How do you hold your gold?

I follow a permanent portfolio type strategy and currently hold the GLD index.    You can also use the IAU.  I plan on moving to physical gold in the near future.  I will use a safe deposit box, as you mentioned they are pretty affordable if you hold an account with the bank (although it depends on size).  I don’t see much downside to using a bank, they are pretty unlikely to be robbed for their safe deposit boxes (think of the time involved with opening and clearing all of them).  In the unlikely event that there is some huge financial crash and banks put a freeze on accounts, I would be willing to bet you can still access your box.  I think it is pointless to try and get involved in some complicated storing mechanism unless you are holding more than would fit in the largest safe deposit boxes.

www.goldmart.com is where most people that I know do their buying.  If you buy bars, there is very little premium over spot price.  If you buy bullion coins, there will be a premium anywhere from $30-70 depending on the coin.  They also have free shipping for large orders ($7500 or more).

Coins:
Pros: Will sell for over spot, can be used as actual currency in a disaster (ie, a gold eagle is US currency with face value of $50), typically easier to cash in/sell, many people deal/collect them.  The most liquid coin is the American Gold Eagle, followed by either the American Buffalo or Canadian Maple Leaf
Cons: Higher premium, more small pieces to store

Bars:
Pros: Very little premium over spot, some have some pretty intricate patterns and look very sharp
Cons: Harder to unload/sell, zero value beyond the metal itself

What to do with a small inheritance?

Hello Fellow Mustachians,

I could use some guidance in figuring out what to do with a small inheritance I received from my grandmother, who passed away a few months ago. The total amount is about $8500. $1700 is earmarked for our 5-month old son and we are likely to open a 529 account for him using that as seed funding. It’s the remaining $6800 that I’m unsure about. These seem to be the options:

Pay down debt. We have a mortgage (340k remaining, 4.875% APR), I have a student loan (37k remaining; 3% interest), and we have a loan from my husband’s mother (13k remaining, 0% interest).

Bulk up our emergency fund (16k current balance) which was depleted when we got an unexpected tax bill earlier this year.

Put into retirement fund (we have about 200k saved right now; we are 38 and 40 years old).

Put toward new car fund. Neither of our 2 cars (both paid off) is particularly family friendly; we are likely to sell my Mini Cooper in the next year & replace with something bigger – but we won’t get enough from the sale of the Mini to fully fund a purchase.

Do something sentimental with the money. My sister plans to buy artwork to remember grandma by; my husband and I talked tonight about creating a mini “endowment” that would throw off a small sum each year that we would use on, say, grandma’s birthday to do something special in remembrance. The latter idea could also double as additional emergency savings.

It feels like the obvious answer is debt, but there’s something so clinical and unsatisfying about doing that. It’s not like we’d be able to pay anything completely off; we would just make a dent.

What say all of you?