For your consideration: Ladies: Keep The Jewelry, Or Give It Back.

This subject came up today as one of our crew wound up breaking up with her boyfriend/fiancé/partner/intended/whatever-you-wanna-call-him.

Over the course of their relationship (5 years), she had amassed quite a large amount of jewelry in the form of bracelets, watches, necklaces, rings and of course, the big 2 carat engagement ring all now sitting in a drawer in her room.

She was asking us about what we think she should do with this stuff. Money King even looked at some of it.

The stuff is worth some cash, if she wants it. And, who in the world wouldn't want some extra cash?

We told her about this service she could try: cash4gold.com. We also told her that she could look around in the newspapers for jewelry dealers and such. She could even use craiglist.com. From what we can tell, these Cash4Gold people are legit. They’re buying gold around $300 an ounce right now (measuring it in pennyweights—so you have to do the ounce conversions to see what you’ll really get out of them in the form of a check). The incentive for this company seems to be in the resale of YOUR gold for its current trade value (around $900 an ounce). What you’re getting from this company is convenience, i.e., the mother of all service charges. You send them your stuff; they send you money. Easy. No driving to dealers or haggling.

Overall, our official recommendation to all of you ladies out there is that if you break up with someone/it/thing:

Don’t even think about giving away any of your old boyfriend/it/thing/fiance’s jewelry back to him. It’s just not an option in The Money Kings world.

Before all you guys start thinking of emailing us about how the engagement ring is a symbol of this and that, and how it’s not fair that the girl gets to keep the ring, etc, etc. We’ve got simple advice for you too! So, please, just refrain . . .

But first, the ladies:

1. You don’t give any gifts from a man/it/thing/fiancé back, because they’re gifts. Any attempt on his/it/thing’s part to claim ownership of said gifts is moot.
2. If possible, try to get appraisals of all of the jewelry your man/it/thing/fiancé gives you so you have him do the work of assessment up front. Just in case. And,
3. Any jewelry you acquire becomes part of your portfolio of assets, remember. Gold and jewelry are assets to you after the relationship is done. Be a MoneyQueen and separate the sentiment from the value!

For the guys:

This post is really just for the gals. You’ve heard our recommendations for them, and for what they should do with your generosity. Our tip to you is to deal it out very miserly!

Good luck out there.

Keywords: gold, jewelry, cash, karat, carat, gifts, money, sentiment, ownership