Gold Investment in 2026: Physical Gold vs. Gold ETF - Which is Wiser?

• Traditional Indian families favor physical gold for emotional and cultural reasons, but it has investment limitations.
• Physical gold incurs hidden costs like making charges, purity concerns, storage, and theft risk, reducing actual returns.
• Gold ETFs offer electronic gold exposure, tracking domestic prices without making charges, purity issues, or storage hassles.
• Both physical gold and Gold ETFs track the same underlying price, but ETFs often yield better net returns due to fewer charges.
• Tax rules for both physical gold and Gold ETFs are now largely similar, making convenience and purpose key decision factors.

Why It Matters: For investment and portfolio balancing, Gold ETFs are a wiser choice over physical gold in 2026.