How to Buy And Invest in Gold?

Buying and investing in gold has been a financial support system traditionally over years.

What are the Gold Buying Options in UK? 

You can buy gold either in physical or on paper. Physically you can buy gold coins, in the form of gold bullion, bars and jewellery and on papers one can buy EFT’s (gold exchange traded funds) and SGB’s (sovereign gold bonds). Other available options are gold mutual funds, one that invests in EFT’s and another in the international gold mining companies shares. 

Gold Jewellery

Owning gold in the form of jewellery has been a traditional trend. However possessing jewellery form of gold have certain issues like high costs, safety and of course the designs that get changed every now and then so it quickly becomes outdated. Besides all these, making charges are also very high.

Gold Coins

One can buy gold coins from jewellery stores, banks, finance companies and even the e-commerce websites. Depending on personal requirements and the amount one wish to invest there are 5 & 10 grams of coins available or if you like to invest more you can buy gold bullion which can measure as high as 20 grams. 

Gold bars & coins typically are of 24 karat purity and come in temper proof packaging. They’ll be hallmarked according to the BIS standards. Recognized Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation (MMTC) outlets, specified post offices and bank branches provide these coins. MMTC even offers buy back option for gold coins through its showrooms nationwide. 

Saving Schemes of Gold

There are two types of gold saving schemes: one that allows you to deposit a fixed amount for the chosen tenure every month. On the completion of the tenure you can buy gold from the same jeweller for the value equal to the total money deposited including bonus amount. The conversion is done at the prevailing price of gold on maturity.  Another option is investing in paper gold EFT’s. These investments occur on stock exchange (BSE or NSE) with gold as fundamental asset. Even the high initial buying and selling charges that goes into possessing jewellery, coins or bars gives an extra edge on the low cost EFT. Price transparency is another advantage.

All you need is a demat account and trading account with a stock broker. You may buy either in lump sum or through SIP at regular intervals. There are no entry or exit charges; however there are three costs that come with EFTs. 1>>Expense ratio for managing the fund, 2>> broker cost- every time you buy or sell gold EFT units and 3>> technically not a charge but impact returns. It occurs due to the fund expenses & cash holdings therefore not reflecting actual gold price. 

Another way of possessing paper gold is Sovereign Gold Bond. 

Decide whether you want to invest in gold for the purpose of a wedding or purely of investment. For investments you should not have more than 10% of the total portfolio in gold. Depending on how comfortable you are managing investments online choose between gold SGBs and EFTs and keep concerns like security & purity aside.