First off you need to understand that gold is not an investment. Gold is and acts more like an insurance policy. You are insuring that something in your portfolio can never go to $0.00. All paper assets have the ability to go to $0.00. This is what you are insuring against. The only other asset to not go to zero is real estate. But real estate is illiquid. It takes too much time to sell real estate and in a credit contraction like today this is the case. The best way to own gold is to buy and take physical delivery of the gold itself. Silver is also in the gold realm as well, so when talking about gold, silver is included.

It is always a good idea to own some gold and silver at all price levels. To truly understand gold and silver, and why you should own it you have to understand the economy and get the movie of life on the largest screen possible.

Gold is money and a store of value. It is the "Currency of last resort" as Greenspan has stated many times through the years. Gold doesnt pay interest, dividends, doesnt restate earnings, has no lawyers, accountants, CEOs or CFOs lying to you on television. Gold doesnt ask for bailouts, doesnt go BK and cannot cook its books. Gold cant be debased or printed at the will of a company or governmetnt and holds its purchasing power.

Gold sits there as a store of value, is labor intensive, and a One Ounce coin will not split into a bunch of half ounce coins at the direction of the pin stripped bandits on Wall Street. Also Gold is the ONLY asset class in the last ten years to increase in value and retain every dollar of its purchasing power.

Gold can be bought in many forms. Coins are the best. I personally like the US coins in both the Gold Eagles and the pre 1933 US $20 gold peices. Gold Eagles are hard to find right now but $20 pre 1933 gold pieces are avalible from PTG at www.allamericangold.com . This is the company I use and I like them and their radio show that airs every weekday.

Once you have physical gold and silver then ETFs or stocks are fine but I strongly suggest in holding physical gold for long term value and storage.

Cons to owning gold is it is subject to short term market manipulation by the Federal Reserve and bullion banks. This can cause the short term price to be pushed down as is being done today. This is why the paper price on gold verses the physical price is not he same today. Paper price today is about $1120 an ounce but the physical price is ranging between $1180 to $1400 depending upon the product being bought.

As for where to buy American Gold Eagles, the best place to obtain them is at American Gold Exchange. http://www.amergold.com/ When you factor the shipping and other costs American Gold has the best prices in the country that I have found.

As to how much you should have that depends upon where you think the value of the dollar is going along with the stock, real estate, bond and cash markets. I personally have shifted away from paper asstets and have moved all new moneys into gold and silver. In addition to that Im buying physical Canadian currency to hedge against the dollar. I currently have about $30,000 in physical gold, about $32,000 in physical silver and about $6100 in physical Canadian currency. Im putting alot into metals because I believe the dollar along with the stock markets are going much much lower. I believe we will have currency crisses so Im positioning for that event.