There are so many investment options to choose from. Stocks, cryptos , real estate, small savings scheme etc. However one of the least rated option that I see is the investment in Gold as far as Indians are concerned. The reason I am confident because in all these years, I never comes across any person who shown interest in investing their hard earned money in Gold. Equities being their favourite followed by government saving scheme and then real estate. The taste of investor is to secure a fixed amount then opting out to different option giving highest returns. In all these run up Gold has been an under rated investment class. Now, the digital platform is opening up many avenues for Gold investment. Even the different payment apps comes up with the investing on Gold option. One of such option I comes across in my payment apps.
(screenshot from payment apps)
Evolution of Digital Gold
Gold has held a special place of actual and symbolic values for Indians across time and age. Gold is a timeless asset, it has been mined since ages. It has been a well known asset class known for its stability and ability to preserve value for decades. People are known to own it physical forms in the way of jewellery. But now the technologies enabling people to posses Gold in Digital Form too. Which is very convenient way of holding the assets.
Digital gold is a safe and convenient form of investment without any physical possession of storage.
When the investor invest in digital gold the service provider accumulates physical gold in the investor name and store them in lockers safely. I came across one such option in a local jewellery shops many years ago who were running a "Gullak" (piggy bank) scheme for their esteemed customers. It was very similar to digital form of nowadays. This yellow metal has historically been a reliable hedge against economic downturns and inflation. The main advantages of investing in digital gold is that it can be purchased in smaller denominations, even small investment amounts of Rs 100 ($1). The investor can opt as per thir affordability. The Micro investments in Digital Gold can be done through ETFs (exchange-traded funds), MFs (mutual funds) and SGBs (sovereign gold bonds).
Returns & Benefits
The price of physical Gold has been rising very sharply. Looking at 5 years trend the price rose to 93%
(screenshot from payment apps)
After a return of 15% during FY23, many millennial and young investor have shown a considerable amount of interest in these Yello asset class. There are many additional benefits of owning digital gold
The investment can be started with low values. There is no burden of putting heavy amount.
There are no unwanted worries about the security and safe storage of Digital Gold, unlike physical gold
There are no additional maintenance and storage cost involved of keeping these assets in banking lockers or vaults for safety.
These digital gold can be procured easily using online mode. No need to visit any stores.
Digital Gold always comes with an assured purity of 999.9+. Owning a pure 24K gold is better than owning impure allowed mix 22K gold from stores.
The benefits comes up with certain disadvantages. It is advisable for the investors to keep a track of them :
There are no governing bodies for buyjng and selling of these digital gold.
Government is levying a 3% GST on each purchase of the yellow asset in digital form.
There is a limitation of investing amount. Once the limit is over, either the investor encash them or take own risks holding the physical form.
A person can get hold of the digital gold through MMTC-PAMP store. It is a joint venture between India’s MMTC and Switzerland’s PAMP SA (the world’s leading bullion brand). The way it has been operated through UPI apps, in coming days, we could see a huge flow of money in these yellow assets.