Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you have money
with a financial advisor, then
they're buying stocks, sellingstocks, they have an AUM fee and
that's continuous.
If you own physical gold, it'sa lot harder to justify a gold
babysitting fee or something.
I think a lot of people gottricked in 2020 by the big push
of crypto that, oh, crypto andgold are side by side.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
I'm your host,
melanie Schaefer.
Welcome to Leadlag Live Now.
Right now, gold is stealing thespotlight, pushing through
fresh, all-time highs asinvestors weigh rate cuts,
ballooning debt and a dollarthat looks increasingly shaky.
In an environment where stocksare expensive and bonds don't
offer much protection, it's nosurprise that people are
(00:53):
rethinking what diversificationreally means, and, while gold
has been around for thousands ofyears, less than one percent of
investors actually own it,raising the question of whether
the most obvious hedge is stillthe most underlooked.
My guest today is Brandon Thor,ceo of Thor Metals Group.
(01:14):
Brandon has built his firmaround transparency and
education, challenging thegimmicks and the sales tactics
that often cloud the goldindustry.
His mission is to put preciousmetals back into the
conversation for everydayinvestors, not as a fear trade,
but as a path toward realcontrol over wealth.
(01:36):
Brandon, thanks so much forbeing here today.
Thank you for having me,melanie.
So, brandon, I want to startsort of broad.
You for having me, melanie.
So, brandon, I want to startsort of broad.
What's the number one insightyou believe governments or the
financial system would rathereveryday people not know about
money, wealth or about investing?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Sure, you know, I
think, that the number one
insight is the concept ofsovereignty.
You know you hear a lot ofwhispers with.
You know have nothing and likeit.
And you know all thesedifferent political plans where
you know they're designed tokeep us enslaved to our jobs and
in debt.
But you know, I think, thatwhat really they want to prevent
(02:18):
you from understanding isassets like physical gold.
You know, assets that actuallyallow you to achieve true
sovereignty, allow you toeliminate true counterparty risk
and allow you to actuallyretain, you know, your real
wealth, which is the standard ofliving in which you can
actually acquire with.
You know, with your currency.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
So, brandon, do you
think Wall Street and the
financial system activelydiscourage gold ownership, and
so what's behind that resistance?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, I've been doing thisfor over a decade and whenever a
client or a prospect says youknow this sounds great, I'm just
going to talk to my financialadvisor.
I always have to give them thesame thing.
You know, because I never onceran into a financial advisor
that has recommended gold.
(03:08):
And here's the reason.
The reason is is simply becausephysical gold and physical
precious metals you cannot makethe same.
You know fees and it doesn'tfit the same revenue generation
model that Wall Street and thebanking system needs.
Okay, because, think about it,if you own physical gold, then
that is an alternative to havingdollars in a bank.
(03:28):
Now, if you have dollars in abank, then they can, you know,
lend them out and, you know,generate those types of returns.
If you have, you know, moneywith a financial advisor, then
they're, you know, buying stocks, selling stocks, they have an
AUM fee and that's continuous.
If you own physical gold, it'sa lot harder to justify, you
know, like a gold babysittingfee or something.
So you know, you have theserevenue models of these
(03:51):
multi-trillion dollar industriesthat just don't fit with the
ownership of physical gold.
So, consequently, you have asystem that really discourages
the investment.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, and Brandon,
you've described gold as the
investment hiding in plain sight.
Why do you think fewer than 1%of investors actually hold
physical metals today?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
So think about it.
You know you have somethingthat has been around since the
Bible, right?
It's always had value.
You know, if you talk toanybody that's been in a
relationship or a marriage, theydon't blink twice when they go
to buy a necklace or earringsfor their spouse or their
girlfriend or significant other,but yet less than half a
percent invest in physical gold.
(04:31):
So what's the disconnect?
