Rchard Checkan, Senior Vice President, ASI
Rich Checkan explains the concept of core holdings.
 

At ASI, we coined the term Core Holdings to talk about emergency money – something you hope you never need, but something you will be grateful to have. Core Holdings are what you fall back on when the worst happens, to your home, in your country, or even worldwide.

Core holdings have four crucial qualities:

• It has to be highly liquid, meaning; you have to be able to sell it quickly.
• Its value should be recognized instantly and everywhere.
• It should be easily and quickly divisible. 
• It should not require assessing; its quality should be above question.

We know of only one asset that answers all the essential criteria for Core Holdings: precious metal. Bullionⁱ meets the first two requirements, but not the third and fourth. Bullion coins meet all four criteria perfectly. Coins have all the advantages of bullion with none of its limitations.

We believe you should allocate 10% of your net worth to Core Holdings. We recommend the majority of those assets be in easy- to- sell goldⁱ bullion coins such as Canadian Maple Leafsⁱ, American Eagles, or Australian Koalas. We also believe every family member should have at least a couple bags of junk silver. 

The late Glen Kirsch of ASI, used to say, “Core holdings are for protection, not for profit. They function as insurance against a catastrophe. True, they are likely to earn you a profit, but that is not their real purpose.  So, just as you would not dump your fire insurance because your house didn’t burn down this year, neither would you sell your core holdings because they went up in value.”

We feel strongly about our core holding philosophy. Emergency money is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity for your financial health. Regardless of the size of your financial pyramid, you are building it on sand without a core holding foundation.