I’ve enquired from banks and goldsmiths about the price of gold coins. It’s not that cheap so though I am an interested investor, I hesitated. The resale value should be a lot higher if I were to sell it back into the market in the future but I can’t be sure if they would fetch the returns I expect. So I sit and wait and continue to ponder if I should actually buy the physical gold or search for other alternatives.
You can’t imagine my excitement when I came across an advertisement in the papers yesterday from Public Bank. The bank is now offering a Gold Investment Account which allows the investor to buy and sell gold without having to keep the physical gold. How it works is that you put in an order to buy the gold by grams at the prevailing selling rate of the bank. You will be given a passbook that captures your every order. When you want to sell it, you can do so at the prevailing buying rate and you get your cash back. Alternatively, you can also request to have the physical gold when you sell, but there are additional charges involved in insurance, etc.
But you have to bear in mind that this investment account does not pay interest during your holding period. You make your returns merely by trading gold with the bank. If the price of gold rises as it is expected to, then this is a good long term investment to get into. You just need to be careful that you take into account the spread of the buying and selling rates so that you do not sell out at a losing rate.
After talking to the bank about this investment account, I did more research about the prospects of gold and found some very useful websites here and here. I shall be monitoring this closely and making more enquiries to find out more fine prints of Public Bank’s Gold Investment Account before adding this investment into my portfolio.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
After doing some research,
I’ve found out that,
if you want to get a big return from investing in Gold,
you gotta invest in big amount.
If not, the return is little.
Hi,
Great to see another Malaysian blogging about personal finance.
I didn’t know there is a Public Bank Gold Account, sheesh. I have invested with Maybank’s Gold Savings Passbook Account. GSPA for short.
Minimum to start is to buy 5gm. It’s good time now to buy since the price has dropped from it’s peak of US$1,000. I have posted an article (#74) on my blog. I have also posted on the same subject a few times.
Somehow I just have this feeling that gold price is going to go up further.
Oh yeah before I forget. That’s another site where you read up tons of information on Gold. And not just gold but a lot of other precious metals. Go to www.Kitco.com for more information.
www.Unit-Trust-Investment.com
Hi Snow, you’re right. Small money can’t make big money overnight. But it’s good to start somewhere anyway, no matter how small. Better a little return than not at all
Carson, thanks for the tips. Very useful blogs you have. Linked you up for my future readings and reference!
hi Penny,
thanks for the link. i have linked to yours too for future read.