Precious metal investment

[expatinsg]

Hi all,

Im new to this forum. Was wondering what type of precious metal investments are good to begin investment in. Anyone have any suggestions and ideas on what to do? I don't have much but it is about high 4 digit low 5 digit.

Scammers stay clear.

[hellcannon21]

gold easy to sell in worse come senerio. silver collection maining for it design.

can take a walk to bullionstar or any store to see see look look before u commit.

[Altima]

Based on your nick, it seems you will not be in Singapore permanently.

So you should look at how best to liquidate your investments if such a need arises. You can either look at purchasing allocated gold where yiu can buy and sell no matter where you are. Or if you are more traditional, you will have to look at buying physical coins/bars. Gold is easier to store in terms of weight /space but silver can bring about higher profits (and losses).

Lastly you can also considering buying coins with numismatic potential, where their value will not only be determined by spot prices but also demand from coin collectors.

[Phantom]

If you just want to benefit from price fluctuation and liquidate within a few years, best to go for paper as they have the lowest transaction cost and easier for your investment to break even.

Physical metal is for long term. For me long term means at least 10-20 years or even to be left behind to my heirs after I pass on. You need to take into account much more factors when planning for long term.

As Altima had pointed out, are you moving out of Singapore? If you do, do you plan to take the metals with you or to store them in Singapore? I am not sure how easy or difficult it is for PM to be moved across border as different counties have different tax & restrictions on different categories (bullion/jewellery/ numismatic). Best to plan out where you are moving to and what are the regulations before deciding on what form to buy.

Investment grade bullion had the lowest premium and spread but it has a lot of tax and restriction for some countries. My colleague from India told me that they have to pay high import taxes for "gold biscuits" (bullion), but for you can just walk through the customs if you have gold jewellery hang on your neck, not sure if this is 100% accurate. If you decide to for jewellery for whatever reasons, be prepare to pay high premium and GST .

If you plan to store in Singapore, then look for a reputable dealer with storage facilities and find out their cost structure. They may not offer the lowest premium fees but they must be trustworthy and be able to fulfill your requirement. Depending on where you are from, there are advantages and disadvantages for storing your metals offshore.

And this debate of low premium bullion vs high premium numismatic vs semi-numismatic coins that never ended - you can do your own research on the internet.

Bottom line, there is no one size fit all solution, it all depends on your need. Bear in mind your need may change overtime as well as the rules set by government, so your strategy needs to be adjusted as well.

[GoldScaraB]

There's Platinum & Palladium as precious metals.

[pika]

For your information, the list of investment precious metals that are GST exempted:
See page 4-5

http://www.iras.gov.sg/irasHome/uplo...2013-11-04.pdf

No palladium item is exempted from GST.

[thinkvesting]

Originally Posted by expatinsg

Hi all,

Im new to this forum. Was wondering what type of precious metal investments are good to begin investment in. Anyone have any suggestions and ideas on what to do? I don't have much but it is about high 4 digit low 5 digit.

Scammers stay clear.

Depends on what you plan to do with it. To hold value in case of emergency, maybe 100g gold bar for the lowest premiums (around 1.3%).

To possibly appreciate in terms of premiums, you may want to consider gold coins (can I suggest gold panda coins in 1/10 or 1 oz formats). The panda coins seem to have a fairly large following worldwide.

Hope this helps,
TVPM