I often get asked how much gold one should buy to protect one's assets against the ravages of our government's printing presses. I normally suggest that one take ten percent of their wealth in stocks, bonds and savings and put them into gold and silver. Not to make a profit, but for insurance, see Should I Buy Silver?

If somehow our government ever gets its house in order, cuts spending, reduces personal taxes, eliminates corporate taxes, abandons the War on Drugs, and adopts a flat tax, then you won't need gold to preserve the value of your assets since the American dollar will be strong and your stocks and bonds will be worth a fortune. If however, we continue the road we're on, then the ten percent that you have in gold will be worth a million times more than your almost worthless stocks, bonds, and savings.

In addition to this ten percent number, you may also want to own an addition amount of gold to insure that you will be able to afford gasoline for the next few years.

To fill my tank with gas for my car (12 gallons@3.90/gal) costs me $46.80 in paper money or a little less than a gram of gold. If gas goes to $10.00 a gallon ($120 a tankful), I have no doubt it will still cost me a little less than a gram of gold.

The people who sell us oil do not store dollars in their closets, they buy gold and for 60 years gold prices have mirrored oil prices ¹, so my suggestion to everyone is that they buy enough gold for as many years in the future as they can afford. For example, 3 years worth of gasoline usage for the average driver, comes out to an ounce of gold per year. In this way, even if gas goes to 15 or 20 bucks a gallon you will still be laying out the same amount of money for a fill-up as you do today - at least for three years. Whenever you need to fill up your tank, simply sell a gram of gold.

If you can afford more, buy more. But be careful, buy only from dealers who do not charge more than 4% over the price of gold for one-ounce gold coins.

Gold-line and others you hear advertised on radio and TV usually charge about 7% or more over the gold price plus shipping. This is too high.