You can buy and invest in gold in so many ways, both physical and paper options are available

Gold Price Today: Buying gold in India means a lot. However, most people buy gold in India in the form of jewellery. People traditionally buy gold as a way to save for their important financial goals. But if you wish, gold can be purchased in many ways. Every medium of purchasing gold definitely gives you returns. At present there are two ways to buy gold – paper and physical. Within both these methods, there are different ways to buy the yellow metal i.e. gold. Let us understand such methods here.

Purchasing physical gold

Gold jewelery

You can buy gold in the form of jewelery or jewellery. But keeping it also comes with concerns like security, high cost and outdated design. There are also making charges in jewelery which increase the price of gold jewellery. Making charges vary depending on the type of gold jewelery you are buying. If the design on gold jewelery is complex, you will have to pay more making charges.

Gold Coins

You can also buy gold coins. You can buy it from jewellers, banks, non-banking financial companies and also through online portals. Gold coins and bars are of 24 carat purity and 999 purity. All coins and bars are hallmarked as per BIS standards. Gold coins ranging from 0.5 grams to 50 grams in weight are available in the market.

Gold savings schemes

Today many jewelers have started gold savings schemes. Gold or jewelery savings plans allow you to deposit a fixed amount every month for a chosen period. When the period is over, you can buy gold (from the same jeweler) at a price equal to the total deposited amount including the bonus amount. In most cases, the jeweler adds a month's installment as a cash incentive at the end of the tenure or may even give a gift item.

Purchase of gold on document

Gold Exchange-Traded Fund (Gold ETF)

An alternative way to hold paper gold in a more cost-effective way is through a gold exchange-traded fund (gold ETF). Such investments (buying and selling) take place on the stock exchange (NSE or BSE), with the underlying asset being gold. Transparency in pricing of gold ETFs is another advantage. The price at which it is bought is probably closest to the actual price of gold and hence the benchmark is the price of physical gold.

To invest in gold ETFs, you need to have a trading account and a demat account with a stockbroker. One can either buy a lump sum amount or can also buy at regular intervals through a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP). You can also buy 1 gram gold.

Sovereign Gold Bond (SGB)

Sovereign gold bonds are issued by the government. The government intermittently opens a window for new sales of sovereign gold bonds to investors. It happens about twice a year and the subscription period is open for about a week. For investors who want to buy sovereign gold bonds anytime in between, the only way out is to buy earlier issues (at market price) that are listed in the secondary market.

Digital gold

In today's time, if you want, you can also buy digital gold. This can be done using many payment apps. Payment apps like Paytm, PhonePe and GooglePay have tied up with MMTC – PAMP (a joint venture between public sector MMTC and Switzerland's PAMP SA) or SafeGold to sell gold.