Throughout the years, it has not exactly been a secret that investors are looking for new ways to secure their financial futures. In fact, we can be a lot more general with that statement – a lot of folks out there are doing the same. This has been the case for a long time, obviously, but recent events have lit a fire under a lot of us.
With this being the case, it is hardly a surprise that folks have started to turn their attention to “alternative” types of investment. Obviously, gold is not truly that unusual. Rather, it’s gained a lot of popularity in the past few decades, as you can see in this study.
It can raise a lot of questions for those who are not overly familiar with investing. How does this process work? Is it really worth it? Those are just some of the questions that we will be examining today.
What Counts as “Gold” Investing?
Now, at first glance, this might seem kind of silly. Obviously, it is when an investor adds gold as an asset to their portfolio, right? That is not incorrect of course, but it can get slightly more complicated.
For one thing, there are a few different types of precious metals in which we can invest. The other three to be aware of are platinum, silver, and palladium, although gold is the most popular – probably why all of the metals tend to be lumped in with it (colloquially, at least).
Beyond just that, though, you can get involved in the market in a few ways. You can buy stocks for companies involved with mining for ores or manufacturing the metals, or you could simply buy bullion for yourself. From there, you can even decide to put it into an individual retirement arrangement (IRA) if you are keen.
Why Gold, though?
Next up, we will look at the question of why people are interested in gold in the first place. Some explanation of that can be found here, but rest assured that we’ll be going over it as well. The main reason is the fact that all precious metals are valuable in terms of their various applications.
A common example of this is the fact that platinum and palladium are prized for their uses in the car manufacturing industry, but it is far from the only instance of this. There are also plenty of ways to incorporate gold and silver into our electronics thanks to their unique properties. They are not reactive, but they are conductive.
Additionally, there is the fact that gold (and other precious metals) is often referred to as a “hedge” against inflation. It does not take a rocket scientist to look around at the world right now and realize that inflation is a pretty big problem. A lot of retirement funds have taken serious hits because the worth of the dollar (a.k.a. the spending power of it) has gone down immensely.
Gold allows us a way to store our wealth in something other than paper currency and has fewer risks than something like business stocks because it does not rely on the success of a company. With all of that in mind, you can click here to get an idea of how you could start investing in precious metals.
Is it Worth it to Invest in Gold?
Finally, let us take a look at the ultimate question at hand: is this type of investment genuinely worth it, or are there just a lot of companies good at marketing talking about it? Well, you may have already been able to gather this already, but generally speaking, we would say yes.
Why is that? Well, the first thing that we would like to point out here is that even throughout the centuries, gold has not really lost its value. People have always wanted it, and that is not going to change any time soon.
In fact, there are a lot of cultural practices and traditions across the world that use it, hence why the prices tend to raise in September, October, November, and December – those are often when couples in India and/or China get engaged, or when there are other various celebrations happening. This is without even taking into account the other uses for precious metals.
So, it is probably no surprise that there are a lot of justifications for these types of investments. They also allow you to add some variety to your portfolio, which is not exactly something to complain about, right? Talk about an added bonus.
Hopefully, this article has answered some of the most urgent questions that you had about this process. Do not forget to utilize the resources that we have provided if you still have questions and remember that there are a lot of financial experts and advisors willing to help you out if you do decide to invest.