No Stupid Questions

Almost always yes, it is a scam. Theoretically, it’s a hedge against inflation, but in practice, it’s just grifters selling it to paranoid right wingers

Owning land is better to store wealth, but gold is better when fleeing to wherever land ownership is still enforced.

The thing about the value of gold in a society is that it is only valued within the society. If society collapses, there will be no group or entity that could value it. You'd need to wait until people start rebuilding. But then you'd need to be in a position to shape how currency is decided on and minted. Unless you've kept your load of gold secret, it'll be hard to convince people to adopt gold as a currency without starting on more even ground.

Lots of things can be used as currency. Gold was the OG because it is scarce, takes work to mine, is finite(ish), it doesn't tarnish or corrode in air or salt water, isn't attacked by acids except agua regia, meaning it doesn't degade over time. It's a really good medium for labor-value.

Problem is, it's also a useful metal now, in semiconductors and electronics, so now it is being 'consumed' by industry in a way that isn't readily recoverable except at product end of life, and even then it's not 100% recycled, probably more like 10%.

So the global supply increases due to work mining, decreases due to consumption as a commodity, and is still treated as a currency equivalent.

Solid gold is easy to store, and will survive calamities, bank collapses, fires, floods, ect where other intrinsic value items don't.

So it's a good investment if you believe that you will survive the deletion of society, AND you believe that it will be tradeable post-collapse. Or if you just treat it like a commodity.

But post-collapse, gold isn't intrinsically useful. In these events, other useful, consumable goods might be better for goods and labour exchange. In the early Australian colonies, there was no money, people bought, sold and got paid in rum.

Rum is a reasonable value holder, it can be preserved against degrading, it is 'fungible' and divisible in a way that gold coins arent.

Dried grains are a good currency too. Maize, wheat berries, etc, as long as you accept that your value will be contually consumed and replenished.

Whether a thing has value is largely determined by whether the society you end up in decides it has value.

The indigenous Australians would happily trade a gold nugget for rum or rope or steel tools, because their society had no use for gold, but did have use for steel.

Disclaimer: The only gold I own is in my phone and computer.

Invest in land: they aren't making any more of it.

Yeah but so is having any currency

The only things that will have value when society collapses are food, water, shelter, off-grid power, ammunition, and weapons.

I assume you’re talking about physical gold.

Yes, it’s generally a scam. Some middle man is going to take a cut of what it’s worth before you enter the market - and they’re almost always going to misrepresent it’s value, especially if it’s not in the form of a stamped bar. Then you basically have to store it and shlep it and secure it and keep it secret, which will further diminish profit. Then you have to sell it, presumably as part of your retirement plan…or leave it to somebody who’s going to lose even more of its value when they want to unload it inefficiently.

If you’re not wealthy in the first place it’s only worth investing in as a hobby…because you have to factor in the value of your time and subtract that from its value, as well.

As far as it being a hedge against the collapse of currency? Bad idea. Skills and land you can defend are going to be the only hedges against that. Even if it had value post collapse…it would just put a target on your head.

Look at the zoomed out 5 year chart for its price and you tell me.

$1,839 -> $4,217

Depends on what you want to achieve.

It's a hedge against inflation. So in times of high inflation and economic uncertainty it will do well.

Keeping a small amount in a safe in case the world goes to shit, well only after you have a pile of guns, ammunution and canned food.

It's not a productive asset. If you buy stocks you'll probably be better off in the long run.

That being said your investment portfolio should not be only one kind of investment and gold should probably be a part of it eventually.

Depends on your threat model. During speculative bubbles capital flows towards gainers no matter how crazy (NFTs anyone?). During corrections capital flows back towards commodities, and gold is .. er...the gold standard. It has a lot of industrial uses blah blah blah. Copper is also good for these purposes and is an interesting contrast.

Nobody says "if you can't touch it, you don't own it" for copper or oil or pork bellies. That's because that advice isn't about using gold as an inflation hedge or safe harbour in a bear market. That advice is predicated on compete monetary collapse and the use of gold as currency. If you don't live in a space where you can grow some of your own food, and have access to potable water from your own well I wouldn't worry to much about it. You will starve to death or die in the food riots so gold won't help anyways.

