Should I sell gold to save to buy a house when the price drops sharply?

I bought 5 taels of gold bars at the end of last year, mainly to keep money for personal safety and plan to use part of it as capital to buy an apartment next year. Recently the price of gold has dropped, I wonder if this is just a short-term adjustment or a deeper downward trend.

If I sell now, I will still make a profit but significantly lower than when the price peaked. If I keep it, I’m worried that the price will continue to go down and affect my house buying plans. Ask an expert for advice, in this case should I take some profit, sell it all to save money, or continue to hold gold for a while longer?

Hong Gam

Consulting expert:

In the current context, investors should not only look at short-term increases and decreases in gold prices but need to make decisions based on a broader picture of the economic cycle and personal financial goals.

The recovery of the global economy is still not really clear and uniform, although many countries tend to loosen monetary policy or signal to support growth. This is a period of defensive mentality and uncertainty in the financial market is still quite large.

In my opinion, this may cause strong fluctuations in gold prices in the near future, instead of forming a stable upward or downward trend as many people expect.

From a personal financial planning perspective, I think many investors still view gold as an “absolute defensive asset”, while the nature of precious metals is actually more complex than that.

Gold prices fluctuate greatly and are difficult to predict. Historically, each increase or decrease cycle of this precious metal can fluctuate by tens of percent, so viewing gold as an “absolutely safe” tool can cause many investors to misjudge the actual level of risk.

On June 3, each tael of SJC gold bars was listed at around 154 – 157 million VND per tael, down about 34 million VND compared to the peak of 191 million set in early March.

However, I also think that gold still has a certain role in the asset portfolio, especially in terms of protection against systemic and geopolitical risks. Gold’s strength is its global liquidity and ability to quickly convert when major shocks occur such as financial crises, geopolitical tensions or the risk of losing confidence in currencies.

If you are planning to buy an apartment in the next year, investors should prioritize protecting their financial plans instead of trying to maximize additional profits from gold. Accordingly, the appropriate plan may be to take partial profits, gradually transfer assets to deposits or channels with higher stability to ensure cash flow to buy apartments. At the same time, investors can still retain a portion of gold as a defensive asset layer for the overall portfolio.