Where To Invest

A growing number of investors in Europe and the US are moving from the safety of currency and shares to a more solid investment, personally owned gold bullion. To buy gold though isn't the easiest of tasks and holding it can prove to be an even bigger challenge.

People usually buy gold in the form of coins like the Canadian Maple coins or the American gold Eagle coins, there are also mutual funds, gold mining shares and there are certificates where you can buy gold but here I am focusing on cutting out the intermediaries and owning it directly in the form of gold bars.

Research shows today that roughly 1,000+ people are searching for ways to buy gold through the internet. There are two big trends that have been found and the first which is common to all the trends is a lack of trust in major currencies, in particular the Euro and the Dollar respectively and so people are adamant to have physical gold stored securely within a vault.

Physical bullion trading cost have come down in recent times because for a long time the bars of bullion have always been to large for the average private investors and in the professional bullion market it is required that each bar has a history for right at the time it was manufactured into a bar and that they have always been stored within a vault. When a private investor takes a small bar out from the vault into a private storage place, it immediately loses its integrity and in turn devalues it by somewhere between 3-5% compared to the professional bars on the market.

Now with the aid of the internet, retail buyers and sellers can cut out the middle man and meet up directly cutting the costs down. Investors find this method very appealing as they feel in control because they know exactly how much gold they own. Gold coins are nice for collectors and some people still want to hold them in private storage but as I said, doing this reduces the value of the gold by a percentage and in the end, holding it in a vault permanently is a much more secure method.

Within the UK, a company called "bullion vault" use Brinks allied for safe keeping and with a company like Brinks holding your investment; you can be assured that your investment is safe. This method of buy online is very liquid and the gold you bought one day can be sold over the internet just as quickly. In this fast paced world, real spending power with real currency such as gold can prove useful for years to come.

When it comes down to it, gold is the ultimate security investment. As seen with its recent growth from early 2006 to 2008, it can't be over looked when it comes to building and investment portfolio. Investment and financial analysts agree that between 15 - 20% of investments should consist of the most hard of all assets, precious gold bullion.

Author: Gavin Conway
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