617 - What does 60 Years in gold bullion teach an Entrepreneur?

Rory McGowan (0:00)

Today's conversation about investing is for general information purposes only, and is not investment advice. Investments in physical bullion products are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, and are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme or the Financial Ombudsman Service. The value of your investments could go down as well as up, and past performance is not indicative of future results. When considering an investment, make sure to do your own research, and always invest an amount that you can afford to lose.

Now, on with the rest of the show.

SPEAKER_2 (0:38)

Welcome to Modern Mindset, the show that picks the brains of the world's leading minds to help you unlock yours. Decoding the beliefs and strategies of global experts to give you an updated mindset to make the most of modern life.

Rory McGowan (0:57)

This is Modern Mindset, the show that picks the brains of the world's leading minds to help you unlock yours. My name is Rory McGowan, and we hear it all the time. Investing is paramount when you're looking out for your future. But new research from the company Shards has found that 43% of UK adults have invested nothing in the last 12 months.

To talk about why this is and what the consequences of this are, I'm joined by Laurence Chard, an entrepreneur who's spent six decades in the precious metals industry and whose company Shards has commissioned the research today. Laurence, it's lovely to have you on.

Laurence Chard (1:34)

Thank you, Rory.

Rory McGowan (1:35)

No problem. Then, yeah, I've kind of picked out the headline stat there. 43% of UK adults have invested nothing in the last 12 months, but your research goes a little bit further than that. Can you talk about what else you found out here today?

Laurence Chard (1:48)

Well, that's the figures, girl. My experience or my view, the probably fewer than 43% have actually invested either anything or much of all in the last, let's say, five years and it may be getting worse.

Rory McGowan (2:08)

Why do you think that is then? I mean, the stats are there. You say it could potentially be a little bit worse than that. Why are so many people not taking up what is a great long-term investment in their future?

Laurence Chard (2:23)

In some people's cases, of course, it will be the two busy trying to make ends meet, to actually save anything. Although most people probably could save if they just budgeted or modified the lifestyle gently. There have always been people who spend and people who save and some people are somewhere in the middle. There should be a healthy balance, obviously. You need to spend to buy food so you can live and survive.

But we should all try, really, in my opinion anyway, to actually keep a reserve of cash or, as I say, cash money in the bank for eventualities, emergencies, contingencies. Some people just seem to be incapable and some spend everything they've got for the even earn it. But the people who are inclined to save or thinking of saving, and there may be things that they can do.

And when it comes to spending money on, say, collecting coins as a numismatic hobby or investing in coins or more, like more to the point in precious metal bullion, then yes, I can help. And we have got, I spent over 60 years, which is like honing the experience, gaining knowledge. And we also got a very nice, in my opinion, advice guide on our website. The title of it is Advice Guide for UK Bullion Investors. And that took me about 60 years and one week, 60 years to get the knowledge and experience, and about a week to actually hack it out into text.

Rory McGowan (4:13)

Well, yeah, that's what I was kind of going to get on to next, because I imagine there's a lot more people in the, I do want to save some money category than there are who just, you know, don't care and can't even be bothered to think about it. For those people who are looking for a place to start when it comes to investing their money, what can regular people do to kind of get started on this journey?

Laurence Chard (4:39)

Well, my starting point, I've already answered your question anyway, and reading that advice guide, and we have actually got it on YouTube into instruments, would be a good starting point. I would say it's worth somebody investing 15 to 20 minutes of their own time, reading that before they actually start spending money or investing money.

Rory McGowan (5:03)

Well, okay, I understand that, Laurence. I feel like for the people who haven't read it yet, can you give a brief summary as to what this guide kind of talks about? Because there might be some people out there who, you know, gold and silver kind of isn't their world, and they don't really know what it's all about. But yeah, could you give us a quick intro as to what that's about?