Protect Your Wealth With Precious Metals

Welcome to Ladies Kicking Assets where we are empowering women with the financial education they need to live the lives they want. I am Courtney and I'm here with my amazing co host Robin. And we, we have an amazing guest today. Robin, why don't you kick that off and introduce him. And I forgot to do our house cleaning, so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any of our incredible upcoming guests. And we are not financial advisors. This is for educational purposes only.

Yes. Thank you so much. Welcome, welcome. Dana Samuelson, we are so glad that you are here with us today. He is the president and founder of the American Gold Exchange. It is a precious metals and gold boutique located in Austin, Texas. So we are thrilled that you are here. And I just wanted to share a quick bit with our viewers before Dana, we jump into some questions. We were having some off camera conversation about reputation and being in the business and really knowing who you're connecting with and doing some background work on really checking on who you're connecting and aligning with. And so I felt like that was such an important piece. I wanted to just open today with that very most important. You want to elaborate on that, Dana? I mean you just, it really struck a chord with me. So I thought it was good.

Sure, sure. So first of all, thank you, Courtney and Robin for having me. It's wonderful to be here with you. I've been in the precious metals business for 42 years. I got my start in 1980. I had enough knowledge and expertise to try my own business in 1998. We've been successful ever since. So companies, American Gold Exchange and we're in another phase of the market right now where precious metals are back in demand because of the excessive debt that we've created over the last two years. Because of COVID and especially because of inflation surging, more people are looking to protect their hard earned wealth with assets that tend to do well in inflationary environments. And gold and silver are one of those. So what happens when we get into an environment like this? Are dealers pop up that haven't been dealers before, or maybe they were dealers in a better market a while ago and they closed shop and now they're back in business again. So if you want to do business in the physical precious metals sector, which is my business area, you want to find a dealer who has an outstanding reputation, a trusted member of the community, not somebody that just started the business two years ago that hasn't been in business. There's an. We are an unregulated industry. So anybody can be a precious metals dealer and we tend to get opportunists that pop in when we have a good market like this. It'll take advantage of people and then they'll go out of business. You won't know where to find them. So that's why it's important that you find someone to do business with that's been in business for a long time that has an outstanding reputation, has good reviews. Just getting into this sector, do your due diligence on who you're prospectively going to do business with. Make sure you know who they are, what their reputation is and that you can get a fair deal from them. That's the most important thing for your people to know.

Well, I think that's so important because as we all know, you get one reputation, one reputation, one time, one shot at your reputation, you know, and it takes forever to build that credibility back up if there's been something that takes place. So really, thank you so much for, for bringing that up. I think that's really important.

Well, so those are such great things. So I had the honor of meeting you at the investor summit last year, which was amazing. I've been buying my precious metals from you ever since. And so I think that leads us a really great question on is it better to buy physical precious metals or is it better to jump into ETFs or something like that? I mean, I've been buying precious metals to kind of, you know, protect my wealth. You know, I think it's really important to be diversified. And so I like owning silver and gold, like I like buying physical precious metals. So is it, is one better than the other or do you recommend one over the other? I'm just not real sure.

Well, there's two different purposes in my mind for physical precious metals versus exchange traded funds that trade against the press with the precious metals price. Physical precious metals have to be made to very exacting standards for size, weight, purity. And it's not a efficient buy sell market for the most part. So if you're buying physical precious metals, you want to put money into that sector of the market that you're going to put away and hold on to your core holdings. Okay. This is true wealth that doesn't have a counterparty risk. You're not dependent on somebody else to perform for your precious metals to perform. Also they're liquid anywhere. So if you want to get some of your money out of the banking sector, de dollarize because the dollar has done nothing but go down for 100 years and purchasing power and Especially in an inflationary environment. That's what physical precious metals are for. But they are, they can be heavy and expensive to ship. So there's some shipping costs, there's manufacturing costs involved. So the buy, sell spread tends to be 4 to 5% between what we'll pay for something and what we'll sell something for. On average, that's a wide buy, sell, spread. So this is for buy and hold. Create your core position with physical precious metals. Now, if you think the price of gold and silver are going to go up or going to go down in a short term, then you can buy gold and silver on paper in exchange traded fund form, ETF form. There's GLD for gold, there's SLV for silver. The Sprott companies in Canada have exchange traded funds for gold and silver as well. They're probably a bit more viable. I don't have the call letters for them off the top of my head. But this is a way for you to cost effectively take a position in precious metals if you think the metals are going in a direction that you want to either go long or short on. So buy or sell if you can short them and it's a cost effective way to trade them that way. So there are two different things. One, you own, you physically hold. The other, you're harnessing the price like you would a stock.

