An in-depth guide to making gold (and precious metals like silver) a serious part of your portfolioAs the global economy continues struggling with financial challenges (deep unemployment, anemic growth, massive government debt, volatile markets) not faced in generations, the logic of holding part of your wealth outside the financial system is compelling. Gold is the only viable and liquid investment vehicle that allows you to do so. Bulging deficits and national debts--most notably in the United States, Europe, and Japan--will soon force our leaders to take drastic measures. They will have to slash spending and/or raise taxes which could lead to renewed recession and financial instability. This in turn would likely lead central banks, most notably the Federal Reserve, to increase the pace of money printing even further, with the hope of escaping our present dilemma. Students of financial history know these complex circumstances are raising the odds that we are about to experience a sudden unexpected rise in inflation.The world is not about to end and yet holding gold as an important part of your portfolio makes sense in the present financial environment. In Hard Money, Shayne McGuire describes ways in which investors can take gold investment to a higher level by considering a variety of investment vehicles or by creating a personal diversified gold portfolio. Manager of a $500-million gold and silver fund and global research director for one of the world's largest pension funds, McGuire: Outlines five key gold drivers, including the increasing likelihood of fiscal crises in major economies around the world, the return of inflation as a major investment risk, and gold's potential return as the dominant financial asset in the global monetary system. Explores the special cases of silver (a metal that may rise faster than gold) and PGMs (platinum and palladium) in separate chapters.Examines the investment vehicles (bullion, stocks, derivatives, and even rare coins) and strategies (aggressive, conservative, passive, and variations) aimed at beating the price of gold as it rises, and ways to protect a portfolio should the metal decline. Explains the importance of wealth you can hold in your hands and investing the old fashioned way (in coins and bars). Hard Money also details how to invest in physical gold and silver without getting ripped off, and why rare gold coins are an attractive investment option inaccessible to fund managers. Hard Money is not a book about a financial crash, the end of civilization, or storing up food and a mysterious form of wealth for a long, dark financial winter. Rather, it offers an investment strategy to deal with the reality of present financial conditions, conditions that could lead to a dramatic rise in the price of gold and silver. - from Amzon