Investing in Gold

I went to the bank to bank in the 'accidental' forced savings of $640 courtesy of good o'le Piggy Bank. Together with the $1k I promised myself if I hit the $15k investment target, they would go towards my Japan trip fund (can also be to other places, dont mind taiwan)

After I was done, I decided to get a number to enquire about investing in gold. I had asked Quetzal and she said that my bank offers physical gold, besides paper gold, gold funds and futures. These are the various forms of gold investment.

For Physical gold, they sell in kilobar; which means a solid 1kg gold bar which they issue gold certificates which are exchangeable anytime for that gold or cash equivalent. 1kg gold at today's price is about $85k. Ouch. Definitely cannot afford. Cos I wanted to use the gold limit available in my cpf.

To use that, I would have to go for Gold Savings A/c which the unit of gold is in grams. A minimum of 5 grams per transaction. The only thing about this is that one has to personally come down to any bank branch and do a trade, be it buy or sell. Also found out that there are 3 timings, 9.30am, 10.30am and 2.30pm where the gold prices change. So depending on what time you go in to trade, the prices are reflected accordingly to the current price at that 3 timing. There is an annual transaction fee of 0.25% of gold holdings. That I can live with.

I opened a CPF Gold Savings A/c and bought some gold. This would be those really long term investment. I dont anticipate building up so fast more cash under the cpf gold limit to do more transactions frequently. Also for gold, I rather it be long-term. Using cpf is my way of forcing myself to do such long term investing cos I've realized that those stocks under cpf, I often hold them way longer than my cash stocks. This I can also try the dollar-cost-averaging-technique because the minimum is 5g gold per transaction. So anytime, I reach enough for 5g, I can consider walking in to buy. Or I can buy after a 3-6mths interval depending on how fast the gold limit builds up. Of course there is also cash but given the fact that it is quite illiquid, because have to go in personally to transact, would just stick to current arrangements until otherwise. Nevermind that current gold prices are rather high at $58.70 per gram but since its long term. See how it goes. Its a sort of diversification strategy for me. At least I wont be monitoring daily, maybe once a week or fortnightly.

Then came home and started updating all the Excel spreadsheet for 2011. Also noted important things in my I-Phone. Downloaded 2 new apps for live gold prices and cpf. Pretty happy with myself. Also bought the jack needed for the amplifier so that I can practice at night with earphones. Still thinking about the headphones. Got the battery replaced for the guitar tuner too.

Going to continue reading some books about investment and Go then go gym then go for assignment. Gearing myself for the start of work soon. Getting into the routine of things and also practicising waking up at usual time. Its easier on weekdays cos I often remind myself the stock market opens at 9am.