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Gold Coins Vs Gold Bars – Which Is the Best Investment on Diwali?

Gold Silver

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October 20, 2022

Gold Coins Vs Gold Bars – Which Is the Best Investment on Diwali?

Gold is one of the earliest traded commodities. Humans have been using this precious metal as a form of exchange for over a thousand years. In the ancient era, gold was common among royalty and wealthy families. It was both used as wealth storage and a status symbol.

A lot of investors have been venturing into the gold industry over the last few years. Unlike other forms of investments, such as stocks, gold tends to correlate negatively to market movements. Hence, it might maintain value during extreme economic downtime, such as inflation.

Before venturing into this industry, it’s important to understand several ways you can invest in gold. They include gold bullions (coins and bars), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mining companies, and more. While you might think that any form of gold investment gives the same profits, it’s important to understand that each form has its benefits and downsides.

If you decide to invest in gold bullion, you might wonder whether you should invest in gold coins or bars. If you’re a newbie in bullion investment, it can be challenging to choose between the two options. For this reason, it’s important to conduct extensive research to identify the ideal bullion investment. It’s also important to understand there’s no right or wrong way to invest in gold bullion. Your preference will depend on your financial goals, needs, the value of your investment, and more.

The following is a quick rundown of what you need to know about gold bars and coins. It contains information you might consider using to help you choose the ideal investment plan. Keep reading.

Gold Coin vs Gold Bar

What You Need To Know About Gold Coins

People have been using gold coins as a currency for many years. In the modern era, gold coins are used as a store of value besides being universally accepted as a form of money. As mentioned above, gold has a negative correlation to market movements. Hence, it’s able to maintain its inherent value, protecting your whole investment in the long run.

Over the years, you can purchase gold coins from several vendors. Thanks to technological advancement, you can easily purchase them from the comfort of your home. However, it’s important to conduct extensive research to understand the price of a gold penny nowadays and avoid paying more for the same commodity.

Gold coins are available in different denominations, ranging from 0.5 grams to 50 grams in weight. However, the availability of the denomination you wish to buy may depend on your government, sovereign mint, and more. Regardless of the coin denomination you get, it’s important to ensure the coin is hallmarked. Hallmarking certifies the level of purity of the gold coin, saving you from being swindled by dishonest vendors out there.

What Are The Benefits Of Investing In Gold Coins?

The following are the advantages of investing in gold coins:

Recognition

As mentioned above, gold coins are universally recognized as a currency. Hence, you can easily use them to make purchases if the fiat currencies collapse in your country. Also, due to the wide recognition of the gold coin, you can easily convert your investment into cash. However, it’s important to ensure you purchase your coins from reputable vendors to avoid losing your whole investment.

Ease Of Storage

When investing in physical gold, it’s crucial to factor in the storage charges and convenience. Gold coins are essentially small in size, making it easier to store them either at your home vault or a reputable storage provider in your locality. Lower storage and management charges will greatly improve your savings margins in the long run.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Investing In Gold Coins?

The following are the downsides of investing in gold coins:

No Regular Income

When investing, it’s your goal to earn income from your investment. However, this might not be true if you own a gold coin. If you store a gold coin in your home vault, it’ll not give any income or dividends regardless of how long it stays there. You’ll only benefit from your gold coin when its market value increases and you sell it.

Higher Premiums

This is another con of investing in gold coins. When you buy gold coins, the vendor might charge premiums; hence, the cost of gold bullion will be higher than the current market value. Premiums are meant to compensate for costs, such as minting, distribution, marketing, and other charges. Thus, if you invest heavily in gold coins, the higher premiums may affect the amount of gold you’ll obtain from your investment.

What You Need To Know About Gold Bars

Gold bars have become one of the most sought-after investment plans over the last few years. They’re one of the best ways to diversify a portfolio and protect your investment against economic uncertainties and inflation. Like silver bars, gold bars are available in different weights and sizes to meet the needs and expectations of investors. As gold bars require less processing than coins, you might pay lower premiums.

What Are The Benefits Of Investing In Gold Bars?

The following are the benefits of investing in gold bars:

Options For All Levels Of Investor

As mentioned above, gold bars are available in different weights and sizes. For this reason, you’ll still find the ideal gold bar to invest in, whether you’re a longtime investor or just getting started. These options give almost anyone at any income level opportunities to diversify their portfolio.

