Bit of advice

[Dougall1]

Hello people

As you all know I've just started stacking. Also at the minute I'm dabbling in stocks and shares buts it's a little bit too hit and miss for me and was thinking on knocking that on the head and just concentrating on gold. Would you recommend that or any advice? Cheers

 

 

[BackyardBullion]

I am much more of a fan of gold right now than silver simply because the premium for gold is lower. 

Ultimately what kind of gold will depend on your budget and long term goals. 

I would stick to the big dealers to start with, especially if you haven't purchased gold before, then you can get to grips with what it looks and feels like. 

[Dougall1]

My plan is 1 a month for the next 5 to 10 years and see where that takes me

[Richym99]

With the price of gold predicted to rise sharply, I have made the effort to buy as quickly as possible to start off. Buying as many sovereigns now as you can afford to buy will get you the highest return on them in your timeframe. If gold price plateaus, say in a couple of years, any you buy after then may not show the same return.

Sadly, the likes of you and I are starting at a time when gold prices are already high compared.   

[HawkHybrid]

45 minutes ago, Dougall1 said:

Hello people

As you all know I've just started stacking. Also at the minute I'm dabbling in stocks and shares buts it's a little bit too hit and miss for me and was thinking on knocking that on the head and just concentrating on gold. Would you recommend that or any advice? Cheers

 

 

 

if you treat gold(bullion sovereigns) as savings, and stocks and shares as investment then you

should be able to allocate funds to them accordingly.

 

HH

[GoldDiggerDave]

A sovereign a month is a slow and steady sensible savings plan.  Look at it as savings rather than thinking the price will go to the moon. 

 

[TheShinyStuff]

If I was spending £300ish a month solely with an eye on the long term I'd alternate between a sovereign and 10oz silver.  Bit of a balance and both easy sells when the time comes.

[LawrenceChard]

5 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

I am much more of a fan of gold right now than silver simply because the premium for gold is lower. 

Ultimately what kind of gold will depend on your budget and long term goals. 

I would stick to the big dealers to start with, especially if you haven't purchased gold before, then you can get to grips with what it looks and feels like. 

Like @ChardsCoinandBullionDealer? 🙂

Alert: I am slightly biased!

[Dougall1]

Think I'm leaning towards stopping the stocks and shares and focus solely on the gold stacking

[GoldDiggerDave]

7 hours ago, Dougall1 said:

My plan is 1 a month for the next 5 to 10 years and see where that takes me

There’s a potential market for a dealer to offer a sovereign a month plan.  Set up a DD over 12 months to get a lower premium/free postage/offers.  It could be massive.

Like Netflix but something worth having! 

They fo it for almost every other product  imaginable, gin, dog food, razors, makeup. I am  amazed a dealer has not cleaned up! 

[Zhorro]

5 minutes ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

There’s a potential market for a dealer to offer a sovereign a month plan.  Set up a DD over 12 months to get a lower premium/free postage/offers.  It could be massive.

Like Netflix but something worth having! 

They fo it for almost every other product  imaginable, gin, dog food, razors, makeup. I am  amazed a dealer has not cleaned up! 

On the face of it, this seems like an excellent idea, but I do fear that some disreputable oraganisations are already doing this (or something very similar - releasing an endless stream of overpriced coins!).

[Rll1288]

Before lockdown I was spending around 200 a month on just buying coffee .... mocka,, docka, rapperchino type things.... and probably another 200/300 on lunches... now I buy a sovereign a month or if possible (when the good people of TSF do good deals) some 1oz items... when we go back... coffee off the table and lunches made by my fair hands.... so turned an expense into a savings plan...

Edited June 5, 2021 by Rll1288

[GoldDiggerDave]

28 minutes ago, Rll1288 said:

Before lockdown I was spending around 200 a month on just buying coffee .... mocka,, docka, rapperchino type things.... and probably another 200/300 on lunches... now I buy a sovereign a month or if possible (when the good people of TSF do good deals) some 1oz items... when we go back... coffee off the table and lunches made by my fair hands.... so turned an expense into a savings plan...

Too right!  It’s amazing how easy it is to spend 7-8k per year on coffee and pre packed sandwiches and the same again on junk.I banged that in the head in 2008 and fired it all at the mortgage. 

[Pete]

There is no answer to this as the experts suggest there is a lot of upside potential in the stock market as many companies recover from the recent crises.
Also some will say gold is perhaps slightly overpriced right now.
Unfortunately no-one has the ability to predict anything so one strategy is no better than the other.
If you are not able to get any tax relief say in a SIPP then buying a sovereign or equivalent each month is perhaps better than holding cash provided you have enough fiat to cover all your bills and maybe unexpected expense.

