Only very slightly off-topic. I have been thinking about how to convert my assets such as they are into things of real value. The fact is all my assets are in effect digital. I have gold cash other precious metals proxy bitcoin and some Rolls-Royce shares. But these are all just digital. If the world as we know it comes to an end or the horrible central bankers politicians globalist et cetera decide to grab it all there isn’t much I could do about it. Whereas if I liquidate all these assets turn them into cash and bought actual stuff that had real value. I might be safe. Well safer. So I started thinking of headings-
food,
energy,
Housing/land
transport.
I just wondered if you could suggest any other categories that would be worth thinking about? I’m old and not that bothered so apart from suicide pills I’m not sure I’m very concerned about health.
This is an only slightly lighthearted enquiry.
Perhaps another way to think about this is to wonder if I could turn everything I have into something of real value to give to my children, what would that thing be? I suppose Krugerrands might be an answer. Years ago, someone suggested black peppercorns were quite a good store of value.
Housing and land very hard to pass on without paying heavy taxes. Food perishes. Cars lose their value. Energy dissipates. Metals corrode. Gold and bitcoin probably the best bet.
Classic cars do not lose their value, quite the opposite, and there's no CGT on them. I have friends who have made a pile in this sector. 'Worth looking at. (If only I had a garage).
Yes, they can do well if you know what you are doing and have somewhere to keep them, but Dave just said transport - he didn't mention the classic bit!
All I meant by transport was as a generic heading. So one could consider a bicycle, a great invention, a sailboat, also a great invention, may be a steam engine but that starts requiring engineering talent I don’t have, an old-fashioned diesel because they just keep running and you can feed them with practically anything from chip fat to soya sauce.
And I forgot to mention hang gliders, a particular favourite of mine. A bit of bamboo, some polythene and a Hill and you’re away. Unfortunately not for long and only while the sun shines. But still, effectively free energy, just like yachts and bicycles.
The important thing about classic cars is that they have no electronics. With the right kit you can keep them on the road. Good luck with anything after 1990s something. I bought a bantam motorbike in 1971. I’m no mechanic but I kept it on the road until I smashed it up completely. With a Vernier scale, a bit of sandpaper and lots of help from friendly motorcyclists. If you can’t fix it yourself, it’s virtually useless.
I should’ve said that all the possible stores of value should obviously be sustainable. So not a shed full of potatoes, but the ability to grow them year after year. And the problem with bitcoin, is give me one that is literally a token that I can offer someone in exchange for food or fuel or a gun. As it is bitcoin is completely dependent on there being a global digital infrastructure. Not much use when there isn’t one, or at least one you can trust.
If you're worried about the 'end of days', some actual in hand metals may be a good start? In a 'prepper' scenario, some mid/ lower value coinage that is internationally recognised. Some gold and some silver. Silver is useful in this respect because if you're trying to trade for some small essentials, 'Have you got change for a Britannia?' may not work out 😉
“internationally” no. By my neighbour definitely. So something shiny and yellow might work. But something they actually need and can use is possibly a better bet.
Alcohol miniatures. From memory, made good currency in hyper-inflation Argentina. Unlike a sack of potatoes, alcohol keeps. And if matters get too gloomy, you can drink the stock. You could even make a party of it. But I think a solo decline with an array of empty bottles better reflects the gloom.
Yes of course 😊 It would depend on what disaster you're planning to get through, what causes it and how long it's likely to last. There are 2 general schools, hunker down (which is where your neighbour trades would be useful), or leave. Internationally recognised small denominations of coinage have the benefit that they would be useful for both and keep value irrespective. I would imagine that what ever takes out digital would result in a situation more serious than temporary shortages of toilet rolls and baked beans. That's my take on it anyhow 😁
More like cb’s (commander bastards) direct the charge. Of the Light Brigade … of the heavy metal head-bangers.
There is no hedge against gov. Because of alllll the lil’ inner guvnah’s running around the treadmill.
Recall the recall: FDR trimmed those hedges into an even scarier topiary than the one in The Shining. Afterwards they called it WW2. That predated & presaged recent “Russian” “confiscation.”
