For centuries, gold has a yearning for a unique blend of rarity, beauty, and its almost timeless. Countries use gold as a store of wealth and means of international exchange; people want to own gold as insurance against the unexpected things in lieu of cash.
Perhaps more importantly, within the last few years, gold is finally seen as an asset class that should be owned by investors as part of their portfolio. Investment can be either gold bullion (blobs), gold leaf, shares in gold companies, gold investment funds (mutual assistance fund), letters of gold futures and gold options.
Monetary authorities such as the Central Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) has long used its wealth of gold as a reserve. Community to be confident in the knowledge that the Central Bank gold saving - a timeless asset and goods tend not affected by inflation as cash. Some states provide explicit recognition for gold strengthens the domestic currency. In addition, the agency evaluators debt levels will feel comfortable because of the gold as a reserve state.
Gold is sometimes referred to as non-revenue earning assets. This is not true. There is a market for gold lending and gold can also be traded for profit. There is the possibility of "opportunity cost" of saving the gold, but in areas with low interest rates, is lower than expected. Another advantage of gold is being able to cover the cost. The opportunity cost of storing gold can be considered comparable to the insurance premiums.
As a private individual, no one is going to put 100% of their assets in gold investments. Any assets in the portfolio, is unusual if you put all your eggs in one basket. Indeed, gold prices may fluctuate - as well as exchange rate and interest rate nilaitukar currency deposited in the reserve. Diversification strategy of its common stock will provide less volatile returns than a single asset. Most of the investment consultant will suggest a range between 10 to 35%.
European Central Bank (ECB), for example, to save between 15-20% (depending on market value) back up his fortune in gold.
The question is not why, but rather how and how much.
