What to do with your tax refund check

[KevinDW78]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm buying gold with my rebate, either bullion or shares of GLD.

This is actually exactly what I was planning on doing! I do have a question though to add - I have never invested before, but I am starting to turn into a Chicken Little about the state of the economy and the upcoming political elections. If I put all my money into gold, and there were a hypothetical collapse of the economy, would it still be possible to get my money out of the GLD stock if all goes to hell? The other thing I am considering is the Perth Mint program of gold ownership. Does anyone have any feedback?

[softwareNerd]

Does anyone have any feedback?

To quote Warren Buffet: "... be fearful when others are greedy, and to be greedy only when others are fearful".

Applied to the current context, that would mean: do not rush into buying gold.

[grizzly8566]

Except that in this case it hasn't yet been stolen, so it's an IOU from a thief who intends to pay by stealing from you when it comes time to pay.

How's that? I don't know about you, but I've been "paying" federal taxes (i.e. had them "withheld,'" AKA stolen, for many years now, and for a month and a half so far this year.

[softwareNerd]

Since the government is running a deficit, your taxes have been spent, and then some. So, you're not getting those back in this rebate. After spending the taxed money, the government has borrowed for the additional expenditure that was more than the taxes (about $300 - $500 billion). Now, the only way for them to pay out an additional $150 is to borrow some more, and then tax someone else in the future.

Of course, all the money is all "one pot" so you can view it as a rebate of what you've paid them....does not matter too much, one way or the other.

Edited February 22, 2008 by softwareNerd

[gags]

This is actually exactly what I was planning on doing! I do have a question though to add - I have never invested before, but I am starting to turn into a Chicken Little about the state of the economy and the upcoming political elections. If I put all my money into gold, and there were a hypothetical collapse of the economy, would it still be possible to get my money out of the GLD stock if all goes to hell? The other thing I am considering is the Perth Mint program of gold ownership. Does anyone have any feedback?

Be careful. There are scammers out there with every investment, but they always seem to focus on the latest hot one. For example:

The Justice Department has sued two tax preparers it accuses of selling bogus gold-mining tax deductions to pro football players.

The civil suit accuses Eric J. Peterson of Channelview, Texas, and William H. Camp of Washington, D.C., of selling a scheme called Midas through a firm called Merendon Mining of Colo., and the Institute of Financial Learning of Calgary, Canada. According to the government complaints, in 2003 salespeople from both companies began persuading customers to participate in the Midas scheme by promising them large profits from gold mines in Colorado and Arizona.

http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?ARTICLEID=26870

[KevinDW78]

Be careful. There are scammers out there with every investment, but they always seem to focus on the latest hot one. For example:

The Justice Department has sued two tax preparers it accuses of selling bogus gold-mining tax deductions to pro football players.

The civil suit accuses Eric J. Peterson of Channelview, Texas, and William H. Camp of Washington, D.C., of selling a scheme called Midas through a firm called Merendon Mining of Colo., and the Institute of Financial Learning of Calgary, Canada. According to the government complaints, in 2003 salespeople from both companies began persuading customers to participate in the Midas scheme by promising them large profits from gold mines in Colorado and Arizona.

That's mining prospects. That's a different thing. I am interested in gold ownership. If you are going to suggest that the Perth Mint is a scam - you might want to at least look up with it is first.

[gags]

I don't think I even mentioned the Perth Mint, did I? I was just trying to be helpful, showing you that even with investments like gold there are potential pitfalls. Anyhow, you seem to have convinced yourself that you can't go wrong with gold, so go for it.

[KevinDW78]

I don't think I even mentioned the Perth Mint, did I? I was just trying to be helpful, showing you that even with investments like gold there are potential pitfalls. Anyhow, you seem to have convinced yourself that you can't go wrong with gold, so go for it.

I don't understand. What else could you have been responding to? There were limited subjects in my post to respond to. Or were you simlpy not responding to anything I said at all?

[gags]

I think you might be making this a bit more complicated than it is. You mentioned putting all of your money into gold and I was simply showing you an example of one scam that was recently in the news. Take it for what it's worth.

[grizzly8566]

Since the government is running a deficit, your taxes have been spent, and then some. So, you're not getting those back in this rebate. After spending the taxed money, the government has borrowed for the additional expenditure that was more than the taxes (about $300 - $500 billion). Now, the only way for them to pay out an additional $150 is to borrow some more, and then tax someone else in the future.

Of course, all the money is all "one pot" so you can view it as a rebate of what you've paid them....does not matter too much, one way or the other.

Now I'm tracking. What you say is true enough. Not to mention it's fiat money anyway. Gold standard, anyone?

[KevinDW78]

Gold standard, anyone?

Ron Paul, anyone? lol