Gold & Alternative Assets

Gold's main portfolio role isn't high growth — historically it has trailed equity returns over long periods — it's low correlation with equity markets. Gold has tended to hold up or rise during periods of high inflation, currency weakness, or geopolitical stress, exactly when equities often struggle, which makes a small allocation (commonly cited around 5-10%) a diversification tool rather than a growth engine.

Sovereign Gold Bonds and gold ETFs are generally more efficient ways to hold gold than physical jewelry or coins for investment purposes — no making charges, no storage risk, and SGBs additionally pay a small annual interest on top of gold's price movement, with capital gains tax exemption if held to maturity.

Real estate as an investment (separate from a home you live in) has high entry costs, poor liquidity, and returns that vary enormously by specific location — national average figures mean very little for a single property's outcome. It can build wealth, but it doesn't diversify a portfolio the way an uncorrelated asset does, since a large chunk of net worth becomes tied to a single illiquid asset in a single location.

The general framework: alternatives like gold earn a small, deliberate slice of a portfolio for diversification, not because they're expected to be the top performer. A portfolio built mostly around asset classes you don't fully understand, chasing a hot trend, is speculation dressed up as diversification.