As inflation rates surge across the globe, investors continue to seek shelter in risk-off assets such as precious metals like Gold.
Thus, there has been a significant increase in questions, specifically, “how to buy gold bars?” especially when it comes to acquiring the precious yellow metal in larger quantities.
There are many ways one can purchase Gold, each method with its pros and cons depending on the individual investor’s preferences.
First… Why Gold?
We saw an influx in demand for Gold over the past few years, with the more recent bull run starting in mid-2019, where it eventually broke an all-time high record price in March of 2022 when the price temporarily inched past $2,000 for the first time ever.
Although the price action for the precious metal has cooled down after reaching its all-time highs, some experts, such as Chris Weston, Pepperstone’s head of research, believe that 2023 could be a more active year for Gold, saying: “Gold is a 2023 story. I do see signs that the dollar will be an under-performer in 2023,” Chris stated. “Next year, we’ll see a weaker dollar that may set the stage for real rates to have a bit of a turn. That’s where we’d be looking at Gold quite favorably.”
And, of course, even before one has decided to purchase gold, and well before one asks themselves how to buy gold, the question of “why” arises.
There are many answers to the latter question, but recently inflation has been the most significant catalyst.
“Gold is a hedge against expected inflation rather than realized inflation,” Weston claimed. “Gold’s held up pretty well relative to real rates. People are looking at the wrong type of inflation. It’s more about inflation expectations and breakeven rates. If you look at five-year breakeven rates, they reached a high of around 3.76% in March and then came back to 2.43%.”
Where to buy gold bars
There are various methods available for those seeking to Buy Gold, such as XAU, which is paper gold or “derivatives,” your local brick-and-mortar precious metals dealer, your bank (not as typical in modern times), and what may perhaps be the most popular is purchasing gold online (or over the phone) through a more prominent, more established precious metals dealer.
While this could be an article by itself, the first method, buying paper gold or XAU, is simply out of the question since it is counterintuitive to one of the main benefits of owning gold, which is being able to hold an asset that carries actual intrinsic value.
In short, gold is an asset that, if you chose to own it physically, you could technically use to purchase goods with it across the world, unlike certain fiat currencies like The Dollar Bill.
Therefore, investing in XAU, or paper gold, at least for the sake of this article, is not a viable option.
It is also becoming less common to find banks that offer the sale of such precious metals mainly due to the price fluctuations, and while visiting your local brick-and-mortar precious metals dealer can be convenient, their prices and “premiums” (or markups) added to the overall purchase price, are not.
Connecting with established and trusted dealers online (or via phone) has proven to be one of the most advantageous outlets for investors looking to buy gold bars, especially in large volumes, due to their competitive pricing and ability to source the metal themselves in large volumes.
Storage
While the thought of setting a large yellow shiny bar of gold on your desk at home can be entertaining to ponder, it rarely turns out to be the go-to storage option for many. Of course, the majority who do choose to go this route, more often times than not, end up purchasing a safe to store it in; again, this has proven not to be the most convenient route. It’s common to find investors of the metal opting in to have the dealer store their gold bars for them in a company vault – the purchaser can request delivery of their asset at any time.
This eliminates many headaches for the investor, especially concerning the safety and quality of storage.
If you have any questions on how to purchase gold bars, the benefits, or the process itself, please reach out to VAULTALP, where we’re always happy to help others begin (or continue) their wealth preservation journey.