Inflation Hedge

As investors, it’s important to understand factors such as civil wars might affect the value of your investment. The value of paper investments tends to decrease during economic uncertainties and inflation. However, gold might help protect the value of your investment during inflation and other market downtimes.

What Are The Disadvantages Of Investing In Gold Bars?

Fraud Risk

The popularity of gold bars has expanded exponentially over the last few years. This has also led to increased cases of fraudulent vendors who want to take advantage of naive investors. To avoid falling victim to such, it’s crucial to conduct enough background checks to determine the vendor’s authenticity to avoid losing your hard-earned bucks.

Storing Your Gold Bars Can Be Difficult

You’ll need a safe vault to store your investment when owning gold bars. Also, gold bars might have higher storage and management charges than gold coins due to their sizes. Thus, it’s important to ensure you choose a reputable vault to store the gold bars, protecting them from theft and other related issues.

Bottom Line

As discussed above, people have been investing in gold for many years. If you decide to invest in gold bullion, you might find it challenging whether you should invest in gold bars or coins. Conduct extensive research to identify your financial goals, as well as the pros and cons of each option, so that you’ll eventually make the right and best choice.

LIC Dhan Varsha 866 Guaranteed Plan – Review

Life Insurance

Shitanshu Kapadia

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October 19, 2022

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LIC Dhan Varsha 866 Guaranteed Plan – Review

LIC Dhan Varsha 866 is a new plan by LIC. Dhan Varsha is a single premium guaranteed plan. It is a Non-linked, Non-participating, Saving cum life insurance plan. This plan offers insurance coverage as well as protection also. It is proposed to provide financial assistance for the family in case of the death of an insured person during the policy term.

This plan also provides a guaranteed lump sum amount on the date of maturity on the surviving life assured. You can buy this plan offline as well as from the online LIC website also.

In this post, we will review LIC Dhan Varsha 866 plan and evaluate the features and benefits of this plan.

Eligibility for LIC Dhan Varsha

The eligibility criteria for the LIC Dhan Varsha policy is given below.

LIC Dhan Varsha No.866 Benefits

This plan offers two types of benefits. Death benefit & Maturity benefit.

#1 Death Benefit – If the death of the policyholder happens to post the commencement of risk, then his nominee will receive Sum Assured on Death + Accrued guaranteed addition. Sum Assured on Death shall depend on the option chosen by the policyholder as under –

Option 1 – 1.25 times of Tabular Premium for the chosen Basic Sum Assured

Option 2 – 10 times of Tabular Premium for the chosen Basic Sum Assured.

You have to choose these two options at the time of buying the policy itself. Later on, this option can’t be altered.

If the death happened before the commencement of the risk, the Death Benefit payable shall be a refund of premium(s) paid (excluding taxes, extra premium, and rider premium(s), if any), without interest.

#2 Maturity Benefit – If the life assured survived till the maturity of the policy, then he will receive “Basic Sum Assured” along with accrued Guaranteed Additions.

The Guaranteed Additions shall accrue at the end of each policy year, throughout the policy term, and shall depend on the Option Chosen, Basic Sum Assured, and the Policy Term.

Option to take Maturity Benefit in installments for 5 years, After the settlement option is exercised, and the life assured desires to withdraw the option, and commute the outstanding installments, it can be done on written request. Not allowed to the nominee, in case of death of LA during installment payouts.

LIC Dhan Varsha Examples

Here are examples of policies with option 1.25 times premium + Accrued guaranteed addition and 10 times premium + Accrued guaranteed addition. These examples are for 30-year-old person who opts for 1.25 times premium and 10 times premium options.

LIC Dhan Varsha No.866 Review – Should You Invest?

From the above examples and features let’s try to evaluate LIC Dhan Varsha in detail.

#1 Do you want to get insurance and investment in a single product?

LIC Dhan Varsha is a saving cum insurance plan. This means it is a mixed product. As far as financial planning is concerned it is not advisable to club the goal of insurance – life cover (risk cover) with the investment product. I would not advise you to go for a saving cum insurance plan.

#2 What type of Returns can you expect from this policy?

From the above example where 30-year-old person opts for a 10 Lakh policy. In the case of 1.25 times, a premium option is taken IRR is 6%, and for the 10 times, the premium option IRR is 4.74%.

This means returns given by this policy is just a little bit above the saving bank account.

