Why Gold: Our Top 3 Tips

Gold has always been popular and it’s where many investors today put their money during tough economic times. In fact if you see the price of gold going up dramatically it could be a indication of tough times ahead.

Buying and selling gold is a favourite pastime of hobbyists and of course it’s also a business with thousands of product and service suppliers around the world making their way in the business world via their expertise in the dealings of the precious metal.

So if you’re keen to invest in gold, you’ll need to know the ins and outs and not get too carried away with the romance of it all. It’s easy to lose your hard earned funds through ignorance and bad investment strategies.

Investing in gold over the long term is considered a low risk strategy so it’s not going to get your rich quick. Here’s some tips before you dip your toe in the yellow stuff.

Investment Risk Profile

Seek to understand then to be understood as Dr Stephen Covey says from his ‘7 habits of highly successful people’.

Wherever you start out, seek to learn first and take action second. Your goal is to learn all you can about your investment risk profile which is essentially the trade off of risk versus profit. Once you know if you’re high risk, medium or low risk you can then take the appropriate steps to invest.

Many investors that prefer other asset classes like real estate also invest in gold and shares. Real Estate investing also has it’s low risk and high risk strategies so if you’re already a real estate investor you’ve got some transferrable skills and you’ll be aware of your underlying risk profile. You’ll also know that to do well in any investment or business it takes time – lots of it.

Avoid Naivety

The saying: an overnight success takes 10 years is spot on. There really is a sequence of events and even though we can learn from the mistakes of others, it actually takes time to learn of the mistakes of others! So hold back, don’t naively jump in and take unnecessary risks.

There’s another saying: if it sounds to good to be true it is.

Like any any industry and business, there are always scammers and rogue buyers to watch out for. You’ll want to know how to safely buy and sell gold. There will be some interesting stories online re. scammers and foul play and it’s heartbreaking to learn of other’s misfortunes but there’s a lesson in it for you. Knowing the types of scams, and cyberattacks is all part of lowering the risk to you and your investments.

Look Before You Cross The Road

It may be an odd title for this section but there’s a reason for it. Too often – fools rush in before they’re ready so research, read books, join discussion forums, sign up for newsletters, you need to do the lot. Plus you’ll need to get professional advice from your investment advisor, lawyer and accountant.

Remember you can never know too much about an industry especially when you’re investing it and learning never stops. There’s always new strategies and different conditions that can make or break economies and living in a global economy as we all do today means we can be forewarned by events before they actually hit us in the pocket and that’s way you’ve always got to stay on top of your game.