So there’s no hedging short memory, or amnesia, either.
No hedging fact we are all “Russians” “now” & that the “lessons”Solzhenitsyn learned were never broadly conveyed - or could be. The arch villainy of the village people drowns the archipelago over & over every time.
But AUld lang syne has gills, apparently.
S/he who has the gold makes the rules-based ordering about.
S/he has the gold.
The Krugerrands in Ayn Rand’s purse may as well be lamé.
Eh?, rhetorical the Canadian Truckers of the Johnny B/Goode/Commonwealth whose funds were froze (remember Canadian Michael J. Fox doin’ it in Back To The Future? Bill Murray, who may as well be “Canadian,” became a musician, too, in Groundhog Day) … but making metal transactions “illegal” is just as easy & crusts of bread to snitches is even easier.
Kelly’s Heroes was a lot of absurd fun. Unsolvable fun it would be to try reverse engineering all that stolen gold back to its rightful original owners. Maybe there’s a smoking guns file - like for JFK, eh?
Dominic, GDX appears to have gone up by MORE than gold over the past month (19% vs 8%) and over the past year (44% vs 32%), so now does NOT seem like a good time to buy the ETF......?
As a hobby I have enjoyed collecting antiques sterling silver flat and hollowware. It is often available below the intrinsic metal value despite being a couple of hundred years old. You occasionally scoop something really good, i.e. a 1704 John Sutton sparrow beak jug for $400, these have sold in Zurich for +30k Swiss! I have also put together a decent collection by women silversmiths, very rare and representing 144 out of 18,000 registered marks. There may be a problem with liquidity, but I have not tried to sell any.
Only very slightly off-topic. I have been thinking about how to convert my assets such as they are into things of real value. The fact is all my assets are in effect digital. I have gold cash other precious metals proxy bitcoin and some Rolls-Royce shares. But these are all just digital. If the world as we know it comes to an end or the horrible central bankers politicians globalist et cetera decide to grab it all there isn’t much I could do about it. Whereas if I liquidate all these assets turn them into cash and bought actual stuff that had real value. I might be safe. Well safer. So I started thinking of headings-
food,
energy,
Housing/land
transport.
I just wondered if you could suggest any other categories that would be worth thinking about? I’m old and not that bothered so apart from suicide pills I’m not sure I’m very concerned about health.
This is an only slightly lighthearted enquiry.
Perhaps another way to think about this is to wonder if I could turn everything I have into something of real value to give to my children, what would that thing be? I suppose Krugerrands might be an answer. Years ago, someone suggested black peppercorns were quite a good store of value.
Housing and land very hard to pass on without paying heavy taxes. Food perishes. Cars lose their value. Energy dissipates. Metals corrode. Gold and bitcoin probably the best bet.
Dominic
Classic cars do not lose their value, quite the opposite, and there's no CGT on them. I have friends who have made a pile in this sector. 'Worth looking at. (If only I had a garage).
Yes, they can do well if you know what you are doing and have somewhere to keep them, but Dave just said transport - he didn't mention the classic bit!
All I meant by transport was as a generic heading. So one could consider a bicycle, a great invention, a sailboat, also a great invention, may be a steam engine but that starts requiring engineering talent I don’t have, an old-fashioned diesel because they just keep running and you can feed them with practically anything from chip fat to soya sauce.
And I forgot to mention hang gliders, a particular favourite of mine. A bit of bamboo, some polythene and a Hill and you’re away. Unfortunately not for long and only while the sun shines. But still, effectively free energy, just like yachts and bicycles.
A boat is good from the point of view of leaving in an emergency. Priceless. Keep it stocked 😉
Unfortunately, in my case the sea is a two hour drive away 😂
The important thing about classic cars is that they have no electronics. With the right kit you can keep them on the road. Good luck with anything after 1990s something. I bought a bantam motorbike in 1971. I’m no mechanic but I kept it on the road until I smashed it up completely. With a Vernier scale, a bit of sandpaper and lots of help from friendly motorcyclists. If you can’t fix it yourself, it’s virtually useless.
