Precious metals have been an ever-prudent choice for investment, gold and silver being foremost in this regard. They tend to come in different forms, ranging from bonds to solid bars. And as a practice, many families have been investing in these metals through jewellery, solid bars and coins.
Now, if you want to take the approach of an investor and put your money down on some precious metals, you’d want to assess which metal would be the best choice, and what form you should buy it in. Would it be in the form of IRA-approved gold bars? 24k gold biscuits? Or perhaps some fine silver jewellery?
The only question that remains to be decided is whether you should invest in gold and silver. There are pros and cons of buying both. Nonetheless, it can be said without a doubt, that these are potentially the best and safest investment for you. This is simply because their values do not fluctuate in value as other assets do.
So, what
After you’ve made the investment, increasing gold and silver prices will make you a profit. Therefore, to determine which precious metal investment is right for you, you’ll have to consider a few other factors. Gold and silver differ from each other in terms of price, storage, liquidity and mark up. We will be discussing these differences to help you to determine which precious metal investment is right for you.
Gold and silver spot prices
Looking at the spot prices patterns of gold and silver is a good way to determine the right precious metal investment for you. First of all, keep in mind that both gold and silver sport prices are measured as AUD$ per ounce. This means that the per ounce price in Australian dollars of gold and silver will determine their worth. To make a good comparison, consider a chart that depicts two to three year spot price patterns of gold and silver. Choosing the precious metal with a more stable and increasing price pattern would be a sensible thing to do.
Storage
When choosing a precious metal investment, most people don’t consider the storage of the metal. This is something you mustn’t do. In terms of storage, gold has the edge over silver. In a safe of the same size, you can fit more ounces of gold than the same of silver. In addition to having a higher per ounce worth than silver, gold is easier to store and ship.
Liquidity
In terms of liquidity, there isn’t much difference between gold and silver as both of them are extremely liquid assets. The liquidity of these precious metals is one the major reasons people see them as valuable investments. In fact, many people view these metals as actual currency and why not. After all, you can sell your precious to virtually any jewellery, coin or pawn shop. With gold and silver, you’ll never have to worry about being ‘stuck’ with metal or supply shortages.
Mark up
In order to determine which precious metal is right for you, the final factor that you need to consider is the retail mark up of both gold and silver. As the companies you buy the precious metals from make money on margins, obtaining gold or silver at their current spot price is as good as impossible. Business that buy/ sell gold, silver and other precious metals make money on premiums and they have every right to do so. It is your job to ensure that you pay as little premium as possible. You can do this by selecting the right product and quantity. Basically, if you’re going to spend anything less than $2000 then silver is going to have a lesser markup. On the other hand, spend anything over $2000 and the mark up of gold will be less than that of silver.
Deciding which one among gold and silver is a better investment can be a bit of a task. However, by considering the aforementioned factors, you can make the decision easy for yourself.