The World Bank recently warned about the possibility of 1970s stagflation. Stagflation, a phenomenon that combines stagnant economic activity with high inflation, has been on the way for some time. Investors have responded over the last two years by investing in real assets, such as gold. This has sent the gold price soaring. There’s still ample room for new gold investors given that we are early in the stagflation innings.

1. Buy Physical Gold

Physical gold can be bought in the form of bullion, coins or jewelry from banks or dealers. This is the most direct way to own gold.

• Bullion are those beautiful gold bars you see in your mind when you think about gold. They typically weigh between one gram and more than 10 kilograms. Their purity and weight are stamped on.
• Coins: gold coins such as the famed Krugerrands, gold coins produced by the U.S. Mint or the Royal Mint, are another form of physical gold that investors typically invest in.
• Jewelry: jewelry is another common form of physical gold that investors buy under inflationary conditions. However, given the extra work that goes into making jewelry, it will be more expensive than buying bullion or coins.

When buying physical gold, it’s important to use a reliable dealer or to buy directly from the Mint. You also need to calculate the cost of storage and of insuring the gold.

2. Buy gold exchange-traded funds

A gold exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a common pool of funds invested in physical gold, or gold miners. An ETF trades on a stock exchange just like any other stock. Each shareholder of the ETF has a proportional claim on the underlying gold or shares owned by the ETF, and any proceedings from gold sales, sales of shares in gold miners, or dividends issued by the gold miners.

ETFs are either actively or passively managed. Active management implies taking discretionary decisions to achieve some mandate, whereas passive management implies merely tracking some index or the market.

The physical gold ETFs such as SPDR Gold Shares, iShares Gold Trust, and Aberdeen Standard Physical Gold Shares, provide exposure to physical gold, whereas if you want to invest in gold miners, ETFs such as Global X Gold Explorers ETF, VanEck Gold Miners, and Lyxor NYSE Arca Gold BUGS,  will allow you to do that.

3. Investing Directly in Gold Miners

You can get exposure to gold miners by investing directly in them. Broadly, you can extend this to gold explorers, miners, and refiners. However, gold miners do not necessarily rise with the price of gold. A gold miner’s specific economics can lead to a situation where its price is falling even when the gold price is rising. Investing in gold miners demands that you understand the gold miner you are investing in, and the broader industry trends, making sure you value the company with a margin of safety.

The benefit of investing in a gold miner is that you can benefit from share price appreciation, and any dividends issued by the company.

4. Invest in Gold IRAs

Gold IRA invest in physical gold and Gold IRAs function much like traditional IRAs. The best gold IRA companieswill allow you to build your investment in gold for the long-term, steadily building your exposure through your gold IRA account. Unlike investing directly in gold yourself, investing in gold IRAs means that the costs and logistics of storing and ensuring that gold are built into your investment.