Should young professional buy digital gold to safeguard investments?

Gold. Representative image.

As the newer, digitally native generation of working professionals enters the economy, their investing and personal finance needs are also changing. They are moving away from the traditional investment assets and are spending more time researching the long term gains of their investment.

Ashraf Rizvi, Founder & CEO, Digital Swiss Gold and Gilded, says Gold has historically been an excellent investment for Indians, returning over 10 per cent per annum over the last 20 years and also the past 50 years. But buying physical gold comes with additional charges such as storage costs, security concerns among others, whereas digital gold makes the entire process of buying, storing and selling gold easy and efficient using a mobile app. They can liquidate the gold they’re holding anytime at the current market price of the precious metal.

Benefits of investing in digital gold

According to Rizvi, jewellery is far more expensive due to making charges and other fees than digital gold which does not bear those costs. It is also far easier to sell digital gold and receive your funds when you need them.

“While selling gold jewellery, the final amount you’ll receive will be much below the price you bought it for. The value of your holdings will exclude the making charges and wastage charges before arriving at the current price of your gold. Holding gold physically comes with additional charges such as storage costs if you’re keeping it in a safe deposit locker with a bank. On the other hand, digital gold is hassle-free. It’s safely secured by the provider, you get the full value of the amount of gold you’ve invested in when you resell and there’re no hidden charges to the whole process,” he told FE Online.

Strategy for gold investment in 2021

The pandemic and resulting job losses and salary cuts have changed the financial needs and people are looking at building a stronger, diversified and profitable portfolio for such unforeseen circumstances. A regular purchase weekly, monthly or quarterly is best to avoid the short term market fluctuations in gold, said Rizvi.

Market timing gold prices is very difficult. A regular plan to purchase is far better for investors than relying on price fluctuations to determine their investment strategy, he added.

What are the benefits of investing in Swiss gold?

The country has proven to be a safe and secure place to store precious metal time and again. It is also home to some of world’s largest and technologically sophisticated gold refineries. “By investing in Swiss gold through our app, you can get guaranteed Swiss authenticity and purity, held in the safest country in the world,” said Rizvi.

“We acquire all the gold bars directly from Swiss refineries and each bar carries a stamp of authenticity and unique serial number. These gold bars are accompanied by certificates of authenticity and all of this information including a picture of the gold bar a viewable right on the mobile app. Once the customer buys gold on our platform, we provide all these details to him,” he added.