What are your investment goals? Some of the most common savings and investment goals people have are retirement, education funds for children, saving to buy a home, starting a business, switching to a more satisfying but lower paying career, getting married, or even going on a vacation. These are all great reasons to save and invest, and they all come with different investment strategies, timelines, and risk tolerance.
None of them are mutually exclusive. In fact, you should probably be balancing a few of these investment goals at the same time. Whatever your other savings goals, retirement should always be on your mind, and that means long-term growth with a balanced portfolio. While goals such as buying a house or going on vacation may have much shorter timelines, retirement offers an opportunity to grow your savings to new heights through compound interest and balancing high-growth, high-risk investments with low-risk alternatives.
Invest in Low-Risk Assets like Gold:
One low-risk asset you should consider buying is gold. Many investors consider it superior to other low-risk assets like treasury deposits or money market deposit accounts. There are a few qualities that make gold a better investment:
- Inflation-proof; since 1971, the value of a dollar has gone from 1/40 of an ounce to 1/1300 of an ounce, while the gold-housing ratio (the relative value between gold and real estate) is about the same.
- Highly desirable when inflation is higher than interest rates.
- Performs well when stocks do poorly, helping you offset losses.
- Highly liquid and you can sell easily even when stocks are considered toxic.
Here’s how you can get started investing in gold today.
Buy Gold Online:
Buy gold online for a cost-efficient way to add it to your portfolio. The prices will be lower than a physical shop, and shops today are often in the business of selling more collectible coins. Get straight to the punch by buying coins and bars that were made for the modern investor – straightforward, predictable costs and no-nonsense products.
Bullion vs. Paper:
Gold bullion is your safest bet for investing. You have maximum control and minimum third-party risks. Paper or ETFs place your money and your trust in management and trading practices that aren’t easy to understand, such as lending and futures trading. Gold bullion is by far the more secure option.
Buy Gold Bars or Coins:
Now that you’ve limited your options to physical gold bullion, there is still a lot to choose from. Gold bars and coins are more cost-effective products. All forms will have premiums over spot prices. It costs mints labor and machining to create bars and coins, and companies face expenses such as shipping, storage, and insurance, which they recoup through premiums.
Gold bars have less production value than coins, so they are an excellent way to save and buy at something closer to spot prices.
Gold can help you meet your investment goals. Allocating a portion of your portfolio to gold means you have a highly liquid, inflation proof asset you can depend on whenever you need it, whatever the market looks like.
Read Also:
