A golden outlook

So another year has passed, and a new one has started. So many people have new dreams for the following year ahead of us. Some want to go on vacations. Some want to move to a nicer or bigger house. Some want to get a shiny new car. And most of us want to have good health and prosperity.

I of course plan on working as hard as I can to help paying down my debt. It's looking pretty good since this time last year, so I must be doing something right. I just want to be able to do a little better this year. Okay a lot better is fine too! It would be nice to be debt free and be able to invest more for my retirement. I wouldn't lock everything into any sort of registered retirement fund though. Uh-uh. I would like to be able to spread it around a bit, and invest in other avenues as well. Take gold and silver for example. Have you ever followed the prices of these precious metals for any length of time to see how they're rising? Gold has more than doubled in price over the last five years -- almost tripled, in fact. Same goes for silver too. It sure would be nice to be able to have a few extra bucks to spend at Monex on some gold and silver, and sock it away in a safety deposit box for a couple decades, but for now I have to concentrate on paying that loan of mine off! ;-)

Olivia

All gold shines

I had an old man in the bank the other day, and when I asked him if there was any particular way he would like his cash, he said to me, "It doesn't matter. All gold shines." I loved that line! And how true is that? Yes, gold is shiny, there's no doubt there.

Gold, silver and platinum make great additions to an investors portfolio. From time to time we've had clients bring in gold and silver bars, also known as bullion for trading purposes. Did you know that the standard size for gold bullion weighs 10 ounces? This is also referred to as the .995 fine bullion bar. And if you were wanting a little bit heavier of a portfolio, you can also purchase your gold bullion in kilobar size, which is the equivalent of 32.15 ounces of the shiny stuff.

Standard sized silver bullion, on the other hand comes in a heftier size of 1000 ounce bars. Of course silver is priced considerably lower than gold, by about $650.00 or so an ounce currently. Mind you, the experts say that our silver resources are shrinking quickly, and that is sure to boost prices in the coming years.

Platinum, just like gold comes in standard sized bullion of 10 ounces. However, platinum resources are much more rare, and because of this, it's worth almost double the price of gold. No wonder why platinum jewelry is so dearly priced. I guess that's why they're all called precious metals!

If you'd like to stay up to date on the latest prices for gold, silver and platinum, go where I go -- to the Monex Deposit Company. They've been dealing with precious metals for over 40 years.

Olivia