The noun ‘money,’ is perhaps one of if not the most important words in the English lexicon. We need money to buy things, make payments on loans, rent, credit cards, and even fines if we are caught disobeying the law, (of which there are far too many). We also use money as a store of value, if we have more than we immediately need. The bills in our wallets and change in our pockets, are U.S. money, and since we are storing them in our wallets or pockets, these items are actually a store of value, even for a brief period of time. When I first got into the precious metals business in 1977, we only had South African Krugerrands to sell. I used to carry one in my pocket, at least till I lost it, and that ended that practice. They were only $250 then, but it wasn’t as if I had lost a quarter.
As a store of value, we need something to depend on in future years, after our work times have past, and we retire, which I can’t seem to do. There are many ways to store value for future use, but one of the more common ways, is to trust an ‘expert’ to invest for you, hopefully to increase its amount for future use in old age. The ‘experts’ of which I speak, are professional money managers, whose web site I understand (I have never looked at it) is, “let’s make a plan.com.” I haven’t looked at it, because I don’t need or want professional advice on economics.
These licensed, professional, money managers, charge a fee for their services, as do most business people, stores, plumbers, electricians, roofers, doctors, etc, as does Colorado Gold. Colorado Gold charges 1%, and this includes shipping, but I understand in that cesspool of corruption, Washington D.C. lawyers charge often $1,000 an hour, if you can visualize that absurd figure. Mechanics, many times charge $100 an hour, and I am certain that all experts in any field, charge what the market will bear. However, the professional, licensed, money managers, who ‘make a plan,’ as I understand their web site advertises, do not charge on an hourly basis. They charge on a yearly basis, and understand, this is what I hear from reliable sources. I understand that these managers of your money, charge a 1-2% yearly, of the money with which you entrust them. If you have $100,000 in their care, you will pay them $10,000 or more a year for their services, even if they do nothing, increase or lose some of your money.
If these managers invest your funds in a stock that goes bust, and it has happened thousands of times, they will still take out the 1-2% of what you have left, for their services. If they invest in stocks, bonds, treasury bills, or any instrument; win or lose, you pay. Most money managers brag on what they made for their customers, and if they do or did, they have a right to their braggadocio, or advertising for their skills.
The problem I have with professional, licensed, money managers, is that they do their investing of your money, by reading all the stuff anyone could read in the Wall Street Journal, or briefly in the financial section of a newspaper. You can go to Fox Business Channel and watch Varney give his opinions, and on that channel, the 30 Dow Stocks are in either red (loss) or green (profit) mode. Further, anyone who can tell anyone what will happen tomorrow, next week, month, or year is a damned liar.
I don’t know what will happen to gold or silver tomorrow, next month, or next year for that matter, but I do know this much: Gold and silver are not pieces of paper or computer entries. I am not a buyer of a ten millionth of GM, and I do know that most corporate CEO’s can destroy the value of their company and its stock, by making a poor business decision. Toshiba and Westinghouse both went bust because they thought they could make a killing by building an atomic plant in Georgia. Investors in those two huge corporations, have taken a huge bath. Coke almost bit the dust when a CEO decided to change the formula and advertise it as the ‘New Coke,’ which no one wanted and no one bought. GM and Ford would love to forget that they ever built a couple of small cars back in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. Ford would like to forget the Edsel, and when Packard bought Studebaker thinking they could combine and show a profit, it was a gross mistake.
When everything collapsed in 2008, gold and silver went down, as did real estate and every stock in the world, but at least those of us who had real precious metals, knew and know that they have been real money in all civilizations for thousands of years, and are convertible into any paper currency in the world, at any time. Professional money managers are not needed to pick up the phone, call Colorado Gold and pay1% over our cost, including delivery, for real money, and also to know that if you wish to sell, you have to ship, but our only charge is $25 to cover our basic expenses. – Don Stott – 1-888-786-8822