Gold has always been an attractive investment for Indians world over. It has been a part of our society since centuries. The idea behind buying gold remained unchanged while the buying trends changed drastically. Yellow gold changed many colours such as the rose gold and white gold which are more subtle in their looks, the number of gold caratage which was ideally 22K was pushed down to 18K, 14K and sometimes 10K also, there is also a rise of gold accessories where gold was used for making a variety of daily usables such as watches, hairpins, cufflinks and even a golden teeth to name.
Why people invest in gold?
People invest in gold for a number of reasons such as
- For the sheer reason that they can convert it into cash on a rainy day
- For years gold has been appreciating at an exponential rate, people wish to take advantage of this price rise. Hence they stay invested in gold.
- There is always a utilization factor linked to gold sooner or later by way of weddings, family occasions, festivals etc. People anticipate the need and hence buy gold.
- With the rising currency risk in national and international markets, gold has always been a priced commodity which can be relied on.
- Gold when compared to any other asset such as building, vehicles or land is the most easiest to exchange for liquid cash. This makes it one of the prime reasons for investment in gold.
Best way to invest in gold
Many of the readers would wonder when we have zeroed down on investing in gold, what is that got to do with the best way to buy gold. Indeed, here is the knot you guys need to work on. There are various ways to buy gold:
- Buy gold Jewellery by simply visiting a retail Jewellery store
- Buy gold bonds released by government on time to time basis
- Buy gold ETF (Exchange traded funds) which are traded on the index, they have gold as an underlying commodity. They are sold by various fund houses and one can contact their trading account mangers and buy them.
- By Gold bars i.e. 24K gold bars coming in denominations as low as 1gm to 100gms from retailers, banks or straight from MMTC.
Why buy Gold Bars?
Off all the available avenues to buy gold, buying gold bars is the preferred one. This is because of the easy resale that it gives, flexibility of liquidating whenever required and the ease of storing also is another point making it a preferred one.
There are few service providers from where gold bars in denominations as low as 1gm can be purchased with an option to store them physically with them and call for a delivery when required only. These service providers offer two types of buying:
- Buying gold as per denomination ie 1gm, 2gm etc.
- Buying gold in terms of rupee value i.e. if the gold rate is 30,000/10gms, a customer has an option to buy gold for 3500 rupees i.e. 1.16gms (fractional buying of gold). The same is recorded in the customers e-gold account and can be redeemed in cash or through physical delivery as and when it reaches a certain limit or as specified by the service provider.
Gold bullion price is updated twice in a day by the retail Jewellery stores. A standard Chennai bullion price is followed across all the Jewellery retailers in the South India. The flexibility what a gold bar brings is numerous. 24K Gold bars are available in:
- Different denominations
- Different Shapes
- Different certifications
- Different price (depending upon the embossing)
Retail Jewellers like Vaibhav Jewellers offer gold coins starting from 1gm to 100gms, the gold coin price is largely equivalent to the persisting gold price on that day with a nominal charge as a part of packing and assaying costs. They offer gold coins that are hallmarked and are 100% pure. A customer can also choose gold coins with different embossing such as Lakshmi, Ganesh and various other idol imprints.
Apt for both investment and gifting, these gold coins bring along a lot of sentimental value too.