1/4 oz or 1 full oz?

[LittleJohnSilver]

To compliment a steady build up of silver, I'm wondering whether to buy a single 1/4 gold each month, or save and go for a full 1oz every 4 months.

I can squeeze a 1/4 oz into my planned monthly silver buy, but also know that buying a full oz every few months is cheaper.

But, when time comes to sell, I don't want to have to sell an entire full oz if only a 1/4 is necessary.

Or maybe go for a few 1/10 or 1/20 each month instead....

Any thoughts?

[sixgun]

Sovereigns are about the 1/4oz size. They are well priced with variety.

[Xander]

If it was me I would buy sovereigns if it was just for stacking, good value, easy to liquidate

[LittleJohnSilver]

1/4 being full sovs?

[Sal]

12 minutes ago, LittleJohnSilver said:

To compliment a steady build up of silver, I'm wondering whether to buy a single 1/4 gold each month, or save and go for a full 1oz every 4 months.

I can squeeze a 1/4 oz into my planned monthly silver buy, but also know that buying a full oz every few months is cheaper.

But, when time comes to sell, I don't want to have to sell an entire full oz if only a 1/4 is necessary.

Or maybe go for a few 1/10 or 1/20 each month instead....

Any thoughts?

Compare the premium over spot. Simple

[LittleJohnSilver]

Still haven't found a layman's term for understanding that spot stuff. I make my calcs based on price per gram and then see who sells a particular coin the cheapest.

[StackerNoob]

Im a fan of 1/4 oz over 1 oz for exactly the reasons you state = liquidity. Also means you get a monthly treat and keep those itchy fingers at bay...

[BackyardBullion]

@LittleJohnSilver

My strategy is to have a balance. If you have a budget of 1/4 oz every month then I would get some fractionals and then every now and again save up for an oz.

It kinda depends on your end game though - for me it is about pension planning so to have some large 1oz gold denominations is fine, as I will be looking to cash out decent sums to pay for a forever retirement house, university tuition, house for kids etc.

But it is nice to have some smaller denominations so I have options down the road for unexpected emergency situations

[LittleJohnSilver]

4 minutes ago, StackerNoob said:

Im a fan of 1/4 oz over 1 oz for exactly the reasons you state = liquidity. Also means you get a monthly treat and keep those itchy fingers at bay...

What do you look for when buying a 1/4?

Design, price or just straight up coz it's the cheapest gold?

[LittleJohnSilver]

8 minutes ago, BackyardBullion said:

It kinda depends on your end game though - for me it is about pension planning so to have some large 1oz gold denominations is fine, as I will be looking to cash out decent sums to pay for a forever retirement house, university tuition, house for kids etc.

My end goal as well. Or at least something that puts me on the path to it.

[richatthecroft]

It's very clear that Sovereigns are a great investment, there's always a willing buyer, and in terms of holding them, the added bonus is that you can have an interesting past time/ hobby, collecting different date runs, particular Monarchs, so on and so forth.  It amazes me how interesting these little coins are. 

Personally, I prefer to hold a mixture of different coins and weights, and this satisfies my quest of saving to meet my short term and hopefully,  longer term goals of wealth preservation and helping fund my pension , but also provides me a hobby and interest along the way. 

 

[Norskgeld]

I think the most important factor is having a budget and sticking to it as it is very easy to get lured in to overspend mode...somebody stop me!!! 

 

[mongo28]

Bottom line keep buying gold just like you add saving to your retirement account every month.

Buy what you can afford, every month... If you can only buy 1 or 2 1/10oz coins that's fine.

If you can afford a 1/4 oz Great!

And if you get a bonus, sell some junk, silver or receive a tax return then 1oz...

Just like setting up a certain % of your paycheck to be allocated to your retirement, so should a certain percentage of gold. Especially since you asked.

That's my $.2 cent... Enjoy, and keep on buying whatever you can afford. There is no right or wrong answer. Buy the deals when possible and smile!

[Lowlow]

On 3/19/2018 at 18:30, LittleJohnSilver said:

Still haven't found a layman's term for understanding that spot stuff. I make my calcs based on price per gram and then see who sells a particular coin the cheapest.

Ignore this if you already know it ...

In the context of precious metals, the spot price is basically the paper market price - that isn't exactly true, but for our purposes it is a good enough definition.  Paper gold and silver trades near spot, and that's what you'll see in the funny pages.