Mm, well, okay, so that, so I've never been like a metals trader or anything like that. You know, I'm always just a, you know, buy and hold and, you know, keep adding to my stockpile. And so, and I really like, like the, like the Silver Eagles, you know, I feel like if, you know, cash really becomes an issue like it is, you know, I've got silver where I can buy things and you know, gold is more of kind of a store of wealth, you know, kind of a store of money. And so I do remember one of the things, and I don't remember all the details last year, but you talked certain coins that you could buy, like the Krugerrands and the American Eagles, that some of them had tax advantages if you bought them over others. Do you remember what I'm talking about?

Yes, of course. So there are tax requirements when you sell precious metals, certain items. As a professional dealer, I am required to report my purchases from the public to the IRS on a 1099B, just like a stock sale is to the IRS at the beginning of the next calendar year. So we have 1,000 ounce threshold for silver, 1,000 ounces or more in a single or related Transaction that's sold is potentially taxable. In gold, it's 25 ounces or more. But we also have a very specific list of items which are reportable that the IRS has given our industry years ago. And some items are on it and some are not. So I don't want to get into the weeds of which is and which isn't. But if you want to know which items are reportable or which items are not reportable, we can supply you with those through my company at American Gold.

Okay. I haven't bought anything, you know, large enough where I've had to. But it's definitely good to know because I didn't realize that was something that you had to report, you know, if you were getting involved. And I think that's something that people need to know.

It's only when you sell and take a profit. And you could potentially taxed. If you're a short term seller, you could be taxed at the, at your income rate. If you've held it for less than a year or if it is a longer term hold, you get taxed at short term capital gains rate, which is 28%. But again, some items are reportable and some others are not. I'll give one example. A US 1oz Gold Eagle that the US Mint has been making since 1986 is not on the IRS shopping list. But a 1oz Canadian Gold Maple leaf which is made up in Canada. Another 1 ounce gold coin is on the IRS shopping list. So again, it's 25 ounces or more, a single or related transaction. So husband and wife each come in with 20 ounces. The total, that's 40 ounces, that's reportable. But 20 ounces in a single transaction is not reportable. And that's only when you sell, not when you buy. There's not a reporting requirement when you buy except for $10,000 or more in cash. So if you bring a dealer, you know, $12,000 in paper money, cash money, that's a reportable transaction to the IRS for cash. Like those are our two reporting requirements.

Okay, interesting. Well, so, okay, so we've been buying silver and gold for a while. Are there any other precious metals that you recommend holding?

Well, the four traditional precious metals are gold, silver, platinum and palladium. They're all considered the precious metals. Gold is the oldest, most trusted form of money. That was also currency for most of our, you know, man's lifetime on this planet. Since ancient times, gold and silver coins have been currency. They are money because they have intrinsic value, but they're not always used as a trading vehicle, which is what currency is today. We have paper money that doesn't have any intrinsic value. So it's currency, not really money. So I misspoke for a second there. But gold is really portable wealth you can transport easily. Silver is more spending money in a crisis. Platinum and palladium are scarcer than gold and silver in the ground, so they tend to be more valuable. Platinum is used in primarily in industry and diesel catalytic automobile converters, where palladium is used in gasoline engine catalytic converters and in hydrogen fuel. You can invest in both of these metals, but they're more commodity metals than currency metals. These days, palladium is trading at $500 premium to gold because it's 20 times scarcer than platinum. Platinum is trading today at about $800 discount to gold because there's not a lot of use for platinum right now because of the VW scandal over their emissions. Back in late 2015, early 2016, Platinum went to a discount to gold then. It's never regained that premium. So I actually think platinum is cheap relative to the other three metals. But what's going to make it kick off to a higher market? I don't know. It's been unable to really get over about $1,100 for the last five years where gold is set new highs, palladium is set new highs, and silver is setting cyclical highs.

