The belief that gold holds an intrinsic value is wrong, and the advice you derive from it is incredibly misguided. There's nothing special about gold. It has s

The belief that gold holds an intrinsic value is wrong, and the advice you derive from it is incredibly misguided. There's nothing special about gold. It has some nice properties that make it intrinsically valuable, but not more than copper or other metals. The reason basically all cultures value gold is that other people like it also, and it is hard to counterfeit. That being said, gold goes through the same ups and downs in perceived value as any other commodity. For what I have read, it is trading now more or less around its long term historic value (think centuries long). If there's so much buzz about gold now, it is because it is coming from a few decades long of sub-valuation, but this is correcting fast, and the pendulum begins to swing now to the other side. If you are not able to pick your time correctly, you'll be loosing money soon enough. Besides, there is the fact that it is a long time investment. If you are forced to liquidate your position to pay whatever need you have, you will probably loose money. And there's the commissions that will eat out on each transaction, so you better hold to gold until it is a really good time to sell.