I should’ve said that all the possible stores of value should obviously be sustainable. So not a shed full of potatoes, but the ability to grow them year after year. And the problem with bitcoin, is give me one that is literally a token that I can offer someone in exchange for food or fuel or a gun. As it is bitcoin is completely dependent on there being a global digital infrastructure. Not much use when there isn’t one, or at least one you can trust.
And with bitcoin, every transaction is recorded, so no anonymity. Good for security and resilience but bad otherwise.
"These are all just digital", you said.
Well, you can still buy share 'direct' and get the paper certificate via Shareview Equiniti.
The drawback is that these can't be within an ISA.
If you're worried about the 'end of days', some actual in hand metals may be a good start? In a 'prepper' scenario, some mid/ lower value coinage that is internationally recognised. Some gold and some silver. Silver is useful in this respect because if you're trying to trade for some small essentials, 'Have you got change for a Britannia?' may not work out 😉
“internationally” no. By my neighbour definitely. So something shiny and yellow might work. But something they actually need and can use is possibly a better bet.
Alcohol miniatures. From memory, made good currency in hyper-inflation Argentina. Unlike a sack of potatoes, alcohol keeps. And if matters get too gloomy, you can drink the stock. You could even make a party of it. But I think a solo decline with an array of empty bottles better reflects the gloom.
Yes of course 😊 It would depend on what disaster you're planning to get through, what causes it and how long it's likely to last. There are 2 general schools, hunker down (which is where your neighbour trades would be useful), or leave. Internationally recognised small denominations of coinage have the benefit that they would be useful for both and keep value irrespective. I would imagine that what ever takes out digital would result in a situation more serious than temporary shortages of toilet rolls and baked beans. That's my take on it anyhow 😁
More like cb’s (commander bastards) direct the charge. Of the Light Brigade … of the heavy metal head-bangers.
There is no hedge against gov. Because of alllll the lil’ inner guvnah’s running around the treadmill.
Recall the recall: FDR trimmed those hedges into an even scarier topiary than the one in The Shining. Afterwards they called it WW2. That predated & presaged recent “Russian” “confiscation.”
So there’s no hedging short memory, or amnesia, either.
No hedging fact we are all “Russians” “now” & that the “lessons”Solzhenitsyn learned were never broadly conveyed - or could be. The arch villainy of the village people drowns the archipelago over & over every time.
But AUld lang syne has gills, apparently.
S/he who has the gold makes the rules-based ordering about.
S/he has the gold.
The Krugerrands in Ayn Rand’s purse may as well be lamé.
Eh?, rhetorical the Canadian Truckers of the Johnny B/Goode/Commonwealth whose funds were froze (remember Canadian Michael J. Fox doin’ it in Back To The Future? Bill Murray, who may as well be “Canadian,” became a musician, too, in Groundhog Day) … but making metal transactions “illegal” is just as easy & crusts of bread to snitches is even easier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_WSXXPQYeY
Kelly’s Heroes was a lot of absurd fun. Unsolvable fun it would be to try reverse engineering all that stolen gold back to its rightful original owners. Maybe there’s a smoking guns file - like for JFK, eh?
Dominic, GDX appears to have gone up by MORE than gold over the past month (19% vs 8%) and over the past year (44% vs 32%), so now does NOT seem like a good time to buy the ETF......?
It has, but that is despite outflows.
https://x.com/AtlasPulse/status/1911111893760041218
As a hobby I have enjoyed collecting antiques sterling silver flat and hollowware. It is often available below the intrinsic metal value despite being a couple of hundred years old. You occasionally scoop something really good, i.e. a 1704 John Sutton sparrow beak jug for $400, these have sold in Zurich for +30k Swiss! I have also put together a decent collection by women silversmiths, very rare and representing 144 out of 18,000 registered marks. There may be a problem with liquidity, but I have not tried to sell any.
Oil and gold are usually well correlated. Hopefully oil is going to do the catching up.