It is very very less and probably equals fixed deposit returns.

From the above two points, it is very clear that this policy is not a very good option to opt for. This policy offers you tax benefits but as far as returns this policy is not advisable to go for.

Card-based Tokenization – 6 Steps to Tokenise Card and Stay Safe with Fraud

Credit Cards

Shitanshu Kapadia

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October 12, 2022

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Card-based Tokenization – 6 Steps to Tokenise Card and Stay Safe with Fraud

Card-based tokenization is one of the best ways to stay safe from online fraud. It is seen that online fraud is growing and one solution suggested by RBI to overcome this is Card based on tokenization. This facility is also known as CoFT – Card on File Tokenization.

In this post, I will cover complete details about Card based tokenization and its benefits.

What is Card-Based Tokenization?

If you’re not sure of the network tokenization meaning, you might want to read this next bit as it explains the basics. Tokenization refers to the replacement of actual card details with an alternate code called the “token”, which shall be unique for a combination of cards, the token requestor (i.e. the entity that accepts a request from the customer for tokenization of a card, and passes it on to the card network to issue a corresponding token) and device (referred hereafter as “identified device”).

In short, tokenization refers to a security measure in payment processing. It involves substituting sensitive card information with dynamic tokens specific to each transaction, enhancing security and minimizing the risk of fraud. This means your actual card details would not be passed only the token would be passed to the requestor. Conversion of the token back to actual card details is known as de-tokenization.

Why Card Tokenization – What are the benefits of tokenization?

A tokenized card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing. This means it is a completely safe transaction.

#1 This type of online transaction are safe from fraud as intruder or hacker can not get actual card information.

#2 In this method, actual card data, tokens, and other relevant details are stored in a secure mode by authorized card networks. A token requestor cannot store Primary Account Number (PAN), i.e., card number, or any other card detail. Card networks are also mandated to get the token requestor certified for safety and security that conforms to international best practices / globally accepted standards.

#3 Card Details can not be saved by merchant online. Different token is required for different platforms.

Tokenization has been allowed through mobile phones and/or tablets for all use cases/channels (e.g., contactless card transactions, payments through QR codes, apps, etc.)

How can tokenization be carried?

Step 1 – The cardholder can get the card tokenized by initiating a request on the website/app provided by the token requestor and any similar facility provided by the merchant.

Step 2 – The token requestor/merchant will forward the request directly to the Bank that issued the applicable credit card or to Visa / Mastercard / American Express, with the consent of the card issuing Bank.

Step 3 – The party receiving the request from the Token requester, will issue a token corresponding to the combination of the card, the token requestor, and the merchant.

This is a free service and the customer need not pay any charges for availing this service.

6 Steps to Tokenise your Debit/Credit card

Here are 6 simple steps suggested by RBI to Tokenise your Debit or Credit card while doing a transaction.

#1 Start

Visit any e-commerce/merchant website or application to make a purchase and start a payment transaction.

#2 Choose Your Card

During checkout enter your debit card or credit card details. Alternatively, select your preferred bank’s debit card or credit card saved earlier as a payment method on the platform.

#3 Secure Your Card

Select option “Secure your card as per RBI guideline” or “Tokenize your card as per RBI Guideline”

#4 Give Consent to Create Token

Enter the OTP sent to your mobile phone number or email by your bank and complete the transaction.

#5 Generate Token

Your token is generated and saved in the platform instead of actual card details.

#6 Tokenised

When you visit the same website or application again, the last four digits of your card are displayed to help you identify your card for making the payment. Tokenized.

Over to You

Do you think CoFT – A card-based token facility introduced by RBI is safe and reliable? Do you use this facility for securing transactions?

If you are not using this facility, it is advisable to use this facility to secure your card details and transactions.

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11 High-Income Skills You Should Learn for 2025 and Beyond

Skills & Productivity

Shitanshu Kapadia

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October 10, 2022

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We are living in a skilled economy. The job-based economy is over.

Gone are the days when your degree was enough to get you a job. Today everything works based on skill. You can rule the world if you have skill.

There are fewer full-time jobs available than in the past. Not only that, as discussed in the previous article many jobs will be obsolete with advancements in technology.

Have you seen the kiosks that are replacing cashiers at McDonald’s? Have you ever spoken to an outsourced worker when you called a call center? Haven’t you heard the stories about companies going through “corporate downsizing”—you know, basically where they fire many people?

