Gold

[hank75]

Well this explains why I saw a couple of boys posting on social media that they were off to the gold shop yesterday and then proudly showing off wads of 1000 baht bills. Despite the lockdown they are quite comfortable and not in desperate need of cash, so it confused me until I saw this.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30385978?utm_source=category&utm_medium=internal_referral

[TotallyOz]

Interesting. Many boys have built up their gold supply over the years. Looks like they were smart in doing this.

[Boy69]

As in every progression there are some boys who are more talented, professional and attractive , they were clever enough to extract substantial sums of money , jewelleries or real estate from their clients but they are absolutely the minority most of the boys are struggling day to day to make a leaving.

[Guest]

I tend to go more for gold etfs (physically backed), on the basis that the spread is lower and they can be held in a tax exempt account.    

However, if the social & financial system ever came under real pressure, having physical possession of the gold might just make sense.   Preferably discretely stored, or in some Swiss vault, just in case holding the stuff gets banned again. (for example:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102).

So maybe the bar boys are on the right path.

   

 

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, z909 said:

 

 having physical possession of the gold might just make sense.  

   

 

we may co,me  to the situation when gold bar will be exchangeable for 3 masks plus loaf of bread

[Travellerdave]

I have a small investment in gold with Bullion Vault, who hold physical gold for customers which can be sold at any time. I bought my holding 5 years ago so at this moment I am showing a    Good Paper profit so I wish I had bought more. I inherited 4 krugerrands from my mother 20 years ago but I sold them for a fraction of today’s value. Thai people like their gold in the form of jewellery which they can wear in addition to it being a form of savings, which they can sell in hard times like in the current emergency. No doubt some boys have have received gold jewellery presents from their foreign boyfriends, but the majority would have sold it. Some 15 years ago I gave a present of gold ear-rings to a very attractive boy who lived with me in Pattaya for about a month during a long stay. but I recall the value only being about 8000 baht when a pound bought about 60 baht. He looked gorgeous wearing them.

 

[vinapu]

7 hours ago, Travellerdave said:

 He looked gorgeous wearing them.

 

safe bet would be that he looked gorgeous even without the ear-rings

[Guest]

On 4/16/2020 at 5:17 AM, Travellerdave said:

I have a small investment in gold with Bullion Vault, who hold physical gold for customers which can be sold at any time.

How to hold gold is an interesting topic (well for some of us).   

Bullion Vault allow the gold to be held in US, Canada, London, Switzerland or Singapore.   If things got really sticky, having it split amongst a few respected offshore jurisdictions would probably help if your domestic government ever prohibits gold holding.    So a big advantage.

On the other hand, gold bullion in a vault could be subject to capital gains tax on disposal.   Imagine if it goes up by 500% first.

Holding gold sovereigns avoids the CGT (in the UK), but there are higher losses on purchase and sale.  

A gold ETF could be held in a tax exempt account and has low costs for buying and selling.   However, you don't directly own the gold, so it's slightly more risky in the event of a government which is confiscating gold.    The iShares etf I hold has it's gold bullion held in a JP Morgan vault in London (SGLN).   I note that the alternative of SGOL holds over 3/4 of it's gold in Switzerland, so from a diversifying perspective, holding only SGLN is probably an error.    

I presume the bar boy model of owning jewelry would suffer from the risk of theft and the gold dealers taking a significant cut.   However, it would make confiscation by governments difficult and of course it's way better holding some gold for investment purposes than spending every single baht as fast as they earn it.    I have respect for those who have made such an investment.

 

 

[Boy69]

It's hard times if we have discussed investment in gold instead chasing boys in Thailand ...

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, Boy69 said:

It's hard times if we have discussed investment in gold instead chasing boys in Thailand ...

call it 'enforced chastity"