When was the last complete societal collapse?

Gold is a good hedge against inflation. When was the last hyperinflation in your country?

Some (many? most? IDK) gold sellers are scammers. They will sell you overvalued stuff and insist it's extra-valuable because of some feature they made up. They are the ones being loud on the web and making you hear about it all the time. So, if you hear an ad, and buy gold, you've probably fallen for a scam.

But investing in gold by itself is just like any other commodity. And just to say, the rule on that last phrase is valid for almost everything (it's absolutely valid for stocks and investment funds).

Yes and no. If you order your "gold kit" off of an ad aimed at boomers worried about losing their houses, it is probably scammy.

If you're very rich and worried, you could stash away a bit of bullion at your home. You'll have other things of value you could trade on the black market of total societal collapse before you'd need to tap into that resource. If you're not very rich, a gold bar is not going to do you much good because it's a big chunk of change tied up in one item. You're more likely to need smaller denominations, like coins or rings, to pay for stuff in the apocalypse. Or you need to learn to smelt metal. The scam of it all is that people with a financial interest will advertize gold as the safe resource in times of high perceived crisis when the price of gold is already high or rising. It makes much more sense financially to watch the market and buy when it's down.

Gold is also something that needs the economy to come back before you ran out of other stuff to barter with. If our apocalyptical total collapse lasts a long time, gold will not be as valuable as drinking water, food, or shelter. Smokes (incl. vape juice) and booze might be more useful for a longer time.

I'm not rich and I'd sooner go down the prepper route than buying gold.

I’ve seen the assertion that silver is a safer bet than gold. Less glitzy, but still precious and with more industrial uses.

Of course, if civilisation collapses completely, neither will matter unless someone will trade you something for your krugerrands.

Gold is a solid store of value. That's about it. It isn't a terribly good investment as it just doesn't gain value very fast compared to inflation. But, as I said, it is a solid store of value, so if that is what you are looking for, it isn't a bad option.

If you want to invest, you are better off with index funds held over the long term.

invested a lot in gold under the belief that in the event of like complete societal collapse

If that happens, a better investment is to make yourself as self-sufficient as possible. Have a way to generate power (solar + batteries), acquire water (well water), sewage (leech field), stored food (just extra cans of food you normally eat), acquire food (a rifle and somewhere deer exist), security (that same rifle).

None of that is unreasonably expensive or hard to get. But all of those are what you would want if you are worried about societal collapse.

It isn't a scam. It is an asset like buying land in the middle of nowhere. It will in general match inflation but underperform most other investments. In the very long term I would expect that with global population stabilizing and declining, the value of gold will also stabilize and decline.

If you look back at the 2k8 crash gold plummeted almost as fast. People sold it off to cover other positions.

If you're looking for something to buy now that will have value in say 1000 years, gold's a pretty good choice.

As a finical instrument for investing it's fine. Makes total sense to have some of your money in gold.
As you describe, being a part of a prepping plan for the end of the world. It's really dumb, and a total scam.

Buy Silver instead.

. It largely depends on how they are investing in it. Gold is a commodity just like lumber, gas, cotton, or livestock. You can invest in them like you would a stock or a mutual fund. Just like those other investments, the price will change daily based on the market. Gold is a weird one because everyone knows it was valuable historically and many people have physical versions of it. People use gold in their investment portfolios to hedge against some of their risk because typically the value of gold would go up when stocks would go down but our money was also tied to gold 50+years ago. The physical versions will change price too but they change differently.

• Gold coins? Unless they’re old or rare, they’re only worth the face value.
• Gold jewelry? It has value if it’s solid and not plated and then you need to get it appraised to know a fair value.
• Bullion? Probably the best form to have it in because that’s what countries and people that want to transfer physical gold will use.

In the event of total societal collapse, gold won’t matter other than it’s a shiny metal. They are better off investing in something more useful like the lumber.