Well, like I just alluded toearlier, you have two
multi-trillion dollar industriesthat do not want you invested
in this asset, and you have themost powerful government on
earth that don't want youinvested in gold Because, think
about it, the US dollar thoseare loans backed by the
government, right, it's a $37trillion debtor that you are
(04:52):
basically storing your wealth inIOUs backed by them.
Now, they would much rather youhave your wealth stored in them
, as they can just print withreckless abandon and continue to
amass debt, than pivot tosomething like physical gold.
So when you have twomulti-trillion dollar industries
and you have the most powerfulgovernment on earth all not
wanting to invest in something,then you're going to have a
(05:13):
situation like what we have now,where you have something that
everybody knows is valuable,everybody knows is never going
to go to zero or go bankrupt.
It's been around since theadvent of mankind, but yet less
than half a percent of peopleare invested in it.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, and one of the
reasons, I think, is that gold,
the gold industry, often drawscriticism.
A gimmicks, inflated markups,proprietary coins, what do you
see as broken in the industry,and how is Thorough Metals
standing apart?
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Sure, I mean that's a
great question and I'm glad you
raised it and I've had to becareful since I started this
firm and how I navigate thatexact question, because I
started this firm as a directresponse to that question.
So, basically, this is apurpose-driven business we were
formed after I was a broker fora number of years and just got
(05:59):
fed up with the predatorytactics and and you know what I
felt was the exploitive natureof the industry.
Because when you have somethingthat is actively suppressed,
right, and people actively youknow the powers that be actively
do not want the consumer or theinvestor educated on, then it,
it you know the powers that beactively do not want the
consumer or the investoreducated on, then it, you know,
(06:19):
presents a fertile breedingground for predatory business
practices, right.
So that's what I saw occurringmore and more and what I formed,
you know, thor Metals Group toactually combat.
And so here's the deal.
The deal is this because of whatI just mentioned, you have an
unregulated industry and I feelit will never be regulated.
I feel that it's not inanybody's interest to regulate
(06:42):
it, because, think about it, ifyou regulate gold or you
regulate precious metals, youmake people feel safer in it,
you feel like they feelprotected, they feel like
there's something that's goingto defend them.
But if you keep it unregulated,it's it's not exactly in the
worst interest of the bankingsystem or Wall Street or even
the government.
So, you know, I, what I saw isis that my industry was taking
(07:04):
advantage of that and it wastaking advantage of the lack of
education or the lack of accessto proper education, and and
exploiting that.
But you know, with the propereducation and just the proper
transparency, not only isphysical gold the probably the
easiest investment to wrap yourhead around, it's also the
easiest investment to beconfident that you're getting a
(07:25):
fair shake in.
And it's only without thatproper education, that proper
transparency, that, uh, you know, these horror stories occur.
And so my firm was formed toliterally, you know, fill that
gap to combat those horrorstories into, you know, to, I
guess, self-correcting industrythat is in need of correcting.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
So how do you compare
this then?
I mean, you hear the exact samethings about the crypto space
and some might say and with myexperience that I have working
around the mining industry injournalism, you would expect
that many of the sort of goldbugs are older maybe than you
are.
What's the comparison and howare you navigating that within
(08:07):
what people might think youwould usually be into the crypto
, for example, Sure?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
You know, I think I
can sum up the crypto argument
and if you're choosing, you know, between crypto and gold, for
the reasons why you should bebuying gold with just a simple
statement, which is you know,jesus wasn't betrayed by 30
Bitcoin, right that there's beenone asset that has just been
(08:33):
always that eternal measuringstick of value, and then you
have another asset that has avery sparse track record and has
been really marketed as the newgold, digital gold, the new
evolution of gold.
But let's dig in and see whatit has in common with gold.
Gold is something that isprotective and it's something
that's acquired to preserve.
(08:55):
Crypto, at least you know,unless someone disagrees with me
is acquired to gain, you know,to profit, to hit on the next
meme coin, you know.
So it's a very aggressiveinvestment.
