[txt]

I would add investing in precious metals to that list. Especially silver and gold right now. Its been extremely undervalued, and steadily moving sideways. When this stock market tanks even more then it has the last few weeks, we are going to see metals sky rocket like it has in the past. Gold and silver are an indispensable long-term inflation hedge. Look at jpmorgan, they were shorting silver for how long, now they are going long buying almost 2million ozs a day, i think they are up to over 750million ozs. All the central banks are buying up as much as they can get there hands on, so id say its a safe move to use a % of your savings and buy physical silver and gold. Im staying away from the paper precious metals investments, because if we do have a financial melt down, at least i know ill have some of my savings in my physical possession. ;]

[duskwuff]

No, that's very poor advice. Precious metals are comparable to individual stocks -- by making a purchase, you are not "investing"; you are speculating. There is no guarantee of long-term gains.

[pmorici]

Precious metals often take a dive in a market crash because people need to sell assets to cover margin calls and other debts that come due.

Here is what Warren Buffet had to say about gold...

“You could take all the gold that’s ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 68 feet in each direction. For what that’s worth at current gold prices, you could buy all—not some—of the farmland in the U.S. Plus, you could buy 16 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 trillion of walking-around money. Or you could have a big cube of metal. Which would you take? Which is going to produce more value?”

[chillacy]

How do you buy gold bars with the minimum overhead and trusted purity? I’m curious in diversifying. Also how would you sell for fiat?

Heads up I also agree that this is a risky bet but I already have broad market diversification, this is just a speculative investment.

[Aloha]

While I do own some physical silver - can you provide a basis for this in some documentation or articles?