Gold Investment Explained: Why putting your money in yellow metal remains the best bet?

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Aug 12, 2022, 06:33 AM IST

The shine of gold is perennial and so is its value in one’s savings and investment portfolio.

Rarely will you meet someone who dislikes gold. Many people have bought the yellow metal at holy events because of its brilliance. This explains why many people invest a portion of their income each year in jewellery, coins, and ingots. In addition to gold's intrinsic stability as an investment option, many investors also include it in their portfolio to diversify their holdings in a way that outperforms average inflation.

Besides that, the continuing increases in US interest rates have compelled a lot of investors to hunt for safe havens to store their money in the medium term due to worries about increasing inflation and an impending recession. This is due to the likelihood that firms will be impacted by the increased cost of capital, which will induce an increase in stock sales.

Many investors were shocked by the current market volatility starting in January 2022 since they saw their winnings from the previous year completely erased in just five to six months. Even those using systematic investment plans (SIPs) shuddered as they questioned the wisdom of using stock market investments to build a corpus. In this situation, buying gold gradually and steadily seems like a good idea.

If you're still unsure of why you need gold to guarantee steady portfolio growth, read on and know how and why the yellow metal can help cool off the unwarranted heat and stress from the market.

No need of financial expertise
Investing in gold requires no expertise like in stocks and mutual funds. Investment in gold has been around for antiquity. Women first developed a preference for gold by purchasing jewellery at festivals and other events. Many people switched to paper gold as a result of the lack of liquidity as well as the losses they experienced when making charges were not recovered.

Then emerged gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which attempted to follow the gold market price and let investors make tiny investments. As passive investments, they are exempt from active management and fund managers' intervention. These funds enable investors to choose how much gold to invest in by investing in gold bullion and basing their decisions on gold prices. 

Sovereign gold bonds (SGBs) are another intriguing option for keeping your money in a safe place, but you can only use them when you want to make a one-time investment.

Gold mutual funds are also beneficial, although you may want to be careful of their expense ratios. The majority of investors are drawn to them because of their great liquidity, nevertheless.

Make small investment
There are various benefits of parking money in digital gold formats. One advantage is that you don't have to wait until you have a large sum of money to acquire gold; you can invest in little amounts right away. The lump sum money can be converted into a sizable amount of gold or redeemed for massive returns.

The cost factor
When you consider purchasing actual gold, the additional costs come to mind. These could take the shape of making fees and gold storage costs. Due to the ability to acquire and sell gold at market rates without having additional fees added to the metal, gold ETFs are significantly more efficient in this sense. 

Liquidity
All investments need liquidity so that you can easily redeem them as and when you need to. This is why, as you expand your investment portfolio, you must rely increasingly on gold ETFs. The main advantage of investing in digital gold is that, unlike physical gold, which you must transport to a reputable jeweller's shop to sell, you may redeem your investments with just the press of a button. To maintain constant liquidity, choose gold exchange-traded funds with significant transaction volumes.