A common question I receive about the Permanent Portfolio is how to buy gold. Harry Browne’s advice would be to own it in a way that there are as few pieces of paper between gold and you as possible. I agree. Gold is an asset of last resort at times and you want to be sure it is available if needed. This means have some gold stored securely where you can access it in an emergency, and hold the rest in segregated storage in a bank (preferably overseas) in your name.

Well the second part has become quite difficult the past few years. However, there has been the emergence of ETFs that trade in gold bullion to help fill in this gap. While an ETF is not as good as a bank storing gold for you in segregated custody, the reality is that most people have to compromise a little to achieve their allocation to gold and the ETFs are one way to do it.

Casey Research recently put out a good run down of gold ETFs and closed end funds that covers a lot of good points about these new options. You may want to check it out and see if an ETF or closed end gold fund is right for you:

Move Over, GLD; The Best New Gold Funds

(hat tip to forum user foglifter for the link)

Related posts:

  1. A New Swiss Gold ETF