What You Should Know Before Buying the First Ounce of Gold or Silver

What kind of gold and silver should I buy? Perhaps that is the most common question that beginner investors ask themselves.
However, the answer is not as direct as one might think.
What you buy depends very much on the purpose for which you buy.
Usually we answer this question with "Why are you interested to buy gold and silver in the first place?" If your goal is to speculate on price changes, then perhaps it is appropriate to trade "virtual gold".
However, if your aim is to obtain a long-term capital value, it would be best to keep the gold as physical gold coins or ingots.
For novice investors, but also for experienced ones, the most effective method of owning physical gold coins is through investment, so called bullion coins, made of gold or silver, having an internationally standardized size and weight that are used worldwide, so they are very liquid.
Purity of these coins is not below 22k for gold and 0.
999 for silver.
When should I buy? Shortest answer is: "When you need it.
" You cannot deal with investments in precious metals the same way as stocks or bonds investments.
The time does not really matter.
The real question is whether or not you should invest some of your wealth in gold and silver.
If you feel that you should, the best moment is now.
However, in this domain it's better to be an hour early, than an hour late since the price of precious metals can explode one moment or another.
What percentage of my wealth should I invest in precious metals? Like the previous question, you can't really be sure what amount to invest, but a rule of thumb says that the portfolio of precious metals should be between 10% and 30% of total assets.
Those who are deeply concerned about the state of political and economic situation will gravitate towards the top of the scale.
In recent times there are more and more investors who recommend the distribution of over 30% of the capital towards gold and silver, especially when the world's central banks began to practice the so-called "quantitative easing.
" Traditionally, wealthy families in Europe and Asia have maintained a high percentage of their total wealth in precious metals as a protective factor.
This attitude began to envelop the upper middle class over the years, as investors constantly added physical gold and silver to their portfolios as a method of saving.
This market has developed global gold investment, small investors being an increasingly bigger part of the total market, year after year.
Most buyers of precious metals do not act on this market because they want to speculate price variations (although there are some that do), but because they want to be protected against the devaluation of national currencies.