Should I Buy Gold Now Or Wait?

[rational thinker]

I've been a little hesitant to buy gold but I just heard that Peter Schiff predicted that gold will rise to over $2000 an ounce. Should I do it now or is there a better time to wait for?

[Thrashertm]

It's a long term play, so I'd buy now and hold. It may go down for the next month or few months, but the continuing deficit spending and inflation will assuredly increase inflation over the long haul.

[Conza88]

Buy silver tooooo.

[Kalifornia]

in the current economy, there are two reasons to buy gold

1. buying gold as an inflationary hedge. If this is your concern, like any other kind of "insurance", you dont buy insurance and sell it later, you buy what you can afford, within reason, based on your circumstances, and you hold it. Later if you feel your needs decrease, you may lower the amount. How this translates into the real world is to buy a small amount, as a percentage of your investments, ONGOING, in an amount of, say 10% of your investments (to offset the possibility that your FRN investments will drop in an value due to inflation.

2. buying gold as an investment. Gold is a poor investment. Investments MAKE money. Gold doesnt (although in a gold monetary system, it would, as you could loan it out and get a gold return). So, in our current system, see note 1. The likelihood that we will return to a gold standard, and you will be ahead of the curve is very small, so the only real purpose to buy gold now is for inflationary hedging, or as a time machine to hold value through a depression.

3. If you are concerned about an EOTWAWKI scenario, buy silver and junk gold as well (jewelry, etc, stuff that can be easily measured and cut for less than an ounce of bullion). The idea that in a shit hits the fan scenario, you are going to carry around 1oz gold eagles and use those to trade for most things is pretty unlikely.

When I can invest again, I am likely to dedicate 10% of my 'investment' purchases to physical gold, and 10% to physical silver, and buy it regardless of its current market value. People who attempt to time market swings lose more often than not.