I should have clarified that The 500k is what I have left over after buying vehicles, weapons/ammo, generators (one is a large windmill generator) and feed, I also stocked plenty of food and other survival supplies, built a small, tight bunker with all the bells and whistles.
My grandfather also left me his house on forty acres that borders a large lake, also plenty of timber on the property.
The only thing I haven't done is purchased gold or other dollar alternatives.
It may be a mistake but I don't plan on putting any of it in stock...just don't trust those guys in their fancy suits and New York accents, screw them. Same goes with the gold "certificates" I think I would rather have it on hand somewhere where I can acces it quickly if I need to.
I like the silver idea of being able to use smaller denomination coins instead of trying to cash in an $850 dollar coin

Gold is heavy...from what I've heard anyway. Probably takes up a lot of space. Hard to be mobile with half a mil worth of gold. Invest your money in ammunition and a good shelter. When the shat finally hits the fan, I don't think gold will be much good anyway. In a time of global crisis (which is eventually where we're headed), gold would be about as useful as Regis Philbin...except you can't eat the gold. After the smoke clears having emerged rested and ready from your shelter, you can use your ammunition to jack somebody else's gold. The good 'ol fashioned way.

Originally posted by forty six _ two
Gold is heavy...from what I've heard anyway. Probably takes up a lot of space.

Not at all.
All the gold in the world (above ground) would occupy approximately 8000 cubic meters - or less than 4 (four) olympic swimming pools.

Make sure all the people you care about are debt free and have enough gold/silver to pay potential taxes for you/them.

Originally posted by Dont Hate Rats
Thanks for all the replies and advice. I guess I should have clarified that The 500k is what I have left over after buying vehicles, weapons/ammo, generators ...

Oh. Well then. Gold it is!

500K will get you around 5-550 1oz bullion coins right now. American Eagles are guaranteed purity and will be accepted by anyone who deals with gold. If it were mine I would still keep the majority in fairly solid and conservative investments, but gold can never be worth zero either!

Whatever gold purchase you make, don't tell anyone. Out there in the real world that is. Everyone in here... we cool. Yeah... that's right. We cool.

Originally posted by sacrifice

Originally posted by manta
Nobody here is an expert, so maybe go see one. Hell push the boat out, go see as many as you like but remember its your money and dont let them bully you into doing whats best for them or their company.

I agree with seeing an expert - for advice and learning how things work only (take a free class or free online seminar). When you invest, do it by yourself - have no managers as they only are interested in their own welfare and making money off of you. Read, read, and read some more. Then, open an account with one of the online brokers (I use TDAmeritrade) and do all of your transactions thru them for stock. For other things such as metals, do that yourself also. Real estate? My wife sold our last house herself - no real estate commission. We bought our current property from the person selling - saved as the person was able to have a lower price do to no commission. Just read a bit into what you need to make sure of (like title searches/insurance).

You don't get wealthy or maintain your income by paying others to do what you can easily do for yourself..

Good luck.

P.S. I am selling this bridge if you are interested

Of course you could always do your own brain surgery as well.

I think that is rotten advice. A good, fee only financial advisor will only cost you about .6% a year on that size of an account. That .6% is gonna pay dividends because the advisor will not allow you to do something seriously stupid, like put all your cash in gold. One serious mistake in investing will cost you much more than you will end up paying an advisor for the rest of your life. For instance how many of you sold all your stocks in 2001-2002 , only to watch a diversified portfolio double since then?

Find someone independent who only gets paid based on the value of your assets. That way you can be ensured that their interest is only to make your account value rise. A good place to satrt before doing anything is to read Nick Murray's "Simple Wealth, Inevitable Wealth". I feel so strongly about what he has to say that I have based my entire investment advisory business on his concepts (with a few small twists).

To sum it up, he says to own a diversified portfolio of stock mutual funds. His core thought is that "optimism is the only true reality", and that in the history of mankind, things have tended to just get better and better. Same goes for the markets. If the markets fall and never come back, then that will be the first time ever. Noone has ever regretted spending 30-40 years in the market with a diversified portfolio, despite the declines that occur every 6-7 years on average, anyone who has done the time can now buy the wine, and usually any wine they choose.

