Forget about Bitcoin. Invest in gold to stay financially secure

HelloGold's hybrid virtual marketplace lets consumers buy and sell gold, reports Tech in Asia

If you had invested in gold a decade ago, the value of your investment would now have increased by a substantial 82 percent.

If you had chosen to put that cash in the bank instead, then you would have actually lost money. People in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia suffer from negative real returnsdue to spiking inflation and taxes. Folks in Malaysia and Japan fare slightly better – their banks will give them an annual return of approximately 0.5 percent.

Malaysian entrepreneur Robin Lee started HelloGold  to help households prepare for retirement and make it easier to secure loans.

The fintech startup democratizes access to gold purchases. People can buy nuggets from as little as $0.22 (1 Malaysian ringgit) through the app. That’s significantly cheaper than banks or gold merchants that demand people buy in increments of an entire gram, or more.

Gold is now at $39.81 per gram.

Robin says the idea for the app came to him during his previous stint as the CFO at the World Gold Council, a consortium of some of the world’s leading gold mining firms. 

HelloGold functions as a hybrid virtual marketplace where consumers can buy and sell gold. It’s also possible to have the physical gold shipped to your address – but the minimum is at least one gram. In this scenario, certain costs will apply – to cover delivery, insurance, and associated premiums.

It’s possible for consumers to use their existing gold reserves as collateral for loans solicited from HelloGold partners. In that case, Robin’s team will receive a commission from the partner financial institution as well.

All the gold deposits are stored in a vault in Singapore, where they’re insured for loss and theft.

This is an excerpt from an article published on TechInAsia. You can read the full story here