As part of your offshore financial planning, you want to include investments as well as look into the idea of establishing trusts, savings, and even checking accounts. One question that may be on your mind is what sort of investments to include in your portfolio.
As with domestic investments, diversification is always a good thing with offshore investing. Consider the idea of including gold futures, gold coins, or possibly gold bullion that’s securely stored as one of those holdings. Here are some of the reasons why gold is worth adding to your portfolio.
The Allure of Gold Is Unlikely to Fade
If you try to think of a time when gold lacked any real popularity, don’t be surprised if you can’t come up with anything. That’s because people have long valued gold in just about every culture. It’s been that way throughout recorded history and isn’t likely to change any time soon.
Look around you, and there’s gold everywhere. Jewelry, artwork, medals, coins, awards, and religious artifacts are often made using this metal. Even as societies and their values change, gold seems to survive those shifts and remains one of the few things people continue to desire. In terms of returns on investments, that desire makes gold in any form a worthy asset.
Gold Performs Well During Periods of Inflation
One of the advantages of gold holdings is its history of performing better than many other assets during adverse economic periods. For example, gold is more likely to hold value during periods of recession. Even when it’s tended to fall somewhat, the amount of the decrease in value has shown to be less than the losses sustained by other investments.
Gold also has a history of bouncing back once a rough economic period subsides. That means if you can afford to hold onto the gold and ride out the shift until things get better, you’re likely to regain any ground that was lost. In fact, you’re likely to see an increase that exceeds the former high point of your investment. The same can’t always be said with other investment options.
Dwindling Gold Supplies Increase Demand
It’s no secret that finding more gold has become increasingly difficult. The result is that what is already in circulation is likely to become in greater demand. Choosing to buy gold now and hold it for several years is likely to result in impressive returns.
Think of it this way. As there’s less gold in circulation and the production yielded from new mines continues to decrease, those who want it will pay more to get it. If you already have gold stored away in a safe place, it’s possible to meet part of that demand and have quite a bit of cash to show for the effort.
Follow the Lead of the World’s Largest Global Banks
If you need some hint that the amount of available gold is decreasing, you only need to look as far as the world’s global banks. Quite a few of them purchase gold that can be held as an asset to increase institutional financial stability. In a sense, the gold serves as an insurance policy against economic shifts that would pose some threat to those banks.
Since investing in gold in some form seems to be good enough for the global banks, doesn’t it seem like an investment that merits some consideration on your part? Whether stored in countries where it’s secure and legal to own or whether you stick with gold futures, the investment does help lend a greater degree of financial stability to your situation.
The Value of Owning Tangible Assets
Tangible assets that can be physically passed on to a buyer should always be part of your investment planning. Like real estate, gold bullion is a tangible asset. It can be handed over to a buyer with ease. This is true even if the buyer chooses to take control of the storage facility where you keep the gold or arranges to have it physically moved to a new location.
There may someday be the need to sell assets, and the market for stocks, bonds, and similar instruments may not be all that great. When those types of investments aren’t attracting much love from potential buyers, tangible assets are likely to fare better. Depending on what sort of financial need you have, being positioned to sell bullion could mean the difference between living well and barely getting by.
Haven During Times of Political Insecurity
Many kinds of investment instruments lose value during periods of political unrest. Some may eventually recover while others remain worthless. If all your focus is on those kinds of investments, you can possibly be left with nothing.
Given the nature of gold and the demand that remains even when political insecurity is present, it makes sense to devote a part of your investment planning to own it. The balance that gold brings means that even if events you believe today will never happen eventually come to pass, there will be something left to help you rebuild.
Gold Assets Provide More Privacy
There’s a lot of talk about holding anonymous assets. The fact is that funds held in offshore checking, time deposit, and similar accounts do come with quite a bit of privacy.
While gold holdings may not be completely anonymous, they tend to come with a greater degree of privacy than many other financial holdings. When fewer people have access to data surrounding the ownership, it’s much easier to ensure that only those who need to know about the gold are privy to that information.
Getting Started with Gold
If you haven’t considered the idea of adding gold to your offshore investment portfolio, now is the time to speak with an expert. Find out what form of gold would work best with your plans for the future. Consider the projected return versus the initial investment.
Look closely at how investing a percentage of your resources in gold could protect you financially in the event of a crisis. You’re likely to find that gold is an asset that should be part of your planning.
This article is copyright © 2021.
Author bio:
Luigi Wewege is the Senior Vice President, and Head of Private Banking of Caye International Bank headquartered in Belize, Central America. Outside of the bank he serves as an Instructor at the FinTech School in California which provides online training courses on the latest technological and innovation developments within the financial services industry and as an Advisory Board Member of Fort Kobbe international depository and precious metals located in Panama City, Panama. Luigi is also the published author of: The Digital Banking Revolution which is available in audio, kindle and paperback formats throughout all major international online bookstores – now in its third edition.
