Precious Metals | wealthymatters

Datta Phuge Dons His Bespoke Gold Shirt

January 2, 2013 7 Comments

Datta Phuge calls himself “the gold man” and to live up to this self-image, he ordered himself a shirt made of gold to ring in the new year. He is a chit fund businessman from Pimpri,near Pune . His wife – Seema Phuge is an NCP corporator,

As he took the delivery of his custom-made 3.25 kg 22 karat gold shirt last Thursday he had jewellery weighing 5 kg loaded around his neck and wrists as accessories.

His next, but by far more modest, aspiration in the making, is a gold covered mobile phone.

About 15 goldsmiths laboured over 15 days, working 18 hours a day, to make 14,000 gold flower rings, interwoven with one lakh spangles, which were assembled on a fabric base of imported white velvet. The shirt has six Swarovski buttons and a gold belt to complete the look.

“After extensive research on the design and the look of the piece, I decided to give it an armour-like appearance,” says Tejpal Ranka who designed this opulent apparel.

Phuge, clearly a lover of bling, owns about 10 gold chains (including three chains of 70 tolas or 700 grams each), six bracelets and 25 rings, collectively weighing 10 kilograms.

But his most prized possessions are custom-made personal effects, which include a pen and a wristwatch made by the same jeweller. Now, the shell of a phone from Nokia’s gold series is being further gilded. It is likely to cost him another Rs 2.5 lakh. The phone is expected to be ready in a month’s time. “The body would be retained and the cover would be made in gold. This will be challenging as the elasticity of plastic cannot be matched by gold; so the skill set of the designer is put to a complete test,” says Ranka. Read more of this post

Filed under Alternative Assets, Precious Metals, Tidbits Tagged with 10 kgs of Gold, chain snatching, chit fund, chit fund business, custom-made personal effects, Datta Phuge, gold hoarder, gold mobile phone, gold pen, gold shirt, gold wristwatch, hoarding gold, moneylender, NCP corporator Seema Phuge, postaday, Ranka Jewellers, Swarovski, Tejpal Ranka, The gold man of Pimpri, Tolas

Returns From Gold

January 1, 2013 Leave a comment

Gold prices do not always head north Link .Also inflation adjusted returns of gold if you adopt a buy and hold for decades strategy is likely to be underwhelming Link.But keeping aside inflation, what sort of returns can you expect from gold?Here are the graphs:

4 yrs Gold Price difference (absolute return)

Is Saving In Silver Better Than Saving In Gold ?

December 27, 2012 3 Comments

wealthymatters.com Silver is the poorer cousin of gold and shows more volatility.However it is also considered a precious metal.So how does it compare to gold as a savings/investment?Where would you be today if you had bought and held silver for the last three decades?Follow this link to your answer :Long Term Returns From Silver Vs SENSEX

So silver would have given you marginally better returns.However you would have had to stomach its greater volatility.And worrying for 30 years just doesn’t seem worthwhile.

Also like gold, silver returns adjusted for inflation are pretty underwhelming and gets beaten by equity returns by a big margin .And in times of negative real returns silver like gold shoots up in price.

Filed under Paper Assets, Precious Metals, Tool Kit Tagged with historic silver returns vs SENSEX returns, investing in silver, long term silver vs gold returns, negative real returns, postaday, saving in silver

How Well Would You Have Done if You Had All Your Savings In Gold?

December 27, 2012 3 Comments

wealthymatters.com Today financial planners and daily wage earners speak of ” investing” in gold.In fact,given the dream run of gold in the last decade,most people can’t see past gold.Never mind that between last Diwali and this one there was no substantial increase in the price of the metal and that there was a fall in price in between and then it struggled to rise for a while.

There is no denying that in the dark days after the stock crash of 2008 and the poor economy thereafter, gold provided good comfort for all of us who worried about our financial health.And the fact that gold price rose fantastically in uncertain times was the icing on the cake.

Also gold has helped us hedge against inflation.Here is the link to an older post.

Gold also does superbly well when the equity markets and debt markets are giving negative real returns.

So should you just have all your savings and investments in gold?Far from it!Aside from the wealth tax you might be forced to pay every year on an asset that will give no returns till it is sold, at which point it might attract capital gains tax,keeping your money in gold over the last three decades wouldn’t have given you stellar returns.Check out the chart here:Long Term Returns from Gold Vs SENSEX While gold keeps up with inflation,just buying and holding it for long is unlikely to make you rich any time soon.So be certain to enjoy the touch and feel and beauty of your gold.