Gold Bullion Benefits

Gold offers several unique benefits compared to other investments if bought in one of the recommended ways. When deciding how to buy gold, the first consideration is to decide which of these benefits are most important to you. This will determine which recommended gold buying option you should select. These unique benefits are protection against:

These benefits tend to become more important in times of uncertainty and are explained below:

Money Printing

Cash is devalued over time through money printing by the central banks. The supply of gold is naturally limited by how quickly it can be mined from the ground – generally the supply only increases by about 1 to 2% per annum. So in simple terms, if the supply of money is increasing faster than the supply of gold then the price of gold will rise protecting you. There are some ways you can buy gold that carry similar risks to that of money printing.

Custodian Bankruptcy

Bank deposits have the risk of loss from bank failure, because ownership of the money is transferred from the account holder to the bank. You are effectively lending the money to the bank.

Shares have the risk of loss if the brokerage firm goes bust . When you buy shares through a brokerage firm, you are generally not the outright legal owner of the shares, you are just the beneficial owner. This means that your name will not appear in the shareholder register of the company. The brokerage firm may be lending your shares to short sellers or using them as collateral for it own obligations. If the brokerage goes bust then you may not recover 100% of your shares.

It is possible to buy gold and hold it through a custodian, while retaining outright legal ownership of the gold. This means that if the custodian goes bust then you still own the gold.

Trading Platform Shut Down

Shares cannot be sold if the stock exchange closes for any reason. Bitcoin cannot be sold if the blockchain cannot be accessed via the internet.

It is possible to buy gold in a way that it does not have to be sold via a trading platform, such as an exchange or a blockchain.

Capital Gains Tax

Most assets suffer partial loss of appreciation through capital gains tax.

It is possible to buy gold in a way that it is legally not subject to capital gains tax.

These benefits can be achieved if gold is bought using one of the recommended gold buying options.