Akshaya Tritiya and investing in gold!

The Akshaya Tritiya is supposed to be one of the most auspicious days to buy gold. According to Indian belief, this day is blessed by the goddess of wealth and investment on this day would grow throughout the year.  The jewelers and gold traders wait for this occasion to push up the sales.

In order to attract more buyers, the jewelers and banking institutions have come up with various schemes this year. One of the leading jewelers has come up with an offer of a free silver coin equal to half the weight of gold purchased i.e. if someone buys 100 grams gold, then he will get 50 grams of silver free. Another renowned jeweler is offering up to 50% discount on the making charge of jewelry. Similarly, banks are also offering attractive discounts on the gold coins if booked on or before Akshaya Tritiya.

There are many options available in the market, and it’s natural for the buyers to get confused. The buyers have a wide range of options to buy Gold on this Akshaya Tritiya. Before buying, it is necessary to understand whether one is purchasing for investment or as jewellery. Following are some of the most attractive gold investment options available in the Indian market:

a. Gold Jewelry
b. Gold Bar/coins
c. E-Gold investment
d. Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)

The details of all the four options are shown in the table below:

Finally

Now after analyzing all the data under the four options to invest in gold, it would be a better choice for a buyer to first analyse his/her need. If the buyer wants to invest for long term with less carrying cost and doesn’t want many tax obligations, then Gold ETF is the best choice. Even when the buyer wants to make jewelry in the future with the invested gold, it is best to invest in the electronic form of gold because later on when needed it can be easily liquidated, and proceedings can be used to make gold jewelry at the prevailing market price. If, however, the buyer immediately wants to use gold as jewelry, then obviously there is no point in buying gold in an electronic form. Usually during Akshaya Tritiya people try to invest in gold as a long term asset, so perhaps the best way to do this is to invest in the electronic form of gold.