When you hold a shiny gold bar or a beautiful bunch of silver coins, you feel both excited and worried at the same time. As gold and silver are economic assets that are used to protect against changes, the words “appreciation” and “depreciation” are not always used in the same way. But one thing is clear: getting these valuable metals stored is only half of the story.
When you buy gold bars in Australia, the level of security changes depending on how much money you have. Training and keeping your things safe through exercise does come with a hidden cost that can work against you when you’re carrying it.
Now we’ll talk about the real costs of security. We’ll go over everything from the basics of setting up a home security system to professional vaulting, as well as how cheap it is to keep your investment safe. Let’s take this thing one step at a time so that you can make decisions on your own.
Ways to Store Things at Home
A house is a common place to store precious metals, making it easy to start collecting even if you don’t have a lot. It has its own charm because you can get to it right away, and you don’t have to pay any ongoing fees to a third party. But in order to do it right, you need to buy the right tools to protect against theft and damage.
The first line of defence is a safe-grade house safe.
- Simple models that are good for beginners cost between $200 and $500 and can hold smaller amounts of gold. They only protect against fire and have a simple lock.
- The biometric safe is a bit more expensive. It can hold a few ounces of gold or silver and can be opened with your fingerprint. It costs about $235.
- Larger executive-style safes cost $999 and come with adjustable shelves and outlets for a dehumidifier. This is a huge step forward in fire and burglar safety.
A professional will have to bolt the safe to the floor, which will cost an extra $100 to $300. The number of theft-free days could easily be more than the cost of installation. Then, in the following years, upkeep could cost between $20 and $50 and include things like changing the batteries or silica packets to keep the humidity down.
It’s a great starter method that doesn’t require a lot of work and makes home storage a little less expensive. But remember this: the protection will only be as good as the house as a whole.
Options for professional storage
The next step is to think about the handling services for when the payments go over a certain amount or when you want extra security. Fortified buildings with armed guards, round-the-clock monitoring, and climate control are part of these services. They offer things that your home can’t.
Bank Safety Deposit Boxes
A lot of people use bank safety deposit boxes as an alternative way to store metals safely away from their home or business. Price changes based on size and area. To give you an example, a small 3×5-inch box might cost you $25 to $75 a year, while bigger boxes for much bigger things might cost close to $150 or more a year. It’s easy and doesn’t cost much, but you can only use it during bank hours. It’s not like all branches have them now.
Private Vaults
To make things even safer, one would then pick one of the private vaults that only store valuable metals. There are different fees that these companies charge based on how much you keep, ranging from 0.06% to 0.48% per year.
- The lowest fee they charge is $4 to $8 per month for gold or silver.
- For some, the minimum amount every three months is around $105 per metal. This guarantees that customers’ things will be stored separately from those of other customers.
- Some are also giving the bare minimum in terms of prices for people who don’t mind separate storage—a depository for as little as $9.99 per month.
The good thing about it is that it is usually fully insured, so not only do you know that your valuable metals are safe, but you can also track them and see proof of ownership. Keeping things worth thousands of dollars safe could cost anywhere from $100 to $500 a year, but the amount of protection is well worth the cost.
Insurance is a must-have safety net.
More than anything else, metals should always be protected, even if it’s just in case the worst happens. Standard homeowner’s plans don’t cover bullion, usually only up to $200 to $250, unless you add a “rider.” These insurance companies will only cover your investment if you get special insurance for rare metals or an endorsement. It’s usually between 1% and 2% of the asset’s value per year. To give you an idea, if you covered $10,000 worth of gold, it would cost an extra $100 to $200 on top of your yearly prices.
A private vault would be able to get bundled insurance at a lower cost, which could keep the rates low—by less than 1%. You should get collectors’ insurance that covers theft, fire, and even strange disappearance if you store your things at home.
Here’s a tip: have your metals analysed quite often, since the value of metals needs to keep up with the price changes. If someone doesn’t get insurance, they might save some money now, but one bad event can wipe out all the money they’ve saved over the years.
Charges You Didn’t See
Besides the clear costs, there are also hidden costs that could catch an owner off guard:
- If you use a professional storage company, watch out for their transaction fees, which are $50 to $100 every time you put in or take out metals.
- Even at home, the electricity used to power your safe or dryer could add $10 to $20 to your monthly energy bill.
- The next part is liquidity: When the market is unstable, the price could be your chance, since it takes time for the metals to be taken out of the vault far away.
- Fabrication and dealer markups are extra costs that come with buying physical metals. They add 5–10% to the price up front and also affect security choices in a roundabout way.
- When it comes to maintenance, things like cleaning supplies or about-hundred-dollar inspection fees add up.
- Then there’s tax… Some types of storage may come with reporting rules.
Being aware of these things makes you smarter when making a budget and keeps bad things from happening.
How to Save Money on Security
Keeping your valuable metals safe won’t cost you all of your money.
- The first step would be to make promises. Some metals could be kept at home for quick access, while the rest would be kept in a well-kept professional vault to spread out the risks.
- When you store things at home, think of a clever two-layer defence system: a strong safe and home security cameras or alarm systems that might even get you lower insurance rates.
- Always look for safe storage and choose the one with the lowest percentage fees, especially if you have a lot of stuff to store.
- Regularly check your insurance to make sure you’re not under- or over-covered.
- Having well-organised storage for things that are actually useful to you is another thing to think about. This way, you won’t be sharing risks with other people.
- You could also join communities for investors to share your knowledge about which shops sell safes and vaults that are affordable.
- Another thing you should want is to keep your metals in good shape. The best metal cases don’t let air in. Keeping metals from turning dark will save you a lot of money on repairs in the future.
These methods are less expensive, but they still protect your possessions.
Finally, be smart about how you secure your future.
That’s all there is to know about how much your valuable metal security costs. There are cheap home safes that start at a few hundred dollars and expensive professional vaults that charge fees every year in the low hundreds. The important thing is to balance security with your income and collection size.
Don’t forget that the metals are just another way to borrow money. Their real value comes from knowing that they are safe. If you want to protect a few coins or a larger stock, you should really think about the big-name, real security companies.
How about you? Were you ever able to find a cheaper way to store your things securely, or does your story centre on why security is important? Post your thoughts below; I’d love to read them. I might even use one in a future post. Let us keep this going and help each other make better decisions!