Physical gold and silver, however, has its own price.  Think of it this way, the silver you own, if someone just walks up to you and asks you to sell your silver for whatever the spot price is that is in today's financial newspaper, are you obligated to sell it to them at that price, or are you going to think about what is likely to happen in the future and charge them that price instead ?  Physical gold and silver works like that .. it's actually owned by someone, and they have it stored somewhere, and there is a price they will buy more of it at, and a price that they will sell at, but that price is greatly influenced by what they believe will happen in the markets.  The effect of this is that the physical price often hovers around the spot price once the spot price has established itself in a range, but is often very different from the spot price during large price moves.  If silver, for example, suddenly had a spot price of 5$us/oz tomorrow, it is very doubtful you would find anyone to actually sell you physical silver at that price, it would take a while at 5$us/oz before people who actually held physical silver to be willing to sell at that price.  This can also show up as scarcity i.e. when the price changes you might simply not be able to find physical at any price near spot, and during those times people might say that the physical market has become completely disconnected from the paper market.

The difference between physical gold and silver's price and the spot price is basically what people mean when they talk about a "premium".  So, for example, if a dealer is selling silver rounds for 30$us/oz and the spot price is 20$us then the round has a 10$us premium.  The premium can be affected by a lot of things, it may be higher if you include shipping costs, and it is typically higher for small items than it is for large items because of the amount of labor and effort that goes into making the items.  Said another way, it's not nearly as hard to create a single 1000oz bar than it is to mint 1000 1oz silver rounds, so the rounds have a higher premium per ounce than the bar does.  Government rounds (coins) also have a higher premium, in silver that premium is typically about 2-5$us/oz higher than the physical price, which itself tends to be 1-3$us/oz higher than spot.

When you say you calculate based on price per gram and then figure out who sells the cheapest, you're basically just dealing with the physical price you see listed for specific products, which is a pretty good way to figure out if you're getting a good deal or not.  Keep in mind, however, that smaller items (1/4 oz coins for example) have a higher premium relative to their weights than larger items.  Also, lower priced metals (copper for example) have higher premiums relative to their overall price, because it takes the same amount of effort to stamp an image on a copper round as it does silver, or gold, so the labor is a higher percentage of the overall price.  In the case of 1/4oz coins, the same idea holds, they carry a higher premium per coin because it isn't any easier to make a 1/4oz coin than it is to make a 1oz coin.

The premium is also higher on novelty items like rounds with limited edition runs, rounds with gimmicky features, etc.

This post is already really long, but when prices fell in 2008/2009 you could not find physical silver rounds for anything near the spot price.  Paper silver had dropped, but the people who actually had physical silver wouldn't sell at that price, they simply refused to do it, so the physical price of silver really didn't change at first, and it took months for the physical price to fall to something near the spot price.

Also worth noting, and this is something I've only learned since joining this forum, there is a premium on silver in Europe because of the way Europe's tax system works and what they consider "investment" precious metal.  I don't know the specifics of it, but it does seem to both drive up the price of silver rounds in Europe and it seems to encourage precious metals investors to lean towards gold.

[4Nines7Hills]

If it was me I'd buy a 1/4 Oz or sovereign monthly

 

This is to take advantage of cost averaging as  the chances your 4 month 1oz gold purchase lines up with a dip is zero. I watched a video from beleng statong statistically you are always better off buy monthly than  more sporadically.

 

sovereigns have a  low price per gram anyway . 

[tbone]

On 3/19/2018 at 18:05, LittleJohnSilver said:

I can squeeze a 1/4 oz into my planned monthly silver buy, but also know that buying a full oz every few months is cheaper.

I'd go for 1/4 oz for exactly the reason you say above.  You already have a plan and budget for your monthly buys, if you can work it into that plan you'll actually buy it.  Trying to build up funds for > 1 month can easily mean you'll spend it on other things.  Plus its more fun to buy four 1/4 coins than a single 1 oz

[delsolhonda]

here is my personal feelings....

i buy 1oz because it drives me crazy thinking when i buy 1/4 if you price it out to an oz, you're usually paying over 100usd more per 1oz of gold.....then my mind thinks about what i coulda bought with that 100 dollars difference per 4 months. i know some folks bring up the spot price ups/downs, but still for gold, it hasnt drifted a lot more than 20 or 30usd in 4 month time spans the last few years.

just my 2cents. my mind works in weird ways

[Goldmick]

Welcome to the mad house

[delsolhonda]

thank ya thank ya, i'm sitting on eggs at the moment waiting for the spot to drop matter of fact. i have a price in mind i want to buy at, but i'm sure it'll not hit that dip

[Lowlow]

2 hours ago, delsolhonda said:

thank ya thank ya, i'm sitting on eggs at the moment waiting for the spot to drop matter of fact. i have a price in mind i want to buy at, but i'm sure it'll not hit that dip

Stay tuned ... the key is to be ready to act when that day comes, and to pull the trigger when it happens.

[vand]

You could also do 1/2oz every couple of months

Or you could have a policy of buying a sov for every eg  50 or100oz of silver that you buy.

I don't think one is better than the other.. there are many ways to do it, and there is probably not much in it whichever way you choose. Go for what works best for you.