If you talk to enough people about any given subject you’re bound to get questions and one of the most common questions I get about buying gold in Houston is “should I buy gold”?

After answering that question a number of times I’ve finally been able to refine my answer because my suggestions and feedback are always the same. In short, the answer to the question of “should I buy gold”, is “it depends”.  In general id say if you have money to invest, buying bullion of any precious metal is always a good idea because precious metals like gold and silver have a universal value that will always be and has always been more valuable than any currency we have today and may ever have. Getting back to the “It depends” answer, I want to clarify.  While I’d always say that buying gold is a good idea for the simple reason I just mentioned there are certainly better times than others to buy gold.   However, as a rule here are a few guidelines I always use and recommend to others when buying gold in Houston.  The general guidelines I use are listed below. 

• Why are you buying gold?  If the answer is based on a long term investment strategy and you have concerns about the stability of national economies, debt, and the world’s economy than I’d have to say you’re on the right track.  If your buying gold to use as a financial tool to purchase, trade or barter with in the event our dollar truly collapses, then buying gold is still a good choice but your purchases have to be a little more strategic and specific.  I’ll talk more about this in just a minute.

• How much money do you have to invest?  This is going to be a large determining factor in whether or not buying gold in Houston is the right move for you.  Because the cost of gold, when compared to silver, is so high, buying gold can be a little prohibitive.  This means that depending on your budget, you may have to be a little more creative when deciding which gold pieces and how much to buy.  You may find yourself having to buy in terms of grams and not ounces or kilograms.  This is part of being specific and strategic.

• Do you currently own any silver bullion? This is probably the most important part of the picture. If you are considering buying gold in Houston for any reason and you do not currently have any silver bullion in your portfolio, than I would start there. I discuss the reasons why in more depth in the article “Buying Silver in Houston – Should I buy silver?”

• What is the current price of gold? This is a question that has an answer that is requires a little more analysis. There are all kinds of factors that go into analyzing the price of precious metals and determining if and when the right time to buy are. To be honest, I think most of the techniques and thought processes about how to determine the right and wrong time to buy gold is a lot of opinion and speculation made to sound more official and analytical than it really is. The most important and practical things to consider about the price of gold are:
• Is gold currently at it’s highest price? For me, this is a red flag. Yes, the price may go up even more, but it will eventually go down or correct to some degree after the buying frenzy is over and thats a great time to buy. Also, it’s important to remember that it’s entirely possible the metal may loose value after you buy it, depending on when you buy it and a lot of other factors. That’s ok. The reason is because gold will ALWAYS have some value. Maybe not what you paid for it, but it will always be worth something. This is not the case with dollar bills, stocks or even bonds. You cannot trade those in an emergency to feed your family, etc. Thats why buying gold is always said to be a safe investment and a protection against the dollar.

• Are you going to need or want to sell your gold in the near future? If so, then maybe buying gold in Houston or anywhere else isn’t the best choice right now. The reason is because even if gold looses value right after you buy it and it gains it back plus some, that process may take some time…months perhaps years. In the current economical world we live in, I don’t see that to be the case but it is possible.

One thing I would like to mention is what type of gold to buy. First thing you can do is strike gold certificates and anything less than 24K off of your list. People buy, sell and trade gold digitally everyday all over the world. What happens is you buy gold and someone else keeps it in their vault. You get a certificate stating you own it but no physical gold. This is a non-starter for me. Something of that much value, I want in my possession. After all, if I needed it, it do me any good to have it sitting in someone else’s vault. Plus, if for some reason digital records are lost world wide, which is possible…just ask the folks at NASA, then the other guys gets to keep all your gold. If you are buying physical gold to keep as an investment, then why would you buy something that is only partially pure and you have to do the math to figure out how much its worth? If you’re going to buy gold in Houston, then buy gold, 24K gold.

I would also stay away from coins that have an additional numismatic value to them, like rare coins. There isn’t anything wrong with collecting rare and valuable coins. The problem is that a rare coin is only as valuable as the person you’re trying to sell it to perceives it as. Someone like me, I could care less. What I care about is the gold content. So if you need or want to sell the coin, but its numismatic value is 10 times the value of the gold in the coin, I’m still only going to pay you for the gold. I know a lot of people that feel the same way, so why pay a premium on something when you don’t have to.

The final, and very important, point to consider when buying gold in Houston is who are you going to buy gold from? I cannot speak for every gold dealer in Houston, but when it comes to selling gold in Houston or buying gold in Houston you’re going to get a great deal with the guys we use and trust.

ACME Gold and Silver

832-800-4458