Gold and other precious metals | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Instability like war or mad inflation, or commodity volatility, chases money to precious metals, especially gold. It doesn't hurt that there's been a heavy buy-gold ad campaign on for months.

CAD said
Does anybody 'invest' in GOLD?
Like Canadian gold coins, gold bars, etc. Silver maybe?

Yes, I do that for the last 40 years.

90% of all my savings - gold, only less than 10% I keep in the banks (TFSA and regular savings/GIC's).

For many decades value of my gold increased around 10% per year each and every single year and recently increased around 30-40% per year.

I'm very very happy.
By the way, I never planned to invest in gold, I just collected gold, because I like that shiny metal.

Winnie said

CAD said
Does anybody 'invest' in GOLD?
Like Canadian gold coins, gold bars, etc. Silver maybe?

Yes, I do that for the last 40 years.

90% of all my savings - gold, only less than 10% I keep in the banks (TFSA and regular savings/GIC's).

For many decades value of my gold increased around 10% per year each and every single year and recently increased around 30-40% per year.

.  

Over the last 40 years gold delivered ~3.5% above inflation (annualized, not counting cost of storage and insurance). US stocks delivered 8.4% above inflation.

CAD said

Winnie said
Do not need insurance, storage and taxes are optional, when will decide to sell. 

Taxes? What taxes?
You pay with cash - nobody knows you bought it.
You sell for cash - nobody know you sold it.
Buy/sell at legitimate sources, of course.  

Yes, I completely agree.
CRA do not know, that I do own a lot of gold.

But, some people would prefer to pay taxes, even nobody knows about gold, I discovered that here during earlier discussions regarding that subject (see previous, if interested, just enter in search "Winnie gold")

I'm not one of those peoples.
I learned that from Paul Martin, the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, who owns Canada Steamship Lines (CSL Group Inc.). CSL had set up at least 20 subsidiaries in tax havens during the time that Martin was Minister of Finance (1993–2002). Nice example.

Winnie said

Yes, I completely agree.
CRA do not know, that I do own a lot of gold.

But, some people would prefer to pay taxes, even nobody knows about gold, I discovered that here during earlier discussions regarding that subject (see previous, if interested, just enter in search "Winnie gold")

I'm not one of those peoples.
 

Not prefer to pay tax but if at the same time collect OAS, GIS and other potential welfare benefits..... I am not to judge as it's more of a moral issue. I won't do it myself.

savemoresaveoften said

Winnie said

Yes, I completely agree.
CRA do not know, that I do own a lot of gold.

But, some people would prefer to pay taxes, even nobody knows about gold, I discovered that here during earlier discussions regarding that subject (see previous, if interested, just enter in search "Winnie gold")

I'm not one of those peoples.
 

. I am not to judge as it's more of a moral issue. I won't do it myself.  

Also, it's a legal issue

Example: Someone purchased gold for $300/oz in the year xxxx and sold that gold for $3000/oz in the year yyyy.
At the same time someone purchased a house for $300,000 in the year xxxx and sold that house for $3,000,000 in the year yyyy.
It is very unfair, that capital gain is treated differently in those cases.
Just my opinion.

Capital gains on houses are subject to capital gains taxes, just like gold. The only exception is for a house that incurred capital gains during the time it was being used as a principal residence.

Makes sense in that living somewhere is a human necessity, gold ownership is not.

Not sure why you care, Winnie, you have said CRA knows nothing about your gold holdings (why is that? is there no documentation that seller would have to support his disposition of gold to you?) and that you are not one of the people who "prefer to pay taxes", suggesting to me that when you sell gold you don't report gains to CRA anyway. Or am I misunderstanding?

Well, Winnie, you certainly are doing things differently than most people, it's obviously working for you.

If CRA ever looks at banks' gold sales they would have a record of purchases in your name, I suppose, though I'd think the chances of that would be pretty much zero.

Your gold "will remain hidden after my departure", eh? Someday somebody will knock down that house, it may get returned to the earth mixed in with all the rubble, imagine that!