Aunt Augusta's Gold

Aunt Augusta who died with the virus more than a year ago had no children, and she left no will. Hence, it's up to her nephews and nieces to sort out the inheritance. This takes time. There's a lot of people to coordinate. There's also a lot of possessions to distribute, sell and otherwise manage.

Luckily for my wife, she has an honest and pragmatic cousin who takes care of things. My wife responds dutifully to whatever is asked of her, and her cousin takes care of the formalities in cooperation with a lawyer.

Aunt Augusta was relatively wealthy. She owned some real-estate, which will be auctioned off, and she had some gold jewelry that has been appraised. The gold will be sold to the vendor who did the appraisal unless someone in the family decides to buy it.

With most people these days uninterested in gold, I wasn't surprised to learn that some of my wife's cousins were sad to see the gold disappear out of the family. They assumed that nobody would want to buy it. However, the gold is in fact the best deal in the inheritance, and I've advised my wife to buy it all. The gold isn't going to disappear out of the family. It will become my wife's possession. Instead of cash, my wife will walk away with Aunt Augusta's gold.

In their eagerness to get their hands on cash, my wife's cousins have failed to realize that the appraiser was putting in a bid on the gold. This is at least 30% below what the gold will be sold for in his store. This is easy to confirm by going to a gold smith to look for jewelry of comparative quality. My wife will in this way walk away with 30% more than her cousins if she ends up with all the gold instead of cash.

My wife stands to get about 4% of Aunt Augusta's inheritance. But the gold is about 5% of Augusta's net worth, so my wife will have to chip in with savings of her own. But with a low bid on the gold, it's a good deal.

This situation illustrates the value in having some savings available for this kind of opportunities. People who live constantly on the edge of bankruptcy end up with less than what can be achieved with a little bit of spare cash.

Sovereign

By Heritage Auctions for image, Mary Gillick for coin - Newman Numismatic Portal, Public Domain, Link