Is gold still a good investment this volatile market scenario?

Recently, there has been a lot of volatility in the markets. In such times, people are prone to panicking and worrying about their investments. Most people try to find the safest avenue for parking their money and start evaluating the merits and demerits of stocks, mutual funds, gold and real estate.

Instead of worrying about returns and safe avenues for investing one must focus on achieving ones’ financial goals. The best way to tide over market volatility is goal-based investing. The reason goal-based investing is so successful is primarily because when you set a particular goal you are emotionally invested in the process and tend to save diligently to meet the goal.

Additionally, because this process accounts for your risk appetite and time horizon, the investment recommendations you receive are best suited to help you meet your needs. Therefore, those who invest towards goals end up more successful in their investment endeavours. Thus, when you are investing to achieve your goals, the market fluctuations don’t affect you.

While planning your investments one must not only focus on financial goals but also be aware of the merits and demerits of different avenues of investing. While evaluating various avenues for investing in place of equity, during times of market volatility, people usually lean towards investing in gold. Gold has long been viewed as a safe form of investment. Until now, people in India have always invested heavily in gold and are the biggest consumers of gold.

Every Indian family has exposure to gold in the form of coins or jewellery. Most people have the following opinion with respect to gold, “Buying gold jewellery is a sign of my wealth and I can easily liquidate it in times of need. Gold prices are always increasing, so buying gold is an investment”. While this argument held true a few years back, is gold the go to investment in times of market volatility?

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