The year is 560 BC. Aesop is putting reed to papyrus for the last of his 655 fables, and the new King Croesus of Lydia has ordered the minting of the first pure gold coins. These coins, uniquely stamped to guarantee their weight and purity, revolutionized the use of precious metals for trade. 

The year is now 2025. George R.R, Martin has not yet relented and allowed AI to give him a hand to finish the Game of Thrones series. We’re still mining things to trade as currency (now with GPUs as well as diggers), and gold fever still has the globe in its incorruptible grip.

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Is gold a good investment?

Are you looking to grow your money in the long term? Would you like to be earning dividends on your invested money? Is fast access to money important to you? Whether or not something is a ‘good’ investment depends entirely on your individual investment goals and time frame.

Historically, gold has been thought of as a store of wealth and a hedge against risk for investor portfolios. Demand for gold has increased an average of 10% a year over the past 20 years, recently putting it on par with the historic returns of the S&P 500. Is 2025 an anomaly, or is gold’s role as an asset shifting?

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Is it better to buy gold or invest in stocks?

Typically, investing in gold has been thought of as an asset class to add to your portfolio to hedge against inflation and geopolitical tensions. Hedging is basically a strategy to reduce your investment risk - making an investment to cushion the impact that market volatility can have on your overall portfolio. Investors often put their money into an investment that performs in the opposite conditions to the rest of their portfolio. 

To give an example of hedging: you have a shop selling sunhats, and you decide that 10% of your shelf space will now be dedicated to woolen beanies. It’s not your core business, and you know that in this climate you won’t sell a huge amount, but if it does get cold you still have the potential to make money. The risk is that you take up valuable shelf space with beanies, and can’t stock the variety of sunhats you’d like.

Like the hat analogy, some financial professionals recommend allocating anywhere between 5%-15% of your portfolio to gold. If you want to know how much gold you should invest in, we recommend getting personalised advice from a financial advisor.

Gold can work as a hedge because gold and stocks can often (but not always!) move in opposite directions during crises. When people panic about the economy, they sell stocks and buy gold, driving gold prices up. 

Companies on the largest exchanges globally, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, might appeal to investors looking for higher growth prospects. When the stock market is booming, gold’s popularity can decline, meaning you could be sacrificing potential gains.

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The downsides of investing in gold

All investments have potential downsides, and you need to be aware of what they are before you commit to investing in them.

Gold is a store of wealth and not a revenue generating asset. If you’re investing for income (looking at dividend-paying stocks for example) then gold will not be suitable as an investment.

Gold can be difficult to store. At the time of writing one 100g gold bar is worth around NZ$24,348.44. Storing your gold with a mint can cost you 1% of the value of your portfolio, per year. Storing gold at home will mean increasing your insurance coverage.

Although gold is considered a hedge (a way to de-risk your investment portfolio), it is definitely not immune to market volatility. Just like the stock market, gold prices can move up and down with political and economic events, and market sentiment aka how investors feel about it.

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What makes gold prices rise and fall?

Like many other investments, the price of gold is impacted by interest rates and inflation, political instability and conflicts, and supply and demand. Why could gold be popular right now? As mentioned above, gold is seen by many investors as a hedge against inflation. High inflation coupled with low interest rates, global conflicts, and political instability are all factors in greater numbers of investors turning towards gold as a hedge, driving up demand and prices. 

Gold’s diverse uses also mean that different sectors of the gold market rise and fall at different times - demand for gold teeth has steadily fallen in the past 15 years, while overall demand for gold has remained steady. So what else is gold used for?

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Driving demand: the industries using gold

Access to gold has moved from your ring finger to your fingertips. Gold is used in many industries, as well as being held as coins and bars as a store of value; it's used in jewellery fabrication, dentistry, Olympic medals, satellite components, and medical devices to name a few.

Alongside its lustrous colour that makes your uncle’s eye tooth sparkle, its high conductivity makes it a widely used component of electronics. There are only around 0.03 grams of gold in your smartphone, but when you consider that in 2024, global smartphone shipments reached just shy of 1.24 billion, that adds up fast! The uses of gold are not always immediately obvious, and could seem insignificant, but when you put it on a global scale this precious metal is in demand.

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Different ways to invest in gold

Today, we have many options when looking to invest in gold. You can buy physical gold bars, jewellery, Gold ETFs, and gold mining-related stocks, or a combination of all of the above.

Alongside the growth potential of your assets, there are a few other things to consider when choosing an investment. Investing in gold stocks and ETFs might make sense for people who want to view their assets in one place or don’t want the hassle of a physical asset. Gold jewellery can hold more than just a dollar value, such as a wedding ring or other family heirloom, and owning physical gold might float your boat if you like something tangible that you can store in a treasure chest.

Prospective gold-related stocks to invest in ⛏️

Many of the world’s mines are in mineral resource-rich countries such as Australia and Canada, and are headquartered and listed on those countries' exchanges. There are a number of mining companies available on Hatch, including eight of the top ten largest mining companies by market cap. 

Newmont Mining Corp (NEM)

Newmont is currently the largest mining company in the world with a market cap of around US $86 billion. It is the only gold producer listed in the S&P 500 and has been publicly traded for 100 years. It has 17 operations in 9 different countries, including more than half of the world’s Tier 1 gold mines.

Barrick Mining Corporation (B)

Barrick operates gold mines in Argentina, Canada, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania, and the US. Barrick formed Nevada Gold Mines in partnership with Newmont in 2019, creating the largest gold mining complex on earth - it produced over 3.3 million ounces of gold in 2022!

Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (HMY) - This is an ADR

Harmony has a market cap of US$10.48 billion and operates the deepest mine on Earth, the Mponeng mine near Johannesburg in South Africa. At around 4 kilometres deep, the temperature in the mine can reach up to 60°C. Someone has even run a half-marathon down there (disappointingly, he got a certificate, rather than a gold medal).

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Gold exchange-traded funds

Some investors opt to buy shares in a gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) rather than buying physical gold. When comparing exchange-traded funds to invest in, look at key metrics before deciding which investment is right for you;

• Expense ratio - anything under 0.25% is generally considered competitive
• Total assets under administration - tells you about how large it is which can indicate trust in the ETF, the stability of the ETF, and greater liquidity

There are different types of gold ETFs; often, they aim to reflect the price of gold bullion and invest directly in gold, but not always. Here are some of the top-traded gold ETFs available on Hatch.

Data from Yahoo Finance, November 2025

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The takeaway

• While 2025's surge in demand has shown gold can deliver competitive returns alongside stocks, it remains most powerful as a way to diversify your investments.
• Whether gold belongs in your investment portfolio ultimately comes down to your personal financial goals and risk tolerance.
• There’s no right answer to how much gold you should have in your portfolio, but some financial professionals recommend around 5-15%

From rings on your fingers to ETF shares tracked on your phone, the ancient allure of gold has never been more accessible. The question isn't whether gold is a good or bad investment; it's whether it fits the investment strategy you're building for your future.

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