I received some emails from readers of Finance Synergy asking how to buy gold coins in India. Few friends of mine were also asking this question. So thought of writing this article for everyone’s benefit.

Off course you can invest in gold through gold ETF but in this post, we are going to discuss about the direct way of investing in gold that is the gold in physical form. If you prefer buying gold in physical form over ETF, you will save the charges paid to mutual fund/ETF company for their fund management expenses. However, you will need to have proper safe storage/bank locker for the physical gold.

So for your question how to buy gold coins in India, the answer is: you can buy gold coins directly from reputed banks or from your trusted jeweller. Banks like State Bank of India also sell gold coins and you can directly buy from them. This will obviously reduce the chances of fraud. Buying from a local jewellery shop may be somewhat risky.

Few Points to Consider Before You Go to Buy Gold Coins in India

If you are going to buy gold coins from a bank, please be informed that not all branches of the bank sell gold coins. For example, if you want to purchase it from SBI, you first need to check: which is the nearest branch that sells gold coins.

Keep your PAN Card handy if you are planning to buy gold coins for Rs 50,000 or more. Bank will ask you to show the PAN card and probably you may need to submit a photocopy of the same. However, your jeweller won’t be bothered about you PAN card.

There are different sizes available for the gold coin. Usually they are 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 20 and 50 gram coins.

The price of gold coins sold by the bank will be higher than that sold by the jeweller, even if they are of same purity. Banks guarantee the purity and hence they charge a premium for that! However, at the time of re-selling it, you have to go to the jeweller only (Banks don’t buy back) and at that time, the jeweller will buy back as per his rates.

Summary: While comparing the prices, always compare same purity level. That is, don’t compare 24 carats gold from bank with 22 carats from the jeweller! Having said that, if you trust your jeweller then you can buy your gold coins from him otherwise you should not take chance and go to a reputed bank. At the same time, be ready to pay for the premium.

It has been almost an year now when I wrote a post on retirement planning and it explains why retirement planning is so important. Thought of giving some tips on the same topic at www.dominoz88.com by writing this new post.

Tips for Retirement Planning

• Try to possess the wealth as long as you can. That means you should not give away your wealth too soon. Write a “will” and enjoy the wealth till your are around!
• While it is important to have wealth, equally important is the type of asset where you have parked your money. You should not lock all or majority of your funds in such assets that don't allow cash flow.
• Stay away from stock market, they are too risky to play with your retirement funds.
• Starting any new business after retirement that requires significant amount of investment is also highly discouraged. You should play safe during the retirement phase.
• Some people go for buying a bigger house with their retirement funds, which is not a requirement in most cases. If you have more than one house, consider giving it on rent. In that way you will get regular passive income.

Have you ever tried to sit in peace and think about your budget and came to know that it is more difficult to manage than you thought? However, if you take simple small steps to manage your finance, you can generate better results for your future. The first step you should follow is to start with very strict budget. Do not waste money on extra grocery items and luxuries at the start of month or new week.

Secondly, divide your money into categories for spending. For example, make a category of bills, fees, loans, grocery, medicine and saving etc. it can be a possibility that in the start of the month or may be for entire month, you can save your medical expenditure or may be you get savings from the grocery items. In this way, still you can manage your finance of the month. Now these are some of the short terms goals out of your budget expenses and you can further utilize the save amount for the long goals that includes your bills, your bank loans, house rents or it can be any expense invisalign costing you hundreds of dollars from your income.

Do not waste your amounts that are left behind after you have paid your all categories. This amount can go into your savings and you will not be out of finance at the end of the month. Now what about the payments for luxuries that you can afford from your pay? Luxuries depend upon your taste and style of living. If you are a gadget person, you will spend more on mobiles, ipods, mps etc and if you love clothes you might be spending on expensive brands.

So it depends on your way of living but the pay you get is suitable for these expenses? In my point of view, it depends upon how you can deal with your finance managing. If you set your every month target to buy your favorite stuff and put a limit on purchasing a single or two items per month, you may be able to save some money and if you want to buy any expensive item like mobile phone, you must not hurry to buy it. Instead try to mix your two pays together to buy such a heavy item so that you will leave with some money to spend on any emergency needs. If you try to manage your finance and budget every month, you can reduce the risk of getting out of money on any day of month and planning is very important especially when we are dealing with money.

Try not to use your saving at any invisalign cost but if you really have to manage such a big expense and you are out of money, ask your bank to help you because if you try to touch your savings, you can develop a bad habit of spending it again and again but if you have no other option than its obvious you have to spend from your savings and as soon as you get your money, just refill your saving box.

Most of young earning people don’t care to plan for their retirement as their thinking is to "live in present". However, in order to secure your future, you need to act in your present!

When we think of retirement, we usually think of old age. But that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do anything towards retirement planning in our young age. Retirement planning is very important because once you get retired, the income flow will stop but the expenses will be remain as it is (it may even increase due to inflation!!!)

Simply put, retirement planning means ensuring sufficient funds to support yourself as well as your dependents and their expenditure after retiring from work. The retretirement life should be best period of your life so that you can relax and sit back.

If you want to remain financially independent and have a comfortable post-retirement life, a proper retirement plan is very important. You are required to choose right instrument for investment and correct amount to invest at regular basis.

In https://www.togelz88.com opinion, mutual fund is the best investment instrument for retirement planning and investment. A Mutual fund being managed by professionals (fund manager and his team) turns out as one of the most effective thing for retirement planning. The special feature of mutual funds called Systematic investment plan helps you build large corpus over a period of time by investing small amount of money on a regular basis. Once you give your money time to grow, you will see the power of compounding. Hence it is very important to start retirement planning as early as possible.

It happens sometime that people receive a phone call or email asking for personal information. They could claim that they represent a bank, credit card company, insurance company, mobile operator or even Census Bureau.

In case you receive such kind of enquiries, be cautious or you could be a victim of a scam. Their aim could be identity theft or a financial fraud.  In any case, it is always better to ask for more information before giving out information.

For example, if you receive a letter or email requesting personal information, it should show the source contact information including phone number and location. Similarly, if someone comes to meet you at your place or office, he should be able to produce their identification like company provided ID card or business card or a badge.

If you receive such phone calls, ask the caller their name, office location and office phone number before you identify yourself.

Finally, while it is important to be cautious while giving out your information, don't be scared that everyone is fake and fraud. There are genuine and legitimate marketers as well who want to make their sales through phone calls or emails.