Gold is considered to be one of the best investments today. Indians mostly prefer traditional forms of investment and prefer investing in gold jewelry, coins or gold bars. But with the changing culture and advancing technologies there are many more gold investment options available in the market today. An open minded approach towards gold investment will go a long way in bringing investors lucrative returns in the long run.

India and gold can be considered as synonyms to each other. Every Indian household be it middle class, upper middle class or rich has at least one article of gold which they love flaunting at that paparazzi party or save for a rainy day.

Have you ever wondered what could be the negatives of investing in gold in its physical form?

Cost: At first you are already putting in huge amounts of money for buying gold and if the ever increasing gold rates weren’t enough, you have to pay additional locker cost as you need to keep your gold safely.

Resale Value: Once you have bought gold jewelry, after some time you may feel like exchanging it for a new design. The resale value as compared to the gold price today would not be the same and you would be at a loss as the jeweler would be deducting some charges and would only buy it at the current day’s gold rate.

Purity: You can never be sure about gold’s purity in spite of all the claims being made by the companies today. As the gold prices keep increasing, jewelers often try making more and more profits by any means.

There are a lot of risks to be in possession of gold in its physical form – locker rent, and fear of theft being some of the associated risks. What then are the best ways to invest in gold in India? Let’s find out:

1. Gold Shares or ETFs

These are representation of physical gold in paper form. You just need to open one Demat account with any of the banks and you can start buying gold through it online. One gram of physical gold is equivalent to one gold share. You need not be worried about any additional charges here as compared to physical gold, for example making charges, etc.

2. Government Gold Schemes

With the ever increasing demand of gold and more and more people being inclined towards e – gold investment, Indian Government launched 3 gold schemes in 2015. The main idea for this initiative was to reduce import of gold and rather have the Indian economy benefited. The three schemes launched are:

• • Indian gold coin scheme
  • Gold monetization scheme
  • Gold sovereign bonds

3. Gold Mining Shares

This is one of the most interesting and equally benefiting forms of gold investment. You just need to do a little smart research and you are done. In this type of investment you buy shares of the company which is involved in gold production. Indirectly you are part of that company involved in gold buying process. You just need to be a little watchful of the background of the company.

4. E-Gold

National Stock Exchange or NSE introduced the concept of E-Gold investment in the year 2010. You do not have any upper or lower limit for this investment and it all depends upon you. At any point of time you can sell e-gold and buy physical gold from it.

5. Gold Futures

This is one of those investments which we call as hit or miss. It is a contractual investment where you get into a contract with an initial installment and pay the remaining amount at the closure of the contract. Now the catch here is you will have to close the contract even if you are at a loss.
Though there are many investment options available in the market today but investing in gold remains one of the best. Gold will always be an asset and help you in the longer run so keep yourself invest in gold.
One should ideally be setting aside at least 2% to 8% of the income towards gold investment. You should not expect immediate returns on this. However it would be an added asset in the future. Although physical gold or gold jewelry remain to be the best options, there is no harm in exploring other gold investment options as well.

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