So, so interesting. Well, just a question. You know, Courtney, we were talking about, you know, buying gold and silver and you know, many people, most people that I know quite honestly have a giant safe or they're using their bank and they're physically storing, you know, bars of gold or coins, you know, or whatnot. Are you seeing more of a trend for more individuals using the trans depository services, the tds? Are you seeing folks more feeling like, oh, I'm preparing for the what if? And I'm storing gold and silver to trade in my safe and my house for an example.

Well, we've seen a surge in demand for precious metals since COVID hit. And it's primarily because the government has spent a lot more money than they don't have in the last two years than we've done since the great financial crisis. And our books are very unbalanced right now. So people want a store of value. So whether you store it at home in a safe, which is a good place to have it, but you want to make sure that it's not something somebody can get into easily. So get a good safe. I used to have in my old house an in ground safe that contractor put in for me that was under a cabinet which nobody knew about. Even when I sold the house, I didn't disclose it to the new people until after they had already moved in. I went by surprise. So if you have, if you're comfortable storing at home in a state like that without being robbed, that's really the best place for it. A professional storage facility like Trans Depository Services whose main office is at the airport, the McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. That's for people that have either a volume that's harder for them to store and silver tends to take up a lot more volume than gold. So we recommend TDS for people that have a lot of physical silver. Also, you can borrow against those precious metals with their loan organization, Collateral Finance Corporation at a reasonable rate. You can get a loan in a couple of days because they already have the collateral there. You just have to sign the paperwork so that you give them access to your metals as collateral against that loan. That's why we recommend tds. Plus they have a couple of warehouses around the world where you can actually have your metal move to if you want to have it in Europe or in Asia. So that's why a facility like TDS is good. Plus you don't have to worry about insurance. Part of your storage fee, which is about a half a percent of value a year, is insurance.

So when I learned that you could actually buy leverage your precious metals, I was totally blown away by that. Because you know, we're always wanting to acquire assets that we can use to get other assets. Right. So the fact that you can go in and I think you can do, it's like a 70 or 80% loan to value on the value of your precious metals. I know. I'm not sure if there's any restrictions. Are there restrictions on what you can take and do with that money? I'm not even sure. I've never done one, but I'm hoping to soon.

Well, CFC, the Collateral Finance Corporation, I think does a 75% loan to value ratio. Now remember, these are for precious metals. So if the price goes down of the metals and you have the full 75%, you may get what we call a margin call where you have to give them enough money to get your loan to value ratio back up to 75%. But all they care about is that you pay them back or pay the interest on whatever the terms of the loan are. And I don't think they care what you use the money for. Because if you can't pay them back, they're going to have your gold or silver as collateral and they'll take care of that if they need to. Unfortunately, yes. You can borrow against your precious metals that way and use that money for other investments. If you think you can arbitrage that and get a greater return than your interest payment, that's a good way to go.

Absolutely. Well, I mean, we do that with our homes and our other properties and I do it with bitcoin. And so, I mean, gold just seems like gold and silver seems like the next right step for me to go out and try. So I'm excited about doing that.

So talking about bitcoin and such. Well, let's talk a little bit about precious metals being backed by cryptocurrency from you guys.

