Gold ETF
Gold is all the rage nowadays. The past decade, 2000-2009, Gold more than tripled while the stock market took significant losses. That would spark anyones interest obviously.
However what happened in the past ten years does not have any bearing on what will happen in the next ten and beyond. If you could travel back in time and invest in gold that would be great, unfortunately that is not possible. Instead of kicking yourself for not buying gold 10 years ago do your best to look for the best investments of the next 10 years.
A Gold ETF is basically a collection of dozens and dozens of individual companies that deal with gold. They could mine gold, buy gold, sell gold… It is much easier to buy into a Gold ETF than it is to get your hands on real gold.
If you are dead set on investing in Gold, I would recommend buying a Gold ETF. You will get virtually the same returns with all of the diversification of Gold with much less hassle. However it is important to remember that Gold actually decreased in value the twenty years prior to Gold’s big run, 1980-2000. If you want to do what is best for your portfolio invest a small portion into gold, not the whole boat.