I know what you are thinking but yes it is possible to own bars of gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Precious metals have formed the basis for wealth for a very long time and they have survived flood, famine, economic upheaval and war. The basics of owning precious metals are quite straightforward, you buy it now and sell it later when you want the money. Generally this is more of a long term investment in that anything under 5 years and you are playing the markets.
There are several ways of investing in precious metals. You can buy precious metal backed ETFs or stocks in precious metal mining companies. You can also buy individual bars and coins and either store them at home or pay to have them stored in a vault. There are pros and cons to all of the methods outlined above. Generally the pros and cons fall into two types. The first type is the ease of liquidation, the ETFs and stocks win this one as it is easier to sell them. The metal bars and coins are more difficult to sell as you have to find a buyer (usually a coin shop). However with stocks and ETFs the companies that hold or manage them may go bankrupt and then you may never see your investment again. The same is true if you have someone else store your metal, the only one that wins in this case is the home storage approach. The people that do this have a saying, "If you don't hold it you don't own it.".
It is true that precious metal does not give dividends which is why some people steer clear of them. However a lot of people recommend about 5%-10% of a portfolio to be in precious metals. People tend to use precious metals as a safe haven in times of economic volatility because although it does not pay dividends it also has a tendency to keep its value regardless of anything that is going on with the economy.
If you are going to purchase precious metal then you must always know the current "spot price" for the metal. You will always pay slightly over spot price when you buy and sell for slightly under spot price (the dealer has to make their money somehow). Precious metals are measured in Troy Ounces which is slightly heavier than a regular ounce that we use in everyday life. Most dealers will show you the current spot price for the metal you want to buy.
When purchasing precious metals to either keep at home or to store somewhere else one thing you need to keep in the back of your mind is that you are going to have to sell the item to someone in order to get your money back. Items such as a 400 Oz gold bar may look good and may be impressive but you cannot split up that bar and trying to find a buyer for something worth tens of thousands of dollars or more is going to be difficult. In that case you would be better off with 400 x 1 Oz gold bars because it is easier to sell them a few at a time.
Precious Metal coins are minted by governments are are held to a higher standard than bars in terms of dimensions and design. This makes them a good investment tool because they are likely to be more readily accepted when the time comes to sell them. They cost a little more than bars (or rounds) but what you pay for is the ease of sale at the other end. A coin shop may have to fully assay a bar (which costs you money) in order to satisfy themselves that it is genuine but they may only need to examine and measure a coin to get the same level of certainty.
If you want to start with Precious Metals then I suggest setting aside a monthly amount that you can use to buy some. Then go to a website that sells Precious Metals (I have a couple listed below) and buy some every month. You can do a form of dollar cost averaging by purchasing the same monetary amount every time, the number of ounces you purchase will change as the price changes. If you are in the USA then I recommend starting out with the 1 oz American Silver Eagle as they are well known by coin shops. For other countries, find the coins that your own country makes as a first time buy. Buy some of them and store them somewhere safe at home. As you get more and more you will find yourself branching out to other coins and maybe to bars and rounds as you get bored with buying the same thing again and again. You will also start to research storage options as your stack grows every month. Think of it as a retirement account that you can hold. The best way to count the stack is not in monetary terms as that fluctuates too much but in terms of ounces of metal. The ounces will steadily grow and the only time the monetary value of the stack matters is when you go to sell it later.
This guy is really into Silver... www.silver-coin-investor.com
If you want to purchase physical precious metals here are some sites to look at...
APMEX - www.apmex.com
JM Bullion - www.jmbullion.com
Provident Metals - www.providentmetals.com
If you want to store your bullion online and trade it frequently...
www.bullionvault.com/ - BullionVault
