6 Steps to Start Your Precious Metals Portfolio
Are you considering adding gold, silver, copper, or another precious metal to your investment portfolio?
Before you take the next step to diversify precious metals, it’s essential to learn more about them and understand the steps to get there. Here’s an overview of how most of our customers venture into precious metal investing.
1. Gain Knowledge of the Metals
First, look at all the resources available to you, such as the current spot price of the precious metals you’re considering. Knowing your metals will help you choose high-quality bullion and not mark-offs that are located in the market. Bullion is a bulk amount of precious metal, measured by weight and generally cast as bars, coins, or ingots and sold by a precious metal dealer (like Provident Metals).
Bullion coins are minted from precious metal, typically gold and silver, and bought for investment or numismatic purposes. Their value is determined by the amount of gold or silver bullion substance contained within the coin, as well as historical significance and rarity.
Naturally, the price will fluctuate somewhat as the market price changes periodically.
2. Understand the Benefits
Second, it’s essential for you to learn the benefits of each precious metal. During your research, you will see that some metals are in higher demand than others. In fact, certain metals are prominently used for industrial purposes, while others are more for numismatic or investment purposes. Learning the many different modern uses of precious metals will help you make an educated decision on which metal to place in your portfolio.
One of the outstanding benefits of physical gold and silver bullion is the way these metals guard against market crashes and inflation. Not only is this important when investing, but it’s also a guaranteed way to earn financial growth and stability. The simplicity of purchasing gold or silver bullion gives an investor an easy way to strengthen their store of wealth.
Maybe physical gold and silver bullion isn’t the metal you’re looking to invest. If this is the case, you will be happy to know that there are also benefits with the other metals available in the global market. For instance, copper and platinum are excellent resources to have as a solid foundation for future wealth.
3. Do Some Strong Marketing Research
Third, it’s beneficial to learn what is selling in the global market before spending your hard-earned money on something that is not moving.
Gold is typically known as an indication of wealth and was frequently used as currency before the development of state currency and fiat (paper) money. At present, gold is vital to the electronics industry due to its chemical stability, corrosion resistance, and electrical conduction.
Silver is also significant to the electronics industry due to its high electrical and thermal conductivity of elements.
Platinum, on the other hand, is predominantly used for computers, medical equipment, and automotive parts.
During your marketing research, consider why you’re adding precious metals to your portfolio. In turn, this will help you to lean towards the metal that is best for your portfolio.
4. Compare Raw Value vs. Numismatic Value
Fourth, when adding metal to your portfolio, it’s important to decide between investing in raw materials or intrinsic value. Some investors that invest in certified coins insist that their value is guarded against the fluctuations of the global market. In fact, it provides resilience to a metal portfolio collection.
To help you decide between the two, make a complete assessment of raw metal and numismatic metal opportunities. The majority of precious metal investments are accessible through the national exchange.
For instance, the South African Krugerrand coin maintains its raw value just like gold bullion—meaning its troy ounces are equal to the amount of raw gold.
5. Investigate Before You Invest
As with any investment, it’s important to properly investigate your options by asking what the meltdown value of the currency is, as well as the appraisal price. Get a professional opinion on which metal is selling best in the global market and providing the best stability for a long-term investment.
Take the time you need to choose. Look at the overall value of the metal and see if it’s trading or selling at an accurate price. If you aren’t sure of its exact amount, get an appraisal to reassure its worth before purchasing.
6. Choose the Metal That’s Right for You
Lastly, once you have collected all of the above information, you will need to determine if you are looking for long-term appreciation, short-term trading, or barter and trade.
Let’s look at gold and silver, which are the most prominent metals in the global market. For a long-term goal with gold metal, most investors lean towards coins like Canadian Maple Leafs, American Gold Eagles, South African Gold Krugerrands, as well as gold bars. For a long-term goal with silver metal, many investors prefer coins like American Silver Eagles, Canadian Silver Maples, 90% silver “junk” coins, Austrian Silver Philharmonics, Chinese Silver Pandas, and silver bars.