Good luck on your quest.

Take care of needs, ensure that you have good insurance policies, pay off your debt, put some in some sort of savings account as a rainy day fund (good amount, not too much), put some in physical assets such a gold or silver (diversify, but this is only for some sort of emergency when the currency collapses - don't put too much here), invest the majority - and make sure that the investment is as diverse as possible (ex. stocks, bonds...). Look into educating yourself further (human capital investment). Consult a stock broker and an accountant, maybe a lawyer if you're confused about anything. Give a portion to charity, share some and give gifts to your family, and something for yourself. Make sure you use restraint, though.

And you just might get to live off of interest and dividends, though I wouldn't advise it.

[edit on 3-1-2008 by Johnmike]

Originally posted by Dont Hate Rats
I while back I received an inheritance from my grandfather. I have 500k of paper money sitting in the bank. I am scared to death that he value is going to continue to drop outpacing the interest that am getting on it.
How can I go about converting this large sum into gold and what the heck dp I do with it when it arrives??
Also, will a large conversion as this draw suspicion from the Feds?

I like Ebay! If you know how to use Ebay, you know what and when to buy.

I bought a gold tester, you can pick them up for less then 100 bucks. You can then sell the tester after you've bought all your gold and tested it.

I then bought me some "Credit Suisse" Gold bars. There are other forms of Gold bars but I feel the Swiss Credits are by far the most valuable and trusted. They are all numbered and such.

You can buy 24K Gold on ebay by the gram and upto 10ounce bars, and all the sizes between.

When I bought my Gold like 6 months ago I picked it up at about 650 an ounce. It's now worth 850ish.

Really it's quite worth buying if you want to save something that will not go down in value like the paper money.

If the world ended, Gold would still be Gold and all that paper money would be toliet paper.

Plus Gold is an easy enough quantity over value to transport with you. You can even put it in your ass if need be.

So I strongly sudgest you look into 24k Credit Suisse via eBay if you know how to use ebay that is.

I'll also throw in this bit of info.

I've been using ebay for a long time. I've bought stuff and I've sold stuff. On ebay you get some great deals, but selling things you often have to take a loss.

GOLD is one of the only things I've ever known of that Holds its actual value via ebay.

There's alot of real Gold business via Ebay, and it is one of the best places to pick real workable bar gold.

Originally posted by Incarnated
Plus Gold is an easy enough quantity over value to transport with you. You can even put it in your ass if need be.

So I strongly sudgest you look into 24k Credit Suisse via eBay if you know how to use ebay that is.

eww ok TMI on the transportation of gold, but I will definetely check out the ebay thing it seems i can make small purchases repeatedly without drawing too much attention.
thanks
DHR

Originally posted by Dont Hate Rats

Originally posted by Incarnated
Plus Gold is an easy enough quantity over value to transport with you. You can even put it in your ass if need be.

So I strongly sudgest you look into 24k Credit Suisse via eBay if you know how to use ebay that is.

eww ok TMI on the transportation of gold, but I will definetely check out the ebay thing it seems i can make small purchases repeatedly without drawing too much attention.
thanks
DHR

Yes, eBay you can buy several ounces a week and not draw much attention. If you look around you can find several sizes. I've even seen 5 ounce bars, but the seller was asking too much, says me, so look around.

The best thing to do , invest in the Moon!
No seriously, Tom Cruise bought like a few footballfield big on the moon.
Maybe the moon get a huge value after a few years when we need to live there because the earth will explode, then you can sell those huge fields to people who wants to build houses on it..

Just joking, I'm 16 years old and proberly not smart enough to give you advice for your problem.

Originally posted by PSP
Just joking, I'm 16 years old and proberly not smart enough to give you advice for your problem.

now that is the smartest thing I've heard from a teenager yet

thank you