How to buy gold?

Gold! Gold! Gold! Wherever you look during what is now the worst financial meltdown since the 1930’s, you’re reading about investors choosing gold as the best safe haven for their money during what will continue to be one of the most tumultuous times for global financial markets.

That’s great news if you were already active in gold trading, but possibly like most of us you held your investments in stocks, shares and bank savings products. So how do you go about buying gold for the best possible price - and of course in a safe and secure manner - without having to resort to burying bullion in your backyard?! Well, we’re going to show you how.

This article is for anyone who recognises that gold is probably one of the only safe havens available in what seems to be the start of the greatest financial crisis in over 70 years. We’re going to remove any mystery surrounding gold investment, and demonstrate that buying gold in a secure and safe manner at the best prices is actually no more difficult than managing a bank account on-line.

Buying Physical Gold That Gets Delivered to Your Door

Firstly lets hit on the act of buying gold in the physical form so that it ends up being delivered to your home. Unless you’re extremely wealthy that will probably be in the form of gold coins rather than bullion bars. Now there’s no doubting that this method does work for some people, there are safe ways to store the gold and you do have that touchy feely advantage of having a tangible asset in your hand, but it may not be everyone’s ideal any more than emptying the bank account and storing all your cash under the mattress. It may be nice to cuddle up to our money, but nowadays most of us are past that and are happy to see our wealth on a PC monitor or on a printed statement knowing that it’s held somewhere secure and stable!

So, for the sake of buying gold safely and knowing exactly what you’re getting for your investment, we’re not going to explain how to scour the classified ads and pawn brokers windows for low cost gold coins. Rather we’re going to show you a real alternative to holding cash in your hand, i.e., a method of managing your gold purchases in just the same way you do you current bank account.

Not All Gold is Equal

There is one thing you should be aware of if you are planning on securing your assets through direct gold investment; not all gold is equal. In fact, if your gold has a dubious history and hasn’t always been under the watchful eye of professional bullion dealers, it may not be worth as much as you think.

When you hear about the “spot” price for gold per ounce, this is only the price for bullion that is stored in a recognised vault with an absolute guarantee of its history, weight and value. Actually until now that type of gold wasn’t available to private investors like you and me, but it is now and we’ll explain how you can buy it.

Exchange-Traded Gold Funds - ETFs

One alternative to buying physical gold is investing via Exchange-Traded Gold Funds or ETFs. These are funds that have been launched over the past 5 years and they are designed to let you track gold prices, though not by actually owning physical gold bullion but by trading a security on the stock market. The leading EFTs buy gold and hold it in trust with HSBC in London. To find out more about this type of investment ask your stock broker about Lyxor GBS in the UK and Europe, or StreetTracks GLD in the US.

There are some disadvantages with EFTs; they can only be traded during local stock market hours and you will be required to transfer you home currency to dollars before buying – thus exposing you to currency fluctuation risks. Another drawback is a form of daily shrinkage; the funds charge 0.4% a year to cover storage, insurance and administration and this fee is deducted from the physical gold backing each share. So while the amount of gold backing the share shrinks a little every day, the title on each share remains the same, typically 10 percent of an ounce.

For example, the shares in Australia’s Gold EFT now represent less than 9.876% after 4 years, and by 2010 they will only represent 9.75%. The sponsors of the leading gold EFT programs will most likely consolidate shares soon, re-pricing to account for this ongoing shrinkage.

Finally - How to Buy Gold Like a Professional Dealer

The Internet makes it possible for you to buy investment grade gold bullion outright exclusively in your name. God bless the Internet! The gold you purchase in this way will be stored in professional vaults located in London, Zurich and New York. You are free to choose the location you prefer. The company that has made this possible is called BullionVault – they come recommended by the Financial Times. BullionValult’s charge for gold storage is a very reasonable 0.12% per year - with insurance included - and the minimum charge is just $4.00 per month.

Buying gold at BullionVault.com couldn’t be simpler or more secure, the company’s website lets you set your own prices using a 24/7 online order board, and it gives you instant settlement with zero credit risk. One investor who chose to buy gold at BullionVault recently wrote to say that: -

“having ownership of physical gold in BullionVault’s London vault is better than having AAA-rated bonds. Yes, we could have saved a miserly 0.12% per year by buying unallocated gold with a bullion dealer, but we now call that ‘sub prime’ gold!”

To learn absolutely every single thing you need to know about buying gold easily and at competitive cost, click here to visit BullionVault and claim a complimentary gram of free gold that will be stored in Zurich, Switzerland now...please note, this ground-breaking service really does give you unique access to live gold market prices, cutting out the middleman and slashing the costs of investing in gold “dramatically” as the Financial Times recently noted.