<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 11:25 PM, Alan Barnard <<a href="mailto:pianotuner@embarqmail.com">pianotuner@embarqmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"> <div> <div><br></div> <div>Second impertinent question: I keep hearing ads from companies companies selling gold ... you know, "Now is the time to buy", "Gold is a great investment", etc. My question is, if gold is such a great thing to buy and hold, why are these people so anxious to sell it?  Seems like a fair question, to me.</div> </div></blockquote><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Metals investment is not the same thing as stock investment.  Investing in metals protects one's assets from a bad economy (like a stock market crash which some of us will probably see in our lifetimes.)  Metals are tangible, and always have value.  Stocks are intangible, and sometimes have value.</div> <div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>It is probably still an OK time to buy gold now.  A better time would have been two years ago when the dollar was stronger.  One doesn't want to buy metals during the lowest cycle of the economy.  Since the dollar will likely get weaker, one might have a measure of protection through metals investing.  I'd study the matter out thoroughly before purchasing, though.  It is a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">completely</span> different type of investing than the stock market.  And it's done for different reasons.</div> <div><br></div><div>I would personally like to be paid for my services in either silver or gold. And we need to return to a silver and gold standard.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div>-- <br>JF