The #1 goal of Gold owners should be to secure ourselves and our wealth from the folly of the U.S. Government and the Federal Reserve. Buying Gold today is not, in our minds, for "investment" reasons alone. Buying Gold is a trade out of risk. Usually it's a trade out of U.S. Dollars sitting in cash, bank CDs, bonds, or U.S. stocks trading near record highs.

Buy Gold today as a defensive trade despite the outstanding gains for Gold in recent years. Thousands of our clients have been elated when their Gold's value doubled, tripled, quadrupled, then quintupled in value... even after we deduct last year's losses. We've never quite seen anything like Gold’s value increasing 13 consecutive years in row.

From the 2001 low of $258 an ounce to today's trading range of $1,300, Gold's value rose 410%. In the 13 straight years, Gold's average annual gain was 31.5%. Gold's most recent correction was 35.4%. Yes, Gold goes up and Gold goes down in value like any other investment.

That said, we still urge you to buy Gold by weighing the risks of doing nothing versus the rewards of trading paper into Gold. To use Gold as a hedge you must buy Gold, in physical form that can be safely held in your possession and easily available in any emergency.

Best Reasons to Buy Gold Today
• Buy Gold as an alternative investment to holding risky paper dollars.
• Buy Gold to protect family wealth from years of inflation.
• Buy Gold as an alternative to holding bonds or bank savings paying less than inflation.
• Buy Gold for freedom and independence from Government intrusion into our lives.
• Buy Gold as insurance against terrorist attacks on our economy.
• Buy physical Gold Coins because they are absolutely Gov't debt free.
• Buy precious metals on dips– like we're in today. They're rare in a bull market.

Long-term Benefits of Buying Gold This Century
Buying Gold in the 21st Century has paid off handsomely as Gold outperformed Stocks, Bonds, and traditional holdings. If you prefer to think of Gold only as an investment, since January 1, 2000, Gold has averaged annual gains of about 30%.

U.S. Stocks
From January 2000 to December 2011 Dow Industrial Stocks averaged 4.73% due to frequent crashes in the 21st Century. An alternative to Stocks today would be a Five-year Treasury Bonds paying 1.51% going forward. Clearly, money stuck in CDs and Bonds are paying far less than real U.S. inflation as measured by a loss of buying power- not the phony Government data.

Buy Gold as a Defensive Strategy against Stock Crashes
We feel almost everyone should own Gold as a defensive strategy to avoid the disastrous consequences of frequent Stock Market “corrections” and crashes. In the worst of times for Stocks, Gold protects your life savings from falling to zero.

Gold will never become worthless. The history of the U.S. Stock Market abounds with corporations' Stocks that soared, crashed, and became worthless. One stark example was the $1.3 Trillion Dollars investors lost in just one stock–Pets.com.

NASDAQ Stocks Still Off 20% Some 14 Years After Crash
During the Dot Com Stock Market bust of 2000, the entire NASDAQ Stock Market lost 80% of its value. Every $100,000 invested in Stocks became worth only $20,000. Millions of people lost everything as dot com companies became worthless. To date, in 14 years the NASDAQ market has not fully recovered from the year 2000 high of 5,048 to close at 4,176– still 20% below the all-time high 14 years later! Keep that in mind as investors rush to buy FaceBook, Pandora, Yelp, LinkedIn etc. Just because you use them every day does not make an internet stock a good investment.

Terrorists Threaten All Stocks
Lest we forget, after the 9/11/2001 Terrorist Attack, U.S. Stockholders lost $1.4 Trillion Dollars in valuation in just 7 days. Stocks can go down in a hurry while Gold protects in a crisis.

Buy Gold for Privacy & Protection
For a fact, buying Gold circumvents and counteracts many risks including the Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve’s massive money printing machine that is destroying the U.S. Dollar. Today, we recommend our readers have a core holding of 5% to 10% (at minimum) to protect from the real probability of a Dollar crisis created by Washington’s expansive borrowing and spending policies paid for by the Federal Reserve creating trillions of dollars of paper money.

