There's gold in them there hills!

Investing in Gold

The economy is in turmoil and your stock market investments are losing their value. Many of the world’s governments are printing money during this financial crisis to help shore up their economies. Investing in gold is a way to potentially profit from this madness.

There are many ways to profit from gold investing. You can physically own the gold coins. You can own gold mining stocks. You can own shares in the gold mines if you have the capital. But the single easiest way to get into gold investing is to own what is called an exchange traded fund. A gold ETF trades on the stock exchanges just like any other stock. You can buy shares of the ETF which then invests the money in standard gold bullion.

ETFs leave the buying, selling and storage of the physical gold in other people’s hand so you do not have to deal with it. Gold investing in an ETF is about the easiest way to invest in this precious metal.

There are no guarantees that a gold ETF will go up in price. The price action of gold, up or down, is dictated by supply and demand. Many people believe that just because they own gold that they will instantly be rich. This is not necessarily the case as the price of gold can go down quite low. Gold has the potential to go up in price as well.

Gold’s performance in 2008, when the stock markets were in decline, was a sturdy 5% increase. This was considered disappointing by gold “bulls” as they figured the price of gold to increase in value much more given the state of the world’s economy. Many analysts believe that the price of gold could very well go over $2,000 an ounce over the next few years.

Gold has always been considered a safe haven for investing particularly when inflation comes back and in the event the world economies remain weak. Investing in gold is wise for portfolio diversification. If the stock market for beginners poses too many challenges then a simple investment in a gold ETF might  be a good place to deploy your cash until the market turmoil subsides.

ETF’s vs. Physical Gold Investments