[GenX]

2 hours ago, Rll1288 said:

Before lockdown I was spending around 200 a month on just buying coffee .... mocka,, docka, rapperchino type things.... and probably another 200/300 on lunches... now I buy a sovereign a month or if possible (when the good people of TSF do good deals) some 1oz items... when we go back... coffee off the table and lunches made by my fair hands.... so turned an expense into a savings plan...

@Rll1288 A very wise decision. The last year has changed habits for many of us.

I'm wondering if the current stock market bull run is partly "sponsored" by people who are spending less and therefore investing in stocks.

[GenX]

3 hours ago, Dougall1 said:

Think I'm leaning towards stopping the stocks and shares and focus solely on the gold stacking

@Dougall1 It may be more prudent to have some allocation in stocks in your ISA or SIPP and a smaller portion of your portfolio in gold. Historically stocks have produced better returns than gold. PMs are more of an insurance policy to preserve your wealth. But, of course, it all depends on your investment aims. 

[BiigT]

It's all a risk and if you don't know what you're doing, it's an even bigger risk. If you want to do stocks and shares, have you considered Nutmeg? I put £200 per month into them and last years return was 24% with my risk appetite at 8 out of 10.

I also buy the odd bit of silver, gold, crypto and single stocks. Spread it about so you spread the risk

[CaptCaveMan]

On 05/06/2021 at 18:27, Rll1288 said:

Before lockdown I was spending around 200 a month on just buying coffee .... mocka,, docka, rapperchino type things.... and probably another 200/300 on lunches... now I buy a sovereign a month or if possible (when the good people of TSF do good deals) some 1oz items... when we go back... coffee off the table and lunches made by my fair hands.... so turned an expense into a savings plan...

Not quite as much on coffee here but this and also transport costs (car/train) now go into overpayments on the mortgage whilst what I was spending on smoking is diverted into PMs.

I'll be keeping this habit once I go back in the office 👍

[sixgun]

On 05/06/2021 at 18:27, Dougall1 said:

Think I'm leaning towards stopping the stocks and shares and focus solely on the gold stacking

i could throw out a lot of stocks you might look at but 300 quid a month is not really enough when it comes to stocks IMO - certainly not to diversify across a number of stocks even in one sector.
If you pick up a few bits of gold over the longer term you can't really go wrong. Sovereigns can look like pennies in a pocket or purse. Excellent to cross borders with. 

[Stu]

You are probably going to get overloaded with a lot of replies which could be counter productive, however. I would suggest you could get incredibly diversified across the entire world stocks with £300 per month. You could set up a Dd for a low cost, global equity tracker, that tracks the entire world stock market. Vanguard is a good place to start. If you are young, put it all into equities (stocks and shares) . If older or less risk tolerant, balance with. A % of bonds. There are ready made packages to drip feed into. Keep gold to around 10% of your “portfolio” Good luck

[GoldDiggerDave]

@Dougall1 would be interesting to see what your thoughts are and if you have decided what direction you are going.

I ploughed 70-90% of my spare cash into the mortgage, for years my commission and bonus were used to pay off the credit cards as I set myself the goal to be mortgage and debt free before 40.  I’d did this by 38,  I’ve only had normal jobs and been made redundant 3 times in the process.  
 

Peole look at their money being stored in lots of different pots, I’ve found this a bizarre view.  If you are minus 100k in debt and have plus 10k in a bank account you are still minus 90k plus compounding interest.  As boring and possibly condescending as I may sound (which I’m not trying to do) debt control is key, it’s nice to have shiny stuff, stocks etc and yes you could make money, but as close as a guarantee you will ever get is to pay debt off quicker, it’s not glamorous, trendy or something you can talk about in the pub but it’s totally life changing and anyone can do this.  
 

I know people on the face of it you would think they are seriously well off, they need 4-5k per month income to keep the lights on.  Many people have slipped into a lifestyle that’s  simply unsustainable.  
 

Being made redundant early on in life has taught me some serious life lessons, before you buy or invest in anything a good question to ask yourself is, if it all goes pear shaped and  you lose some or all of your income how long can you last before the wolfs are at the door? 

[Dougall1]

Hi mate I've decided to concentrate just on the gold stacking focusing solely on sovereigns. Just makes it easier just putting my money into one thing as well instead of splashing my money here there and everywhere.

[sixgun]

Many years ago i used to put a set amount in investment trust savings schemes every month. ISA's were also good. i would put money in on direct debit. A big favourite of mine was Fidelity Special Situations. Due to the twists and turns of life all these got cashed in. If i had carried on there would have been £100's of thousands in them.