Gold has not had a, you know, adip of over 12 percent in, you
know God, 10, 15 years.
I mean it's slow and steady,wins the race.
(09:16):
It's very consistent.
Crypto, I mean shoot, bitcoinwent up and down like 65%, you
know, less than a year, so yousee it very volatile versus, you
know, a very consistent.
And then we just touched ontrack record.
You know crypto has been aroundfor what a decade.
And gold's been around since,you know, jesus was walking the
earth.
So we're talking 5,000 yearsversus, you know, 10 or 12.
(09:38):
So, you know, you have a lotmore consistency of track record
.
But it's been pushed on peopleas the new gold and sold in that
way just simply because itcan't be printed.
You know, because gold has a,you know, pretty much a finite
supply, and same with crypto.
But other than that, that'swhere the similarities start and
stop.
You know, and and people arestarting to find out as rubber
(09:59):
hits the road that, uh, they'renot going to run to crypto for
safety and that's what you'reseeing.
You know, I think a lot ofpeople got tricked in 2020 by,
uh, you know, the the big pushin crypto.
That, oh, you know, crypto andgold are side by side.
But now that you're seeing, youknow, a lot of uncertainty in
the world, you're noticing thatpeople are really piling into
gold a lot more than crypto andthat's why it's hitting all
(10:22):
these records.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
There is an age
disconnect, though, right when
younger people are movingtowards crypto and older people
are still holding gold.
What do you think can be doneabout that, or why do you think
that's the case?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, I mean, look,
you know, I think that the age
disconnect you got to look atwhy it exists, all right, and
one of the big reasons is one ofthe big reasons that exists is
you need to have money to investin gold account, like a
Coinbase account, and, you know,buy 10,000 meme coins at one
(10:56):
cent or something and hope thatit skyrockets or that Elon Musk
tweets about it or something.
Right, you know, with physicalgold at, you know, almost 3,500
an ounce, you need money, youneed a significant amount of
money and you need money thatyou don't need liquid.
So you know physical gold isbest served with funds that you
could hold in the investment atleast three to five liquid.
So you know, physical gold isbest served with with funds that
you could hold in theinvestment at least three to
(11:17):
five years.
So you know, just by the natureof the investment and by the
nature of people's financialfortunes, it, just, it, just.
It skews, you know, to an oldercrowd, people that have saved
money, that have that type offunds that are the right fit for
gold and unfortunately, aswe've seen with the newer
generations and theaffordability of homes and stuff
(11:39):
, it looks like maybe the nextgeneration is going to be about
90 years old before they havemoney saved.
That's appropriate for gold,but that's really where I see it
.
It's not something where it'sjust an outdated investment, as
much as because it takes moneyto actually invest in it and
because it's very hard to savein this day and age.
It just skews older.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
That's interesting
and I think that you have a good
point there.
Just to sort of finish up, foranyone considering precious
metals for diversification orfor financial security or people
who are just intrigued by howyou're doing it differently at
Thor, where's the best placethat they can go to connect with
you?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Sure, you're doing it
differently at Thor.
Where's the best place thatthey can go to connect with you?
Sure, so you can go to ourwebsite, wwwthormetalsgroupcom,
or you can call 1-844-944-THOR.
Now, if you want to have anappointment directly with me,
you can go to wwwbuythorgoldcomand I'm happy to talk to your
you know your, your listenerspersonally, and I'm also happy
(12:38):
to offer 2% discount on anythingthey acquire, and that'll
function as you know.
You acquire 100,000 in gold.
I'll throw in an extra $2,000in gold and that's limitless.
So you know, 500,000, 10,000,etc.
So that'll be my kind of youknow, sweetener for people that
have heard me on this program,and that's the best way to get
(12:58):
me Fantastic.
Speaker 2 (12:59):
Well, brandon, thanks
so much for joining me and
sharing your insights today, andthanks to everyone for watching
.
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