Astropro's Website Of the Week Award ©2008 by Richard Nolle

SEP 22, 2008 - How to Buy Gold answers a lot of the questions I've been getting lately, as a result of the market meltdowns and financial freeze-ups that have come to pass, as foretold in my 2008 World Forecast Highlights and detailed in my September forecast. I'm an astrologer, not a financial adviser. I could tell you how I buy gold and silver, but that might not be right for you and your situation, so I won't. My 2006 World Forecast Highlights (published in 2005) did suggest "buying gold and silver bullion coins whenever there's a price dip". If you've been following up on that suggestion over the past few years, you've done pretty well. If you're coming late to the party, you've missed out on a lot, but there will still be opportunities ahead. How to Buy Gold is a commendable general guide, to my way of thinking, so do take a look if you're interested in precious metals. Frankly, I'm a fan of plain bullion coins, as opposed to proofs, rare coins, "junk silver", bullion bars and the like. Plain bullion coins like the one troy ounce US Gold and Silver Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, South African Krugerrands and the like are physical precious metals that you can hold in your hand, stuff in your safe or safe deposit box, etc. They're the real deal, genuine money - not a paper promise or electronic entry like stocks or funds (including gold and silver ETFs). Any of the latter can be worth nothing at some point in time. Gold and silver will always be worth something. I'm not recommending (nor advising against) buying from Blanchard, by the way. While I've always preferred to buy from and sell to a local dealer whom I know personally, I'm not averse to buying online.

Remember that one ounce gold bullion coins are nowadays the better part of 1,000 bucks apiece. (They were half that when I started recommending them.) You might want to have some silver bullion coins to make change, so to speak. And a roll of twenty-dollar bills wouldn't hurt. Experts differ as to how much gold and silver should be in your portfolio. If you don't have enough cash on hand to cover at least a long weekend's worth of living expenses, you're tempting fate. If you don't have at least enough bullion to handle a few month's worth of expenses, you could be a short-timer. At the very least, you should have enough gold coins to bribe the border guards, as the saying goes. Remember: last week's bail-out of the financial system won't be the last. I'm guessing we were within hours or at most days of a total seize-up of the world financial system: debit and credit cards not working, ATMs out of cash, and the banks' doors chained and padlocked. The central banks and Treasury Secretaries of the world have bought us a little time. Use it to buy a little gold and silver, before it's all gone. (Shortages have begun to develop, as more people seek the safe haven of precious metals: demand goes up, price goes up, supply dries up until high prices stimulate more production: it's not rocket science, as Professor von Braun might say.)

A word to the wise: it's good to always have some bullion, but you don't want to be spellbound by the bewitching stuff like some poor old Gollum. Any time you can lock in a good profit - taking expenses of purchase, storage and sale as well as inflation into account - you should always sell some portion of your stash. (I like the 20 percent rule, but that's just me.) If astrology teaches anything, it's that everything is cyclical - gold and silver too. Which means that there's a time to sell, as well as a time to buy the precious metals.

Richard Nolle, Certified Professional Astrologer consultations/orders (MasterCard/Visa only) 1-800-527-8761 data/fax 480-753-6261 - email rnolle@astropro.com Box 26599 - Tempe, AZ 85285-6599 - USA on the World Wide Web at http://www.astropro.com