Do you tell family?

[Sliopjbsail]

If a family member has shown an interest in buying gold, should you tell them about your collection and get involved with advice etc or just keep quiet and let them carry on?

[Tommmmy555]

Say 'I looked into that years ago and the advice I was given was 'xyz', I didn't buy anything though as 'convenient excuse (new baby? Car? something like that)' came up'.

Then you can offer him some advice about it, but not reveal that you have stuff.

[Sliopjbsail]

That’s a good idea thanks 

[Tommmmy555]

Oh and if he joins the forum, delete this post 😄

[kimchi]

Very wise (i.e. essential) not to talk about it within earshot of others

I would say it depends on your relationship with your brother and how much you can swear him to utter confidence, but better safe than sorry.

Just leaving him to bumble through some of the over-priced and undesirable stuff from the Royal Mint is not ideal if he's really seriously planning to proceed.

You needn't say much, you could just say from time to time you know a chap who reckons this coin will be good, or that you read a while back from some hardcore collectors just to build up some sovs, etc

Of course if your brother does start collecting he must know how important it is to keep quiet about his own stuff (even if he doesn't know you have anything).

Don't lie (unless people can overhear) - just 'selectively' guide him.

[CosmikDebris]

So some time ago I informed my eldest brother about my gold stack. I did this because I am not married or in a relationship, I often travel overseas for solo travel, I have not made a will and in the event of my death I will need someone to know where to find my stack and what to do with it. Later, the same brother comes to me and asks for advice about buying gold, so I show him the ropes and for the most part make his purchases for him, he is not very tech savvy. For a time all is good.

Until one day I am leaving my house in the morning for work and one of his friends that I dont really know stops me and starts to ask me about current economics, geopolitics and the price of gold etc! He then goes on to advise me as to which youtube channels I should watch with regards to stacking etc! I played it cool and told him I would take a look at the channels he recommended. I was furious with my brother, who I trusted to keep quite, though I never pulled him up about it. The information could only of come from him to someone who is a stranger to me.

Personally, I would not tell him. But you could give him advice if you are creative about how you do it. On the one hand we need to make our own mistakes and learn from them, but then it's better to learn from the mistakes of others 😩

[Sliopjbsail]

24 minutes ago, CosmikDebris said:

So some time ago I informed my eldest brother about my gold stack. I did this because I am not married or in a relationship, I often travel overseas for solo travel, I have not made a will and in the event of my death I will need someone to know where to find my stack and what to do with it. Later, the same brother comes to me and asks for advice about buying gold, so I show him the ropes and for the most part make his purchases for him, he is not very tech savvy. For a time all is good.

Until one day I am leaving my house in the morning for work and one of his friends that I dont really know stops me and starts to ask me about current economics, geopolitics and the price of gold etc! He then goes on to advise me as to which youtube channels I should watch with regards to stacking etc! I played it cool and told him I would take a look at the channels he recommended. I was furious with my brother, who I trusted to keep quite, though I never pulled him up about it. The information could only of come from him to someone who is a stranger to me.

Personally, I would not tell him. But you could give him advice if you are creative about how you do it. On the one hand we need to make our own mistakes and learn from them, but then it's better to learn from the mistakes of others 😩

This is the kind of thing I’m worried about. We were out drinking one night and he said “my boss has got this little pouch of gold coins” etc and I was thinking damn I’d be really annoyed if that was me he was talking about. I think I have my answer lol 

[CosmikDebris]

1 minute ago, Sliopjbsail said:

This is the kind of thing I’m worried about.

Yes it is worrying when those you trust let you down so completely. It clearly demonstrates that you can trust no one. I was left wondering who has my brothers friend told and who have they told and so on....

[HawkHybrid]

tell him to create a discussion thread on the forums before he starts buying?

this way everyone can chip in on experience/opinions without much of the

risk of identifying peoples holdings.

 

HH

[sixgun]

i would ask questions - appear interested. Funny he said this b/c gold and silver are appearing on quite a lot of web pages and videos you have seen over the last few months. Then you find adverts for bullion dealers appearing on google, fakebook and the like. This would happen. Especially if you are interested in 'conspiracy theories', general economics, the rampant money printing going on etc etc, you could well have come across stuff on gold and silver.
You have heard it protects purchasing power - a lot of sites are talking about this. You have seen some adverts on websites. You know a bit just from seeing this stuff and indeed you would know a bit from seeing this stuff.
i would ask how he starting thinking about it - you can then say - yeah i saw that - yeah i heard that - i didn't quite understand that, what did you hear. Sounds like a good idea to get a bit of gold put aside for a rainy day. Make it look like he is telling you. 
i do not think you have to say a lot to stop someone buying overpriced rubbish. Ebay is known to sell many fake products - isn't rocket science to work out you should be careful with ebay. Be careful with private sales unless you know what you are doing or you are in a trusted area. 

Some of my family know about gold and silver but they collect bits of gold and silver themselves - it involves several generations and i know they would tell no-one for their own sakes let alone mine.
Of course i have nothing to worry about now since my entire stack was lost in a tragic boating accident. 