A very common recommendation i have heard over the decades has been the trackers and they have done alright over time. At the moment certain markets are massively overpriced. Price to earnings ratios don't seem to get mentioned anymore b/c they are meaningless with a lot of stocks. Companies that never made a profit are trading in the stratosphere.
i just happened to be looking at Shopify on Yahoo finance. Shopify provides online shop websites for those who want an online presence. They are moderately popular. The stock price is $1235. The company is valued at $152 billion. They were running at a loss but managed a first time profit last year of $319 million. That would give a PE ratio of 476. That is beyond ridiculous but this is not unique and fund managers are investing in these stocks. The indices are heavily dominated by a handful of stocks. The indices rise and fall on the price of this handful of stocks. So although you might think you have diversified by investing in an index, you haven't. 

i have expected a crash for the last 5 to 6 years. There is going to be a reset, a big calamity at some point. The fiat system is unwinding. Putin it appears recently fired a shot across the bow of the Western financial system and warned about backing the Ruble with gold. He will have been speaking for his Chinese friends at the same time. If i were to do it all again, i would put my monthly money into an equivalent of 'Fidelity Special Situations', something investing in (very) alternative markets, not the massively overinflated bubble stocks we have on the Western exchanges. i toy with the idea of investments in places like Iran and the Stans for example but this is only for the (very) brave and not nearly as easy as putting £300 a month in a AXA US / UK tracker fund. So at the moment i put my funds in miners - gold, silver and uranium. i have some in agriculturals and other commodities as well as in Russia and China.

i would not invest in bonds. Bonds have done well since the 80's b/c interests rates were very high and then have fallen. If you could have locked into a 20% yielding bond with a long maturity, when yields fell to 10%, the bond would double but you still got the 20%. When the bond fell to 5% it would double again but you still got the 20%. Now yields are so low, unless they go significantly negative there's nowhere to go but up in yield and down in bond prices. Inflation is picking up. This has been denied for years but it is reaching a point it can no longer be denied. Who is going to buy a bond at 1% when inflation is at 10%? 

If i were to advise someone else i would say buy gold. Buy some nice gold coins off the Silver Forum. Sovereigns and half sovereigns are good b/c they are generally a decent price compared to spot and they are small, plus there is no CGT. All these reasons and others that have been repeated many time before. This is a no brainer. We are heading into turbulent times. Inflation is going to rip your bond portfolio to shreds. A lot of the bubble unicorn stocks will crumble and evaporate. Some stocks will do fantastically well but you have to pick and buy them first. But gold is a no brainer, so pick and buy a few sovereigns.

Edited June 8, 2021 by sixgun

[dicker]

56 minutes ago, sixgun said:

I would put my monthly money into an equivalent of 'Fidelity Special Situations', something investing in (very) alternative markets.

I was a holder of Fidelity Special Situations and it was very very good for me.  I sold it off when Anthony Bolton retired and handed it over to another Fund Manager.  

Lots of funds and ETF's that are out there that focus on the non-main stream bubble stock.

Best

Dicker

[Lyrinn]

4 hours ago, GoldDiggerDave said:

@Dougall1 would be interesting to see what your thoughts are and if you have decided what direction you are going.

I ploughed 70-90% of my spare cash into the mortgage, for years my commission and bonus were used to pay off the credit cards as I set myself the goal to be mortgage and debt free before 40.  I’d did this by 38,  I’ve only had normal jobs and been made redundant 3 times in the process.  
 

Peole look at their money being stored in lots of different pots, I’ve found this a bizarre view.  If you are minus 100k in debt and have plus 10k in a bank account you are still minus 90k plus compounding interest.  As boring and possibly condescending as I may sound (which I’m not trying to do) debt control is key, it’s nice to have shiny stuff, stocks etc and yes you could make money, but as close as a guarantee you will ever get is to pay debt off quicker, it’s not glamorous, trendy or something you can talk about in the pub but it’s totally life changing and anyone can do this.  
 

I know people on the face of it you would think they are seriously well off, they need 4-5k per month income to keep the lights on.  Many people have slipped into a lifestyle that’s  simply unsustainable.  
 

Being made redundant early on in life has taught me some serious life lessons, before you buy or invest in anything a good question to ask yourself is, if it all goes pear shaped and  you lose some or all of your income how long can you last before the wolfs are at the door? 

My PM journey was similar to this. I stumbled over TSF last year after using Bullion By Post for my first gold Brits and Chards for Sovs; only to subsequently stumble over Niue Mint and Mennica Polska coins; only to then realise how much I liked the collectable coins and that I now have a problem of loving gold and silver coins with crazy premiums.

I fear that I was very rapidly proselytized from mortgage overpayments to physcial coins and bars.

Oh well... ape gonna ape.