Gold

[FazerBoy]

Hi All,

Just dipping my toe into this forum for the first time

I’m not a wealthy or experienced investor, but as part of a diversified portfolio (pension, S&S ISAs etc) I’d like to start buying some gold, and I’d prefer to actually buy and hold physical gold rather than ‘shares’ in gold or other methods of investing in gold.

So I was thinking of buying sovereigns (or similar gold coins) on a regular basis and building up a modest investment in gold (say £5,000 a year or so).

Is this sensible - or a terrible idea, and if the former, how do I hold the coins? I don’t have a safe and I don’t think I really want to hold the coins at home. Do I just rent a safe deposit box from a reputable company? Are they safe? Obviously there is the occasional high-profile robbery of these places or insider thefts etc…or I am being over-cautious?

Grateful for any advice.

Cheers

Jack

[caziques]

I prefer gold to crypto, but that isn't saying much.

Collecting gold coins is one thing, but not as an investment.

[FazerBoy]

caziques said:

I prefer gold to crypto, but that isn't saying much.

Collecting gold coins is one thing, but not as an investment.

I was thinking of buying currently issued gold sovereigns or krugerrands etc - not ‘collectable’ coins as such.

Or should I be looking at gold bullion ingots then?

[SlimJim16v]

If you're going for gold, it has to be sovereigns or Britannias. They're tax and CGT free.

[deggles]

Sovereigns or Britannias are potentially better than other forms of physical gold as they're CGT exempt. The biggest problem with them as an investment is storage, and the buy/sell spread which can outweigh any short term growth.

If you don't want to hold the physical gold yourself, you may as well buy an ETF such as https://www.ii.co.uk/etfs/ishares-physical-gold-et...

Edited by deggles on Thursday 20th October 21:19

[Simpo Two]

deggles said:

If you don't want to hold the physical gold yourself, you may as well buy an ETF such as https://www.ii.co.uk/etfs/ishares-physical-gold-et...

Gets my vote, for simplicity if nothing else.

[paddy1970]

FazerBoy said:

I’m not a wealthy or experienced investor

Then go and speak to an ifa or otherwise you are going to loose money... now is definitely not the time for amateur dipping their toes in random investment ideas...

[xeny]

FazerBoy said:

part of a diversified portfolio (pension, S&S ISAs etc))

maybe a matter of phrasing on your part, but to my mind at least, diversification is what you hold in the tax wrapper, rather than the tax wrapper you're holding something in.

[FazerBoy]

xeny said:

FazerBoy said:

part of a diversified portfolio (pension, S&S ISAs etc))

maybe a matter of phrasing on your part, but to my mind at least, diversification is what you hold in the tax wrapper, rather than the tax wrapper you're holding something in.

Yes, you’re right - I probably phrased that badly.

What I meant was that I’m already paying the maximum allowable annual amounts into a direct contribution pension and into ISAs, and I fancied buying a fairly modest amount of physical gold as well.