[Prophecy]

Just tell him it's a bloody stupid idea and anyone who does it is living in the dark ages. Then sit back and see how he tries to convince you. Then... when he gets a few coins, pretend to steal them. Give them back before he calls the police and explain that he. should. keep. his. mouth. shut. to. everyone. including. you.

[westminstrel]

I’d say the first, and most important, piece of advise you can (and SHOULD!) give your brother is to be discreet when discussing such matters.

[sovereignsteve]

It's a valuable piece of advice to give but Im afraid some people are just incapable of keeping things to themselves. Whether it's a matter of bravado, boasting or wanting to appear interesting or important, is probably a matter for the psychologists.

[freefall]

Tell him you know a guy at work that always goes on about it and he says xyz. Most people can’t be trusted to keep secrets. The few who can are worth their weight in gold. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, freefall said:

Tell him you know a guy at work that always goes on about it and he says xyz. Most people can’t be trusted to keep secrets. The few who can are worth their weight in gold. 

On that basis, I’m worth at least £2,929,496.05 worth of gold then - though at this rate with isolation and the spot price, it could go up or down either way... Hard to say...

[StackerCollector]

Family and money (pm) advice... that's a tricky one! :)

Some of my family members were just laughing at me for buying gold and silver, precious metals belong to the middle ages they thought. Now one member saw the queues at the pm dealers and is now interested in buying gold. Another member is also interested when they saw the gains I made on some coins. On one hand I don't want to bail them all out when hyperinflation hits their bank accounts, on the other hand I do not want to urge them to invest in pm as they mainly look to make short-term profits. No one really gets that pm are a hedge against currencies. 

If your brother does want to buy some gold, I would make sure he does not purchase any coins that are overpriced, so that he does see a value uplift when the price of gold rises.

[silenceissilver]

Principally it's ok to tell your brother. But I would not tell this brother. Only if you already know he keeps his mouth shut. So, don't tell him - ever. Chances he might change this habit are very small. And regarding the advice you looked into it and giving him advice based on that - yes, you can do that - but not too much or he might well figure out you actually do have gold. And have a cover story how you actually save your money (and why you still don't advise it for him - you bought it when prices were low, whatever). Of course it also depends on the question whether you have discussions about politics and the economic situation. If you tell him you think a hyperinflation is likely to happen, it will be hard to come up with a cover story.

[Foster88]

16 hours ago, Prophecy said:

Just tell him it's a bloody stupid idea and anyone who does it is living in the dark ages. Then sit back and see how he tries to convince you. Then... when he gets a few coins, pretend to steal them. Give them back before he calls the police and explain that he. should. keep. his. mouth. shut. to. everyone. including. you.

This seems a bit much to teach him a lesson but it did make me laugh. 😂

[Xander]

The less people know, the less that can go wrong.

[Minimalist]

On 31/05/2020 at 15:33, Sliopjbsail said:

Do you guys tend to involve the family in this kind of thing or just carry on quietly?

Good question

If I was you I would ask what it is that caused the curiosity.

[Abyss]

Only my immediate family i.e. my wife knows and she has access to all my usernames/passwords for eBay / The Silver Forum / banks in case of my unfortunate demise. As for my cousins or sibling(s) no I don't inform anyone else. If the topic ever comes up I state I have only started looking into this form of savings and have found some interesting material on internet and then share some YouTube channels with them (testing PMs, bars coins, rounds, reputable dealers). Slowly drip feed the information until they are comfortable and informed of making there own choice and decisions while avoiding the pitfalls or the idea of owning PMs fizzles out of memory after understanding some work and individual responsibility goes into this endeavour.

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

Really depends on who your family is and how trustworthy they are. Not only do you need to be able to trust them but you also need to be able to trust that they'll keep their mouth shut and not tell anyone themselves. I really like @Tommmmy555's suggestion - allows you to keep safe but still offer some advice. Though thats still not without danger as if you live with the family member and they go blabbing about the silver and gold they've bought that will put your own at risk.

 

[MarcoSkin]

The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves, but it would be hard for me not to answer to a direct question.

[PJRay]

I see secrets as burdens. When you share your secret with someone else, you've given them a burden, one perhaps they didn't want or are unable to carry. I like to think these things are usually not shared with malice aforethought.

If I simply must unburden myself, then I only share a little of it. If I were to suddenly pop my clogs then my next of kin would do well to remember that I told them, casually in passing, that I'd bought a couple of coins, not how many, what they were worth or where to find them.

If I was approached by someone who thought that I was the right person to talk to about it, dependant on the situation, I probably wouldn't flat out deny it for fear of being caught in an escalating web of deceit, (you now know that your beans have been spilt, but not to what extent). I could happily admit to having once bought a couple of sovereigns, but that I sold them soon afterwards to help pay for a new fridge. I wouldn't be lying because that's a true story and I wouldn't be obliged to share with them what I did next.

You could point them in the direction of say this forum, because that's the best advice you can give, and wish them good luck. As a little cherry on the economical truth cake, I'd insist they tell you how they get on and when you see them next, actively seek their advice on the matter...lets see how well they handle being asked personal questions. 😈

[Prophecy]

Never tell @PJRay  a secret. He will immediately unburden himself of that responsibility by telling someone else, fast.