We believe that in the coming years rising inflation or hyperinflation is bound to destroy a substantial portion of the buying power of the U.S. Dollar– whether or not we have a Dollar crisis. Inflation is an awful way for politicians to tax away (steal) everyone’s savings and future earnings.

Outright Bank Theft in Cyprus
After the Cyprus bailout, the risks increased dramatically for anyone holding savings in banks. Politicians and IMF bankers thought up better ways to steal the public's wealth. To save the banks in Cyprus, the International Monetary Fund recommended a tax of 9.9 percent on Cypriot bank deposits that exceed 100,000 euros, as well as a tax of 6.75 percent on smaller deposits– they called it a one-time tax. Sounds more like robbery to us.

The IMF policy recommendation remains in place for other nations who can't stop borrowing and spending. A so-called "haircut" for U.S. banks would need to be more in the 20% to 40% range– something lame-duck President Obama would not hesitate to do in a crisis.

Let's also discuss the various ways to buy gold that may or may not achieve your safety goals.

Gold Stock Warning
Please do not buy Gold Stocks unless you fully understand the following–

Gold Stocks are highly volatile by nature, highly speculative investments.

The success of a Gold miner's stock is dependent upon the corporation’s management decisions, environmentalists not slowing or halting the opening of new mines, workers not striking, and ever-changing Government policies in far off places where Gold can still be found. Then, there's the low quality of today's raw Gold ore and whether a mining company can operate the mines profitably at current and future Gold prices.

That's a lot of risk.

Beware of Gov't Seizure of Gold ETFs
Wall Street has also invented another demon as they moved from selling "Mutual Funds" to hyping ETFs. We recommend that you do not buy Gold Exchange Traded Funds if you have the safety and privacy goals detailed above. Gold ETFs will do you no good when you need your Gold the most, in a crisis. You need your Gold, nearby, at hand in any emergency.

Worst yet, you could lose all your ETF Gold. Heaven forbid, but it only takes a stroke of President Obama's pen to freeze Gold ETF accounts or to seize Gold assets held in ETF bank vaults. It would take just a few hours to send in 100 marines and seize billions of dollars’ worth of ETF Gold concentrated in New York vaults and carry it back to Fort Knox leaving you with a paper IOU just like they did in 1933.

We also have the risk the Gov't may attempt to seize certain types of Gold, as they did in 1933 under FDR. . By comparison, if the Government attempted to seize the Gold of American citizens, it would be nearly impossible to determine who owns Gold, then chase down millions of Americans and then attempt to take away their Gold Coins by force. But it could happen. If you are concerned about Gold Confiscation, please call 1-800-928-6468 for a list of Gold Coins exempt from confiscation or reporting when you buy or sell under current laws.

In summary, we believe Gold Coins in your physical possession are always the safest bet and wisest way to own Gold.

Where To Buy Gold Coins

1. Reputable dealers in business a minimum of 20 years.

2. A trusted firm with a perfect A+ rating at the Better Business Bureau.

3. A large dealer with buying clout to limit the premiums.

4. Someone who will be in business to buy your Gold back in the future.

5. Never from someone who advertises on Cable TV.

6. From a knowledgeable firm with a website that answers all your questions.

7. Real people with a real, physical location and employees.

8. Never on Ebay.

9. From a firm you can call, ask questions, seek expert advice.

The Case for Buying More Gold Today
As one of America's best known and most trusted Gold dealers for over 26 years, Austin Rare Coins & Bullion has Gold Specialists on call to answer questions, quote prices, and take your Gold orders. Be sure to ask about "private, non-reportable Gold." Our team is on call 9am to 9pm seven days a week.

Call 1-800-928-6468 and let us begin to put your gold insurance policy in place today. We can quickly trade your paper dollars for genuine, Gold Coins to protect your family now and for generations to come. Call us, we can help.