There is one called Pax G. Dana. I don't know if you're familiar with it. I don't know a whole lot about it. It is a token or a coin that's supposed to be backed by gold. I have never gotten involved in that. I, you know, if I'm going to buy precious metals, I want my own physical precious metals. So. But I do think there are a couple that are. And I actually was on a call the other night where there is a company called Element that's coming out and they are going to have a token. They're doing something with mine, gold mining. And the token will be related to the mines. And I'm not sure how it's going to work, but I'll be on a call with them tonight. So I'm really curious to kind of see what that's going to look like and where that's going to go. But I mean, as far as like the crypto and gold and everything else, I think it's really important to have a little bit of all of it. So I don't know why there's. You've got these big old. Yes. Do you like bitcoin or do you like gold? And I don't know why they have to fight. I think everybody should own both.

Right? They both have a place in today's modern world. I'm old school. I think having a really solidly backed cryptocurrency by physical precious metals would be kind of a difficult thing to really do because of the fluctuations in the coin price and the fluctuation in the metals price and the fact that you would have to have a substantial portion of whatever that coin's value is fractional, backed by gold or silver. So the integrity of the issuers would have to be very high.

Yeah, no, for sure, absolutely. And so. Okay, well, let's see. So do you recommend, I mean, I'm buying precious metals right now to kind of, you know, protect my wealth and, you know, hedge against inflation. Do you recommend people buy several different kinds of metals? Do you think they should go and should just buy a lump sum? You know, I kind of just buy little bits at a time for people that are maybe interested in maybe starting to get into precious metals and acquire some. What is the best way to do that?

Well, the general advice I would give to start with is that any good financial planner will tell you that you should have at least a small portion of your total net worth in precious metals. And I'm a physical dealer, so I recommend physical precious metals. The World Gold Council has done a study where, looking back 40 years where if you have between 6 and 8% of your total net worth in precious metals, you have enough to give you a hedge against a crisis, but not too much where you deny yourself opportunity in other investment areas. And gold has averaged over the last 20 years about an 8% annual gain every year. Now it's not every year you get an 8% gain. Gold could be sideways for two years, do nothing, then go up 20% in one year and then come down 5% the next year. So where you pick your time to buy matters, number one. Number two, I found that people that buy regularly and cost average over time are really the ones that do the best price wise over time. But what we do know is that gold and silver tend to go contrary to the dollar. And the dollar is losing purchasing power about 8% right now with inflation. So money in the bank, you know, $1,000 in the bank is going to be $920 at the end of this year with 8% inflation, where gold may not do much but you'd still have probably $100 worth of gold or $1,000 worth of gold, right?

Absolutely. Well, I'm always buying, you know, I buy my kids, you know, silver coins and you know, all of my kids get coins at Christmas, they get them at birthdays. And I, you know, I don't know that they appreciate it right now, but eventually one of these days they will appre collection of, you know, metals that they've been acquiring throughout their lifetime. And I definitely recommend everybody do that. I think everybody should do it. And so I had a friend, you know, I'll post about it on Facebook. And you know, I have a lot of people are like I really should get involved and start doing that for my children as well. So we.

I'm sorry, when I started.

Our company going to say, yeah, we've done that for years also. I think it's just really important, you know that you have those little treasure chests to pass on.

Right. It's a good thing to teach your children as well what physical, precious metals are because, you know, we used to have silver in our money until 1964. And as one of my mentors, Courtney and Robin, you have the same mentor, Russell Gray of the real estate guys, he actually taught me the silver quarter lesson. Which is a quarter made in 1964 is made of silver and it could buy a gallon of gas in 1964. The very next year they took the silver out of the currency. And that coin looks exactly like the coin we have in our pocket today. It's copper nickel. Now today, what does that copper nickel quarter buy you at the gas station? One tenth of a gallon of gas or less. While that silver quarter will get you actually 2 gallons of gas today, even at today's gas prices. So that shows you the purchasing power of silver over fiat currency over time, which is why everybody should have some. And especially if you can accumulate over time, that's really the best way to go.

Yeah, I love that you said that. I actually check my quarters and make sure that I don't get rid of those that are actually made of silver. And so I want to hang on to those bad boys.

They come around every once in a while. Not so often these days. But you find one once in a while.

