Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
- Mister Imperceptible
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Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
Making some portfolio lemonade. Physical gold is better than holding an ETF, but I would like to protect my retirement accounts from sequence of returns risk.
Also wondering if it would be wise to buy silver ETFs because holding any meaningful amount of physical silver is impractical, so using silver ETFs would be a way to diversify precious metal holdings.
I have a Roth IRA with Fidelity and a SEP IRA with Vanguard. I care more about my Roth IRA being protected than my SEP, because if my SEP gets ravaged by inflation I just pay fewer taxes. (Or am I thinking incorrectly?)
I’m trying to be cognizant of expense ratios. Currently looking at IAU and SGOL for gold, SLV for silver, and CEF for both.
What do you use?
Alternatively, tell me why you think owning a metals ETF is a terrible idea.
Also wondering if it would be wise to buy silver ETFs because holding any meaningful amount of physical silver is impractical, so using silver ETFs would be a way to diversify precious metal holdings.
I have a Roth IRA with Fidelity and a SEP IRA with Vanguard. I care more about my Roth IRA being protected than my SEP, because if my SEP gets ravaged by inflation I just pay fewer taxes. (Or am I thinking incorrectly?)
I’m trying to be cognizant of expense ratios. Currently looking at IAU and SGOL for gold, SLV for silver, and CEF for both.
What do you use?
Alternatively, tell me why you think owning a metals ETF is a terrible idea.
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- Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:05 pm
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
When I used ETFs for some of my gold, I had IAU. I believe at the time it had the lowest expense ratio at the time.
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Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
A prior Gold ETF discussion:
viewtopic.php?t=8971
I am mostly IAU with some GLD. Total about 12.5% of my NW.
wrt Physical gold vs. ETF, I ultimately decided that the ETF expense ratio was equivalent to the storage fee. Anyone you might store your physical gold with would likely be somewhat less trustworthy than a fund company, and I certainly don't want 5-25% of my NW in a vault in my house, ripe for burglary.
viewtopic.php?t=8971
I am mostly IAU with some GLD. Total about 12.5% of my NW.
wrt Physical gold vs. ETF, I ultimately decided that the ETF expense ratio was equivalent to the storage fee. Anyone you might store your physical gold with would likely be somewhat less trustworthy than a fund company, and I certainly don't want 5-25% of my NW in a vault in my house, ripe for burglary.
- Mister Imperceptible
- Posts: 1669
- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
Thanks ThisDinosaur. I do like a safety deposit box for physical over a fund. I like knowing I can drive there on any given day and put hands on what’s mine. If it turns out that all of IAU’s holdings have been secretly sold to the Chinese, I’m not sure who I’m supposed to hold accountable.
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
I focus on expense ratios. IAU was the lowest for a long time at .25%, but the new GLDM is slightly lower at 0.18%.
If this is part of a permanent portfolio, you should hold only gold, no silver. Gold is predominantly a monetary metal while silver is predominantly an industrial commodity.
If this is part of a permanent portfolio, you should hold only gold, no silver. Gold is predominantly a monetary metal while silver is predominantly an industrial commodity.
- Mister Imperceptible
- Posts: 1669
- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
@KevinW
I guess you would say my portfolio is PP-influenced but I don’t adhere to it directly. I’ve read Harry Browne’s books as well as Craig Rowland’s, and thru Marc Spitznagel’s Dao of Capital and a lot I’ve read from JLF and others on this forum I would say my thinking on economics is of the Austrian School.
I think the future will rhyme with the past but not repeat itself exactly, and I’m very bearish on a portfolio that is 50% government paper, so at this point I’m closer to the type of portfolio being espoused by Marc Faber:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10020&start=20#p170492
The thing about silver is that unlike platinum and the other precious metals is that it is still seems to correlate very well with gold, so it has the dual purpose of industrial commodity and store of value. There’s still a long history of a bimetallic standard, even though all governments have abandoned the concept of sound money in favor of never-ending debt:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3599&start=140#p163853
The “gold-to-silver ratio” is very high right now, but I don’t know what that is worth. Even if I incorporated silver, it would be probably similar to how PRPFX is set up with mostly gold and just a bit of silver to try and capitalize on a silver market that trades with much lower volume and therefore might have greater upside potential.
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I’m also wondering if I should hold metal ETFs exclusively in my Roth IRA and none in my SEP IRA. If a currency crisis eroded the real value of my SEP, well, it’s that much fewer taxes I will pay in real terms.
I guess you would say my portfolio is PP-influenced but I don’t adhere to it directly. I’ve read Harry Browne’s books as well as Craig Rowland’s, and thru Marc Spitznagel’s Dao of Capital and a lot I’ve read from JLF and others on this forum I would say my thinking on economics is of the Austrian School.
I think the future will rhyme with the past but not repeat itself exactly, and I’m very bearish on a portfolio that is 50% government paper, so at this point I’m closer to the type of portfolio being espoused by Marc Faber:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10020&start=20#p170492
The thing about silver is that unlike platinum and the other precious metals is that it is still seems to correlate very well with gold, so it has the dual purpose of industrial commodity and store of value. There’s still a long history of a bimetallic standard, even though all governments have abandoned the concept of sound money in favor of never-ending debt:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3599&start=140#p163853
The “gold-to-silver ratio” is very high right now, but I don’t know what that is worth. Even if I incorporated silver, it would be probably similar to how PRPFX is set up with mostly gold and just a bit of silver to try and capitalize on a silver market that trades with much lower volume and therefore might have greater upside potential.
************
I’m also wondering if I should hold metal ETFs exclusively in my Roth IRA and none in my SEP IRA. If a currency crisis eroded the real value of my SEP, well, it’s that much fewer taxes I will pay in real terms.
- Mister Imperceptible
- Posts: 1669
- Joined: Fri Nov 10, 2017 4:18 pm
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gold-sli ... rc=applewf
Government backed gold ETF. More or less reputable than a metals ETF backed by a financial institution? We know financial institutions are corrupt and barely solvent....but then again, so are governments.
Government backed gold ETF. More or less reputable than a metals ETF backed by a financial institution? We know financial institutions are corrupt and barely solvent....but then again, so are governments.
Re: Best Gold or Silver ETFs?
Yes, the expense ratio of GLDM and that new AAAU are tied at 0.18%, so I'm not sure which to favor. There's probably a tiebreaking factor buried in their prospectuses somewhere, but I haven't dug in yet.
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