Warren Buffett has spoken on a number of occasions about why investing in gold is a bad idea, and in this video, he compares investing in gold to investing in the stock market, and how each have performed over the long term.

    26 Comments

    1. A compulsive spender can spend on precious metals and still have value left afterward. It's a good gamble for some people and situations. It's not going to pay a percentage, but it can be converted into a good investment or cash.

    2. Gold isn't productive but it also has no risk of going bankrupt, along with reduced risk of a govt seizing it.
      It's a commodity the same as oil or wheat but can be stored more easily than the others.
      A sensible investor should be aware of different risks in the environment and if you need to store money when shares are over inflated by excess money supply, in a negative interest rate environment then particular asset classes come to the fore.
      I would love to buy a hundred acres of farmland in Nebraska but I'm not able to farm nor organise someone else to, and there are no FTSE 100 stocks that do this.
      All respect to Warren who is giving advice that works for him but his resources are magnitudes beyond what many ordinary people can draw upon when making their investment decisions.

    3. The question was, "Is gold a viable alternative to paper currencies?" The answer? "We would much prefer some asset that is going to be useful…" Talk about dodging the question.

    4. I generally agree with them about gold but I see the appeal of metals. For anyone wanting physical metal I suggest silver for a few reasons:
      – more silver is used in industry
      – recycling silver is often not possible or just doesn't make any sense, even at high prices (unlike gold, which can always be salvaged)
      – central banks have huge gold reserves and they're happy to lend it to short sellers, so there will never be a short squeeze. But IIRC only 1 or 2 central banks in the world have any silver at all, and not much of it, so there could be a short squeeze (on the other hand, if the rumors about JPM and market manipulation etc. are true, what's to stop them from continuing that forever?)
      – if you're ever bartering with metal, or selling it, you don't want to have to figure out how to get change for a $2000 oz of gold (without getting robbed). Silver's value density is low enough that it's practical, but still high enough that you could store $1 million worth at home

    5. Precious metals are a nice to have hedge for the little guy. Just in our times look at Turkey, Lebanon, Argentina, Sri Lanka etc what happened to their currencies.
      I'm sure their citizens would have liked to have some gold stashed.

    6. Silver and gold are incredibly important in electronics. Anything headed to space will have plenty of gold and silver in its electronics. This is dangerously bad advice. Our supply of gold is currently fixed and it’s utility keeps going up.

    7. The questions are so laughably stupid I couldn't believe it… scrolled down to find equally stupid comments! Am I really this much smarter than the average investor? I should start investing more seriously then…

    8. You can have all the gold in the world in one hand, or you can have in your other hand 7 Exxon Mobils, all the farmland in the continental US, and $1 trillion cash…which one would you rather have?

    9. People confuse investing with owning or savings. You wanna invest on hot product or service that has essential value and use on many businesses as well as consumers. Because you wanna make big money out of those investments. However when sh1t hit's the fan and economy drops like a depression or societal collapse you wanna trade in that worthless paper with something that has value and lasts forever and can be concealed easily from unsavory characters. That's when precious materials like gold, silver and gemstones come in. Investing in gold is not a smart idea because the value of gold is not that high and fluctuates often which will make you lose money rather than gain.

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