Thursday 20 August 2009

Gold Stock or Gold Bullion

There are arguments about whether people should invest in stocks or bullion when buying gold. This is a very simple matter so far as I am concerned. If you have a lot of money to go around then you can afford to buy both, in order to spread your investments.

But if like me you are just worried that our current paper money may lose its value and you want some gold bullion stored away for that rainy day, then please just stick to bullion, and buy gold coins that can be easily sold off for cash, gold bullion bars are much more difficult to sell off and you may even have to sell these at a bit of a loss, if you have to produce proof of its authenticity.

Gold stocks and bonds are speculative investments, gold bullion coins and bars means you have the actual product in your possession or in the vault of your bank. I would therefore prefer to have the physical ownership than speculative certificates that could mean big losses or gains down the line.

Tuesday 18 August 2009

5 Nigerian Banks: Bosses get the Sack!

What a disaster, these 5 Nigerian Banks most of which were giants in the Nigerian Financial sector now brought to their knees in just space of time.

Most people in the west would not be aware of these banks existence, but they are another result of the current global economic recession now at hand. They are namely, Oceanic Bank, Union Bank, Finbank,Intercontinental Bank and Afribank. The bosses of these banks have been sacked by the Central Bank of Nigeria and 19 Top Executives are wanted for questioning regarding "bad loans" which led ultimately to the hundreds of billion of Naira ($2.6 billion) bail-out.

It can be argued that sacking these bosses seems quite drastic if not draconian, some-one even said if I can remember rightly that the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor has been too high handed and should not have taken this action as it has now caused panic amongst the banks clients. Britain and USA were cited as examples of countries that did not sack their bank bosses.

Maybe the argument should be that the Western government should take a leaf from the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria who has had the guts to get rid of the arm of "Untouchable Bankers" who think they can hold the economy of a nation in their hands and use it as a pun on their corrupt playing field.

The hope is that their injection of cash into the banks will help to free the flow of liquid cash into the system and that the panic will die down. A lot of work still needs to be done. But it seems that Nigeria's Central Bank has started cleaning house for the countries financial sector and the Naira may finally start finding its feet in the worlds economy

Monday 17 August 2009

Gold, Silver and Paper Money: Big Difference.

Gold as well as silver, have incredible characteristics no other matter on earth can match and neither can paper money. There are many distinct characteristics but here are three important ones to start with:-

Gold is a very durable metal, it wont rust, neither can it be destroyed by fire, You need over 1900 F to melt it! And guess what, most of the gold ever mined still exist today! Bank-notes on the other hand are easily destroyed, in actual fact paper money has a shelf life in most countries, especially in the developed world. The old are discarded and newly minted notes are issued and circulated. What gold there is is all there is, no newly made gold is being made today by mother nature.

You cannot reproduce Silver or Gold, people have tried to produce items in other metal forms and pass it off as gold down through the ages, but they have not succeeded. Unlike paper money gold and silver is not printed. It comes in the natural form given it from the beginning of time, that is before man started innovating stuff, and the scales will always catch the fraudulent impostors

Gold is beautiful and also very portable compared to paper money. You can carry a couple of gold bullion bars in one hand. Try doing that with paper money of the equivalent amount!

One other thing, don't forget that Gold and Silver are Internationally accepted, even the US Dollar as popular as it is does not enjoy the same status. Gold is what it is. Lets not put all our eggs in just one basket. Diversify your cash now for the rainy day.

Thursday 13 August 2009

Gold and Silver: Important Investments

OK, I've been going on about buying gold and silver bullions. This time I just wanted to remind us that even the gold and silver jewellery we buy are important investments.

I was reminded of this by a dear friend of mine who is going through some very trying emotional and finacial troubles right now. I've known her for years and I'm aware of her deep love for collecting any good quality gold jewellery. Well guess what, now that times are hard, she sells her gold off, bit by bit; and is therefore able to pay her important and essential bills, without having to go borrowing. Now that is a good investment.

So if you haven't started thinking about it, please do. If you have, get to the next stage, ask questions find out how you too can start buying and investing in gold and silver so that your savings will be valuable when the rainy days from this financial recession starts to unfold.