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James Cook - December 17, 2021
How to Invest in Precious Metals: A Guide to Get You Started
Did you know that more than 12% of all people in the United States alone own gold as an investment or for other reasons? Even more people own silver for similar reasons. However, if you've never tried buying precious metals before, you may be asking yourself how to invest in precious metals in the first place.
Luckily, it doesn't have to be as foreign and difficult as it sounds. In fact, anyone can try their hand at buying precious metals as an investment, even with a small pool of funds. Investing in gold, silver, or other precious metals can also come with benefits such as diversifying your investment portfolio.
So, where should you start when it comes to buying precious metals? What should you consider? Let's start off by taking a closer look at what you should consider before you spend a single cent on precious metals.
What to Consider Before Investing in Precious Metals
There's nothing worse than jumping right into precious metal investments without doing your research. This is because, without doing your research, you could easily make mistakes that you would regret and you could even end up losing out on your investment if you're not careful. After all, research is more than getting a few tidbits of advice from your friends or skimming a few precious metal blogs.
When it comes to investing in precious metals, you'll want to track the prices of whatever metal interests you. You'll also want to see what other precious metal investors are doing, preferably investors who are experienced and have been buying and selling precious metals for several years. After studying how professionals deal with various metals, you can follow their advice.
You might even consider finding a few precious metal investing forums where you can ask questions. The more you inform yourself before you make your investment, the better off you will be. Of course, you should never believe that any investment will be a guaranteed success.
Any experienced investor will tell you that there is always a chance that you could lose out on your investment, even if it is one of the safest possible investments on the market such as gold. Even though gold has a great reputation as being a stable commodity, there's always a chance that you could lose money on it if the economy shifts or if you make bad investment choices.
Luckily, however, enough research will prevent most investing mistakes. You also won't need to worry too much about losing your money if you stick to safer precious metals like silver and gold.
here's more to investing than research alone, however.
1 oz American Gold Eagle (Type 1) Coin in the foreground of sheets of PAMP Suisse Gold Bars. Photo Credit: Investor Crate Facility circa 2017.
How to Invest in Precious Metals
There is not just one way to invest in precious metals. You can invest in these metals either in physical form or in digital or paper forms. There are some benefits and drawbacks to each of these forms and choosing the right one will depend on what you're looking for from your investment.
Investing in physical gold, for example, is one of the most popular and safest ways to invest in precious metals. Physical gold can come in many forms such as bullion bars and coins, although some people may opt to invest in gold jewelry as well. Although, bars and coins are usually preferred to jewelry because you can more easily see how much they weigh and calculate the value per ounce of metal compared to jewelry.
You can obtain bars and coins from a bullion dealer either online or in person. When buying bars and coins, it is of the utmost importance that you choose a reputable bullion dealer. It is especially easy to be scammed online these days, so if you decide to buy bullion online, be sure to check the dealer's reputation as well as the reviews.
Bad reviews will, of course, tell you something is seriously wrong with the bullion dealer and that you should not waste your time or money buying from them. On the other hand, if a bullion dealer has consistently good reviews, you should have no problem buying from them.
One of the big benefits of investing in physical precious metals is that you have direct ownership over them. If you're investing in gold, physical gold can also act as a hedge against inflation. Non-physical precious metals may not have these benefits.
Investing in Digital Precious Metals
The main downside in investing in physical precious metals is that they can be hard to store safely and hard to manage. Digital precious metals, on the other hand, are very liquid and you don't need to worry about finding a nice place to put them. Digital precious metals usually come in the form of ETFs or mutual funds.
In some cases, investing in precious metals via ETFs does not always mean you're investing in precious metal bullion. Instead, you may be investing in precious metal certificates like gold certificates, for example. These certificates are more susceptible to price volatility than the precious metals themselves, depending on the state of the economy.
However, as mentioned before, digital precious metals are very liquid which can be a huge benefit for some investors. This is because you can sell your ETFs or funds more easily and get your money back faster compared to selling physical precious metals. It is also easier to buy precious metals in their digital form in the first place.
What You Need to Know About Precious Metal Investing
By the end of this article, you should no longer be wondering how to invest in precious metals. Instead, you know all about what you need to consider before you buy precious metals and what you need to know once you start investing. With this knowledge, you're on your way to becoming a skilled investor.
To learn more, contact us here.
1 oz Silver Maple Leaf Coins during quality control inspections and packaging. Photo Credit: Investor Crate Facility, unknown date.
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Great info. Thank you
Great guide for a newbie like me in this kind of things!
Very interesting.
Good and helpful beginners guide. Wish I had had something like this when I started. I did have my local coin shop owner, so that was a huge help.
Some good ideas/advice.