Gold Investment

I’ve been talking to some of my local gold bug friends (we’re now trying to meet at least once a month) and we’ve been doing some minor budget-versus-gold comparisons. Basically, each of us already keeps a fairly accurate monthly expenditure log and a not-so-accurate desired-budget (we all go over it). I believe we’re going to move forward to start keeping track of how much we spend each month in US dollars, and how much we spend in gold ounces. I have my data going back at least 4 years, and some of them longer. I’ve invited them to get online to the forums so they can start posting their information in a generic sense. I’m going to pay every US$20 per month (3 months in advance) via paypal who joins in, up to a cap of 20 people.

Are you interested in helping out? We’d like to get a better idea of a national (or international) sense of how gold holds up against the changing costs of living. These are the numbers we’re looking for:

1. What did it cost you for your home, set costs (mortgage principal, interest, insurance, property taxes, association fees)
2. What did it cost you to utilize your home (energy, cable, maintenance)
3. What did it cost you for transportation (vehicle loan, maintenance, gas, insurance)
4. What did it cost you to eat (groceries, eating out)
5. What did it cost you to provide for your health care (insurance, medical visits, supplements)
6. What did it cost you to entertain yourself

If you want to join, you can do so anonymously (only I will know and I won’t share who it is). We want to start as of January 1st, and I will pay, in advance, US$60 per quarter via paypal. I’d like to do this for 3 years, and since it is only going to be submitted once a month or once per quarter, it should be fairly easy to maintain as a forum post. If you’re interestd, that’s US$360 per year if you can submit your information.

The upside is that if you’re NOT keeping track of this information, you will have to now. A double win. It will also help me to diagnose the long-term benefit of gold over typical investments in terms of retirement planning and other concerns.

Discuss this article at the gold investment forum.