The world is changing. Regular full-time jobs are becoming less and less available. Companies are only keeping high-level executives and high-touch members as full-time staff—everything else can be automated, outsourced, or contracted. Not only that, but the full-time jobs that do remain are becoming too expensive for companies to keep.

With full-time jobs disappearing, contract work and freelance work are emerging, fueling the Skill Economy. People are being paid more and more based on their skills, not their credentials, experience, or job position.

However, not all skills are created equal—some reward you better than others.

Here are 11 High-Income Skills that will lead to massive success in 2025 and Beyond.

11 High-Income Skills You Should Learn for 2025 and Beyond

#1 Copywriting

It is salesmanship in print: crafting ads, sales letters, and sales pages in the most compelling way possible. Copywriting is arranging words to make a product sell better. If you’ve seen a billboard, a newspaper ad, a Facebook ad, or any Super Bowl commercial—that’s copywriting.

#2 Sales & Closing

Sales and Closing is one of my favorite high-income skills. Sale is extremely necessary to generate revenue. No Sales means no revenue. No revenue means no profit or no commission. If you can do sales, you can lead the business world.

#3 Creative Writers

Creative writing encompasses everything from ghostwriting, freelance writing, blogging, and much more. It is incredibly lucrative for creative minds and free thinkers.

#4 Consulting

A consultant is a creative problem solver who can look at a business from an objective view. They look at a problem and present a solution. In essence, consultants trade their expertise for money. A good consultant provides unbiased advice and expertise. If you have something you are good at doing, something your friends always come to you for help with or an area in which you know you excel, then you may have a start to consultancy business.

#5 Digital Marketing

Digital marketing includes mapping out funnels, managing Facebook pages and ads, growing Instagram accounts, building customer relationships, and more.

Digital marketing is a massive opportunity for young and ambitious people who are already familiar with social media. If you love social media, why not choose it as a High-Income Skill? With the boom of social media, companies can’t keep up with the trends.

If you can learn this high-income skill you can make a lot of money.

#6 Blogging & Content creation

Blogging is similar to creative writing, but if you have an independent blog, you can learn how to manage online marketing, run ads, drive traffic, and much more. It is an excellent High-Income Skill if you can create valuable content that helps other people. If you can combine excellent writing skills with marketing skills, you could be well on your way to making blogging your next High-Income Skill.

#7 Negotiation

Negotiation skills are essential for just about everything. Though you may not be paid thousands of dollars a month for this alone, it amplifies everything else you do. Whether it’s negotiating with clients, potential partners, or vendors, the negotiation could make or break the deal; this is one of the most critical High-Income Skills that makes all of your other High-Income Skills more effective.

#8 Public Speaking

More people fear public speaking than death. That means at a funeral, more people would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy. That’s why a very select few people have truly mastered this one. It’s not just being able to speak confidently in front of a crowd—it’s about communicating a story and a vision to the audience.

#9 Language Translation

With the rise of globalization, countries from around the world are starting to do business with one another. If you are fluent in multiple languages, then this would be a tremendous High-Income Skill to develop. Learning a language is not something most people can do in a short time. That’s why most will pay someone else to do it.

#10 Photography

I have a friend living in my society who is a high-end photographer who gets paid handsomely for his work. However, he is not just the “photo guy.” He works with his client to make sure he understands their needs and offers suggestions for shots that will capture the experience forever. It’s this type of care and empathy that allows them to charge high-end prices.

#11 Software/ Coding

Technology is becoming more and more pervasive in our world. Soon (and even now), AI and VR will play a massive part in our society. Programmers are needed in all industries—from marketing to health to finance, and even to create things like ai character chat bots. If you’re extremely analytical and programming suits your goals—go for this software coding. Enhance your software development expertise and learn to code intelligent chatbots that elevate user engagement and streamline business processes to make you a sought-after developer in the AI industry.

All of these examples have the potential to become High-Income Skills, but there are three High-Income Skills that I love: – Sales & Closing, copywriting, and digital marketing. They’re the ultimate High-Income Skills because they help other businesses generate revenue or acquire new customers.

These High-Income Skills are recession-proof, have the highest earning potential, and companies will always need these High-Income Skills regardless of how the economy is doing. When the economy is doing well, companies want more customers. When the economy is doing poorly, companies need more customers. Either way, people with these High-Income Skills are always in demand.