In recent months, as the Covid-19 crisis has continued to plague the world, gold prices have soared high on international markets, including Cambodia. however, before you decide to buy gold, these are some of the things you need to consider:

1. Know the purity of gold

The purity of gold is denoted in karats, with 24 karat gold being 99.9% pure and 22 karat gold being 92% pure. Every karat gold is equivalent to 4.2% pure gold, which in essence means that 14 and 18 karat contains only 58.33% and 75% pure gold respectively. 24 karat gold is not suited to make jewellery, which is why jewellers use either 14, 18 or 22 karat gold.

2. Hand-made Vs machine made ornaments

Nowadays, there are many gold stores that use machines to make gold ornaments Making charges on machine made ornaments are lower than charges on hand-made ornaments, making such mass produced ornaments cheaper. The cost of processing gold into jewelry by man or machine is slightly different, but we observe that man-made is better than machine.

3. Jewellery store

Cambodia has thousands of big and small jewellery stores, catering to its population. Purchasing gold jewellery from small stores could be a risk as they might pass of impure gold as pure gold or could sell stolen gold ornaments. It pays to go to a reputable jeweller to purchase gold as there is a guarantee about such purchases.

4. Is now the time to buy gold?

Last but not least, don't spend all your money buying gold, as income-generating bonds or investments might give you a steadier return compared to trading gold as stated by Warren Buffet, so learn to diversify!