smart investors dig modern booty

We've all heard of Fort Knox gold scandal, and the reported finagling of our gold prices that our government was attempting during the sixties. Gold has played a part in the direction of the world's most powerful governments, and it has caused them to make some interesting decisions. It is what brought the Spanish to the "New World", and has been the trigger for battles and wars in countless eras. Recent Hollywood films such as Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean remind us that when the dollar fails, tangible assets like coins made of precious metals will remain prized possessions, regardless of origin or language. The Y2K scare resulted in many fearful consumers picking up some "booty" of their own, in case the dollar would crumble.

Seven years later, we see that the Y2k scare yielded little calamity, and our dollar is still around (albeit with a new off-center face and some not-so-green accents). Gold is still around, and savvy investors don't require an impending doom to respect its value. The value of a dollar has continually dropped over the last few decades, yet according to Monex, gold bars have consistently held their value. In fact, they state that the value of silver today would buy you the same amount of gas as it had bought based on its value back in the seventies. Imagine getting your gas at an equivalent of 25 cents a gallon again!

As with any retirement or investment strategy, it is best not to have "all of one's eggs in one basket." Whereas many investors may think that they are diversifying their investments simply by spreading them across multiple stock plans and money market funds, I believe companies like Monex are providing sound advice when they recommend including some precious metals in that diversification equation. Some people advocate real estate, but you can't put a house in your pocket like you can a gold coin.