A Non-Gilded Surprise
Imagine you are a prince who has ravaged several fire-breathing dragons to arrive at the doorstep of the princess whose hand you seek in marriage. Her family is impressed by your heroic feats, as you have even taken the care to vanquish a dragon on the edge of the kingdom that is no direct threat to you or the princess, but who has been harming villagers by burning their crops for fun. You scale the wall of the gorgeous palace to find the beautiful princess, who sits atop her throne with a gorgeous diamond tiara adorning her afro. Her father, King of a mythical kingdom in Africa, has been waiting for you. This is a man who is incredibly wealthy, as the Gods have smiled upon him and his lineage for many centuries.
You reach into your satchel to pull out the ring that your grandmother gifted to you from your own royal bloodline, hoping it will impress the princess and her people. You pull out a ring made of…tin foil. The entire family laughs heartily, having expected a gilded ring made of the most precious metals and jewels. Instead, you have surprised them with a band that is made of tightly wrapped aluminum foil, saying, “My princess, if you become my Queen, I vow to love you no matter how much weight you gain. Therefore if you wear this tin foil ring, it will never be too small for you, as you can unwrap it and rewrap it to be the size you need.”
The Princess is a modern royal who controls her own bank accounts and boasts a checking account that would make even your greatest rivals weep with envy. Therefore she laughs and accepts your proposal because she can buy her own golden rings and besides, the effort you put in to vanquish all those dragons that were beleaguering and threatening her people is far more important than a silly little ring. You are glad you took the time to learn more about investing in precious metals. That is because, the queen, who is in charge of all the royal accounts, wants to know that you are able to make wise investments with your money, and decides to give you a little quest to make sure you do not waste her daughter’s money.
The Golden Tests
The very first test the queen gives you is an investment project. She shows you the massive spreadsheet of her subjects’ 401K accounts and asks you to take those funds and convert them to IRA accounts. You are able to carefully comb the list of merchants who can assist you in investing the family’s coins in a manner that will yield the greatest returns for the monarchy, so you insist on a Gold IRA investment. You, a prince with some common sense, have already researched the Best Gold IRA Companies of 2020 so you are prepared to offer the royal family some great advice on this subject. The king, impressed, asks you to complete the queen’s second task.
The second test is figuring out what other investment instruments to use. The king has heard of a place called the United States of America, whose dollar has been a standard-bearer currency for many countries all over the world. The king wants to know if he should convert his gold bullion to American dollars as a wise investment, or if he should instead retain his holdings in alloys. You have done your research and so you suggest that the king retain his wealth in gold, and in fact invest in even more precious metals as the American dollar is currently experiencing great inflation and metals represent less market volatility that could result in overall losses.
The queen is absolutely flabbergasted at the quality of your insights. For your third and final test, the queen gifts you ten thousand pieces of palladium (https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/science/chemistry/elements/palladium), insisting that since her kingdom is a palladium producing country, she needs to find another instrument to trade for it. Again, you rely on your knowledge of the precious metal market to decide that once again, gold is your safest bet. The queen was expecting you to change your mind, but is instead impressed with your in-depth knowledge of the volatility of markets and the investment items that will secure the greatest gains for her family. The princess, impressed with your responses, tells her parents that she is planning to marry you immediately!