Reasons you should be sold on gold

Are the ups and downs of the stock market making your head spin and your pocketbook bleed? Perhaps it’s time you look at investing in something that has been valued for centuries: gold bullion.

Gold. There’s something almost magical about the word. Through the centuries, the desire to own your very own nugget has launched gold rushes across the globe. Nowadays, you don’t have to drive a covered wagon over the prairies or battle Spanish Conquistadors to get your very own chunk. Nope; owning your own ingot can be as simple as a click of the mouse using an online platform through Bunker Group Gold & Silver.

Why buy gold bars?

Well, for starters, gold bars are a lot easier to buy and sell than real estate. When you invest in a piece of property or a home, you have to find the right buyer when it’s time to sell – a buyer who wants to own in the same location and who has the same taste. And the transaction costs can run to 11 to 15 percent by the time you pay the realtor, closing costs and more.

Gold, on the other hand, can be sold to anybody the world over at a one percent transaction cost, making it much more liquid than real estate. This is particularly true now – you used to have to buy 12.4kg bars for a whopping US$500,000 a pop. Now, you can purchase 100 gram bars and 1kg bars, which has really opened up the gold market to smaller investors.

As for the issue of stability, all anybody has to do is look at the stock market over the past month to see how risky stock investing can be, and how these big market corrections can be hard for investors to ride. Gold generally is far more stable and holds its value better than stocks.

Gold Bars versus jewellery

So why not buy gold jewellery? Because it’s hard to make your money back with gold jewellery as it often has a mark-up of 20 percent, whereas the mark-up on gold bars is only one percent. So, for example, 2.5 grams of gold jewellery might cost you US$120, but the same amount of gold in a bar will cost you US$101. That means that the gold market must climb 20 percent just for you to break even when you buy a piece of gold jewellery, but only has to climb one percent to break even with a bar.

Buying Gold online

Bunker Group Gold & Silver is an online platform that allows investors to buy and sell physical bars at the best price through a process known as “bid-ask spread”. The company also deals in platinum and silver bars. Buying and selling is literally as simple as logging into your account and clicking a mouse. Each bar has its own serial number and you can see which bars are yours by logging into your online account.

Hold the gold!

There’s something pretty cool about holding an ingot of gold. If you invest in gold and want to visit your own bars, that can be arranged. They are stored in a super-secure facility near Changi Airport called Le Freeport, which is like something out of Get Smart. Door after door after security clearance after security clearance will get you into the visiting room where you can spend time with your precious bars.

For more information about investing with Bunker Group Gold & Silver, visit bunker-group.com.

For more helpful tips head to our living in Singapore section.

Animals up for adoption

Top barbers and hair salons sorted!

28 preschools and kindergartens reviewed

This article first appeared in the April 2019 edition of Expat Living. You can purchase a copy or subscribe so you never miss an issue!

Melinda Murphy

Melinda does Special Projects for Expat Living which includes pulling together big stories, videos — all sorts of cool stuff. It all builds on her background as a television correspondent, producer and author back in the US. Her life is kind of a special project, too, with two young kids, an old dog, a ridiculous number of volunteer activities — and a very understanding hubby.