When you buy gold coins or gold bars, it’s tempting to store them all at home. This is particularly true for your first few coins or bars.
It’s just really nice to take them out and hold them, feeling amazed by their value and beauty.
But after a short while, you might want to pause and give some thought as to whether your home is the best place to store and hide your gold. I’m not saying it isn’t. I’m just suggesting you think about it.
Here are those three questions to ask yourself.
1. Do you have older children, friends or domestic help in the house?
If you do, is it possible that they might hear about or come across your stash of gold? I’m not suggesting that your children, friends or help would ever want to do anything to harm you.
But let’s say you show a friend your gold. Two months later he’s at a party, a little worse for wear, and lets it slip that you have gold in your home. Someone your friend doesn’t know hears the comment….and in turn tells someone else. You can see how it easy it would be for word to get out to your friendly local burglar.
Or maybe you have someone coming in once a week to help clean, and she accidentally comes across your stash. Again, she means no harm, but does mention it to a friend. And so on.
If you are going to store some or all of your gold at home, it needs to be well hidden, and it needs to be a secret.
2. Do you have a quality safe installed?
As I have mentioned elsewhere, people pick terrible places to hide their gold at home. Strangely, they pick some of the first places that thieves will look.
If you want to keep your gold at home, invest in a quality safe. The best safes are in-floor safes, set in a concrete basement floor, and hidden from casual view.
A secure, hidden in-floor safe is best because it minimizes the chances of anyone stumbling across your gold, and will foil all but the most determined burglar. And even a determined burglar would need several hours and some heavy-duty tools to get to your gold.
3. Do you really need to have it within immediate reach?
Plenty of people like to keep their gold bullion at home, because it means it’s always close to hand. If disaster strikes, you’ll always have your gold.
But think about it. What kind of national economic disaster or social unrest is going to rise up and overwhelm your community within the space of a couple of hours? I can’t even imagine what that might be. So if you have your gold stored securely in a safety deposit box at your local bank, you’ll have plenty of time to drive over and remove your valuables.
Summing it up.
There is nothing wrong with storing your gold at home, so long as you use a quality safe, and keep it secret.
But you might also want to consider spreading the risk by keeping at least some of your hoard in a safety deposit box.