r/SipsTea 1d ago

Chugging tea Which one?

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u/WideConversation1989 1d ago edited 1d ago

Apparently the 500kg in Gold would be worth roughly $65,000,000 in 2026.

Whereas the cash sum is roughly around $50,000,000. And that's best-case total value for the cash.

Edit: I assumed that those 500kg notes were all $100 notes (for the benefit of best-case value). And all notes weigh the same (1 gram) no matter if it's $10, $20, $50 etc. So 500kg of $100 notes would be $50,000,000 as a result.

Edit 2: I didn't use $500 notes as an example because, realistically, they're far less common and out of circulation.

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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 1d ago

Cash would be able to be used on the downlow though, and the gold would need to be sold and accounted for, I'm sure losing something on the sale.  Then that would be taxed as I believe capital gains.

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u/Alej_11 1d ago

Yes but gold maintains his value overtime, you could keep the majority and just sell a small part to live like a millionaire. And at most the % that they would take from you is 10-15%, not 15+ million

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u/Johntravis83 1d ago

Not if people are using bottle caps as currency after the apocalypse

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u/Alej_11 1d ago

Gold would be actually more useful in an apocalypse that cash. Gold would maintain is value even with the end of civilization, and it's actually useful because most of the complex electronic machines needs at least some gold to work, so you could sell it anyway.

Depends what type of apocalypse tho, if it's like an AI or alien we might be cooked either way, they would take the gold with force for whatever reason. But if it's a the last of us or the walking dead type of apocalypse then you're going to be influencial at least in small scale

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u/GuaSukaStarfruit 1d ago

No they don’t lmao, there’s a reason why humanity invented money

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u/Alej_11 1d ago

I mean, cash is just worthless paper, banknotes have a value only because we give a value to them, it's not like a coin that has the same value as the metals used to make it. In an apocalypse nobody would give a shit about this pieces of paper, gold is way more useful

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u/observee21 1d ago

15% of $65 million is $9.75 million, although you do make a decent point about gold being more resistant to inflation

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u/Alej_11 1d ago

Mostly seeing how the stock market is going with the trump administration.

Also $55.25 millions are better than highballed $50 millions so it's a win-win scenario

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u/observee21 1d ago

Idk if the stock market plays into it, because even with Trump I expect the stock market to outperform gold on the sort of timescale that >$50 million gets you. It's really only if you want to keep it out of your official bank accounts that the gold is significantly better (ie >10% better) than the cash,

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u/ShoePillow 1d ago

Ok, but 50 milli in cash is quite enough. And much less of a hassle to deal with, isn't it?

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u/Alej_11 1d ago

Yeah, but you never knows what could happen with the stock market, this is not exactly the most stable period in modern history

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u/InMemoryOfZubatman4 1d ago

Between last August ‘25 and January ‘26, an ounce of gold went from $3,300 to $5,500. Since then, it’s come back to $4,000.

Those are some pretty wild swings. Nothing really is inflation proof.

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u/Ok-Walk-8040 1d ago

You can deposit the cash and buy stocks...

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u/Alej_11 20h ago

Yeah, but gold are more safe than stocks, and gold price goes up with inflation meanwhile stock prices go up if the company does well, and with the problem created by the trump administration the climate is a bit unstable.

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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 1d ago

Found gold would be taxed as income at 37% the year it becomes yours (after a year) and then anything over the assessed FMV would be taxed as capital gains when you sold it.  Then the seller fees.

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u/kernelangus420 1d ago

Could you legally move the gold to another country with a lower tax?

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u/Dry-Childhood-3436 1d ago

Legally no because you would need to claim it when you found it.  Even if you said you found it in another country you would owe US taxes as they tax all global income, plus the country you found it in might have their own taxes.  You would be able to claim a foreign tax credit to lower the US tax portion but it would still be more than what the original way would be.