Indians do it, the Chinese too. You might do it and I bet you know someone else who does. It's a cultural thing and it's socially acceptable. Yes, we've all bought gold at some stage in our lives either for ourselves or for loved ones. Even so, buying gold as a hedge against future trouble & strife seems fantastical, if not a little silly.
At face value a case can be made for an investment in gold but is it the safe-haven investment it's made out to be? For one thing there's not enough gold above or below ground to make it a meaningful asset class. It's insecure, expensive to transport and difficult to 'move' in any quantity when you 'need-the-money'. If you think volatility and risk levels are too high in equity, just wait and see what happens when gold loses it's speculative lustre. Selling a tangible product with intangible 'value' into a vacuum is, well, difficult.
Is gold worth buying? Yes it is. Long-term natural demand outstrips supply. Would I sell everything, forego re-balancing my current assets and buy into the fallacy that is gold? No I wouldn't and neither should you.
At face value a case can be made for an investment in gold but is it the safe-haven investment it's made out to be? For one thing there's not enough gold above or below ground to make it a meaningful asset class. It's insecure, expensive to transport and difficult to 'move' in any quantity when you 'need-the-money'. If you think volatility and risk levels are too high in equity, just wait and see what happens when gold loses it's speculative lustre. Selling a tangible product with intangible 'value' into a vacuum is, well, difficult.
Is gold worth buying? Yes it is. Long-term natural demand outstrips supply. Would I sell everything, forego re-balancing my current assets and buy into the fallacy that is gold? No I wouldn't and neither should you.
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