Yes. Well, my dad had like those giant Folgers cans full of quarters and when he passed away, I got those and I dumped all 8 million of them out and I pulled out all the right quarters and I've got them stored in a, in a separate place.

And that's safe.

That's right. That's right. Well, so I know you speaking of Russ. I know. Didn't y' all do like a report or a course or something on silver?

Yeah. Russell and I did a nine part silver series. Go onto the Real Estate Guys YouTube channel and look for silver series. We talked in in depth over about, you know, eight or nine hours, not quite that long, but about everything about silver and some about gold and platinum and palladium as well. So that's a good place people can go to learn more, get into the weeds a bit about what the nuances are and why and how it's made and what affects its costs and trading, buying selling physical or some of the other alternatives like ETFs or even mining stocks. So we get into the weeds there if people really want to learn. But that's on the Real Estate Guys YouTube channel, the Silver series.

Yep.

And you know what, we will take that link and we'll put it down in the comments. That way if anybody wants to get more information and learn about that, they can and have access to it.

Absolutely. So Dana, how do our viewers get in touch with you?

Well, my company is American Gold Exchange. We're located in Austin, Texas. Our website is www.amergold.com. my email address is Dana D A N A M E R Gold.com. our phone number is 800-613-9323. So I have a small boutique company, as we say, we're consultative in nature. I have four account managers who help individual clients with their needs and goals. And we really try and help people because we found that if you do the right thing, people will come back and give you more business and give you referrals. And that's what our business model is based on. So we really try and help people understand what their goal is and how physical precious metals, which ones might fit their specific needs or wants the best. We're not aggressive, we're not pushy, we're very user friendly and we say what we do and we do what we say. It's as simple as that.

Love that. No, and you know what? I you have been so fantastic to work with and you know we've been buying our precious metals from you for the last year and I will never go anywhere else. You are always such a pleasure to do business with and you're just an amazing person and I'm just very grateful to know you.

Very, very sweet and I love how you're using money but loving people, you know, that's really your motto, if you will. Dave Zook says that. But I believe that you certainly use that in your business model and you live that out. And so I think that that is certainly going to come full circle and benefit you. Dana, you're incredible.

Well, if you help people, you help yourself in the long run. You all are way too kind and for those, I'm very much blushing right now. So thank you.

She is a tiny bit pink.

But it's true. It's true. So maybe just one last note. I know that you're really involved in conferences throughout the remainder of the year. Where are a couple of conferences that our viewers can catch you if they want to see you in person?

Good question.

I do Freedom Fest, which will be in Las Vegas in June this year, I think.

Is it?

Yeah, July. Excuse me? It's in July. So that's one conference I attend, the New Orleans Investment Conference put on by my colleague and my longtime friend Brian London is in New Orleans in October. And if you want to learn about hard assets or get cutting edge information about what's happening in the world of finance today, the New Orleans Investment Conference is one of the best conferences in the world for that. It's the longest running financial conference that's very user friendly and a very fun town. So that's going to be in October and I'm blessed to be recommended precious metals dealer by the real estate guys Robert Helms and Russell Gray. So I've been invited again for my seventh summit on sand this year in Belize where I'll see both of you.

Yes. Coming up five weeks.

So I'll be doing that. So those are the main conferences. I also am a vintage pre1933 US gold coin expert, so I go to some coin shows around the country.

Okay.

I just got back from one in Chicago where I saw our mutual friend, Rob Dan.

Yes, yes.

Longtime family friend.

So we always take selfies and send them to each other when we see each other at these conferences. So I think tag is going to be my turn at the summit.

That's great. Well, Dana, we really just appreciate so much that you've come on and shared your expertise and hopefully this will inspire some people to go out and get involved and buy some precious metals. Absolutely.

Well, thank you for having me. It's wonderful. I'm so happy that you've got your podcast going. I couldn't think of anyone more wonderful or nice to have my assets kicked by. Thank you.

Dana. Thank you for your time and have an amazing day.

Thank you, Robin. Thank you, Courtney. It's been wonderful to be with you.