{"id":60020,"date":"2011-09-22T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/?p=8266"},"modified":"2015-01-26T20:16:43","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T18:16:43","slug":"gold-or-properties-which-is-the-ideal-means-of-storing-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/2011\/09\/22\/gold-or-properties-which-is-the-ideal-means-of-storing-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold or properties?  Which is the ideal means of storing wealth?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\">\n\t<strong>Part 1<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">\n\t<strong>(to read part 2, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/en\/2011\/09\/23\/gold-or-properties-which-is-the-ideal-means-of-storing-wealth-part-2\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>)<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<span style=\"text-align: justify\">The discussion was long and quite interesting, as the flight from Bucharest to Thessaloniki lasted 1 hour and a half. The gentleman (a good friend of mine) sitting next to me was quite stubborn and if you add my personal&hellip; stubbornness to the picture, you can guess that it was not possible for us to end it quickly&hellip;<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>Gold or properties?<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&#8211; &ldquo;There is nothing better than gold, it is the best means of storing wealth by far. Even now, at 1.800 dollars per ounce, I find it quite cheap. Its price will exceed 2.500 &ndash; 3.000, this is why I will buy more&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&#8211; &ldquo;So you would buy more gold at this level? This is the highest price in history, don&rsquo;t you think it&rsquo;s risky?&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&#8211; &ldquo;You said the same last year, when it was at 800 &ndash; 1.000 dollars per ounce and since then the figure has doubled&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&#8211; &ldquo;So what? There are moments when you gamble and you win against all odds, but the risk is too high&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&#8211; &ldquo;There is no risk at all, gold is safe, properties are the risky ones&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>Gold or properties? 5 positive and 5 negative aspects<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\tI will not quote to you the entire discussion; you would need a good half hour to read it. But I can sum up the advantages and disadvantages of gold and properties, as we analyzed them through our discussion.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>Gold: &ldquo;More advantageous during turbulent times&rdquo;<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\tFrom my friend&rsquo;s point of view, investing in gold during the crisis is the best way to protect your money and even earn profits:\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Gold is not enough, so its shortage pushes the prices up<\/strong>. New quantities are always insufficient compared to the actual demand and the situation has been the same for thousands of years&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>When the economy is in crisis, gold is the safest shelter for all people<\/strong>. And as the world economy will continue to be in trouble, the price of gold will rise further more&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Gold is pure, lasts forever, never get rusty, can easily be passed down to your children<\/strong>. You just go through some formalities and it is given to them. They will not need to worry about its quality, this is guaranteed&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Gold is not taxed<\/strong>. You don&rsquo;t pay taxes for your profits when the price rises, or annual taxes. It&rsquo;s tax free&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>If you look at the national banks around the world, nowadays they all buy gold, even at today&rsquo;s price<\/strong>. They know something we don&rsquo;t&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>Properties: &ldquo;Useless during the crisis&rdquo;<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\tAt the same time he insisted that properties are not the best investment proposal, as they have many faults:\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t1.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>There are too many properties available and more are under construction<\/strong>. Thus there is no shortage and no reason for their prices to rise&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t2.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Properties are heavily taxed, by all kinds of institutions and authorities<\/strong>. They are visible and any government taxes them without&hellip; mercy&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t3.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Properties get old, need refurbishment and consolidation<\/strong>. These costs are very high, especially in countries like Romania&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t4.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Investors used properties in order to speculate and create the bubble that burst in 2008<\/strong> and brought us the never &ndash; ending crisis we are living through now&rdquo;.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t5.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &ldquo;<strong>Properties involve too many people<\/strong>, from the notary and Real Estate agent, to the cleaning lady and plumber, from the state&rsquo;s tax inspector to the evaluator. You don&rsquo;t have the flexibility that gold provides you with.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>Tomorrow:<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>My approach<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>5 advantages that properties have<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 36pt;text-align: justify\">\n\t&middot;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <strong>5 disadvantages that gold has<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\">\n\t<strong>What is your opinion?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 1 (to read part 2, click here) The discussion was long and quite interesting, as the flight from Bucharest to Thessaloniki lasted 1 hour and a half. The gentleman (a good friend of mine) sitting next to me was quite stubborn and if you add my personal&hellip; stubbornness to the picture, you can guess [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[216,17,236],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60020"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iliaspapageorgiadis.ro\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}