If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it: why physical gold is your only protection

There’s a simple truth most people miss about protecting their wealth: if you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.

When times are good, it’s easy to forget. You open your app, check your account, and see a reassuring number. It feels safe.

But it’s not. It’s a claim - a promise from a bank, a broker, or a government. And when the system comes under real stress, promises are the first thing to break.

If you’re trusting others to safeguard your wealth when pressure hits, you’re taking a bigger risk than you realise.

Real protection means stepping outside the system. It means holding something that doesn’t rely on anyone else doing what they said they would.

That’s why we’re talking about physical gold. Not an ETF, not a certificate, not a digital balance. Actual metal you can touch, store, and rely on.

Because when the next crisis hits, the people who’ve secured something real will quietly sit it out. Everyone else will be standing in line, wondering what happened.

The signal is flashing red: gold is moving fast

You don’t need to guess whether the system is under strain. Gold is already telling the story.

In the first few months of 2025, gold has surged past $3,400 an ounce - gaining over $700 this year alone.

Moves like that don’t happen because of optimism. They happen when confidence breaks down.

The US dollar has fallen more than 8% this year. Growth forecasts have been slashed. Inflation is lingering stubbornly above target, while policymakers lurch between options that all come with heavy trade-offs.

In this environment, smart capital doesn’t sit still. It moves towards hard assets - things that don’t rely on anyone’s promises.

Gold is first in line.

Gold doesn’t have counterparty risk. It isn’t a bet on political decisions or monetary experiments. It simply is what it is: a scarce, universally recognised store of value, with a track record that stretches back 5,000 years.

When people start voting with their money, they don’t move into paper promises. They move into tangible wealth.

And that's exactly what we’re seeing now.

The smartest players are piling in

It’s not just private investors turning to gold. The biggest and best-informed players in the world are doing it too.

Since 2022, central banks have been buying over 1,000 tonnes of gold each year.

In January alone, countries like Uzbekistan, China, and Kazakhstan added another 18 tonnes between them. Poland and India have joined the trend as well.

These are the institutions that issue currencies, manage reserves, and sit at the core of the global financial system. They’re choosing to move more of their assets into something they can hold directly.

Not into ETFs. Not into futures contracts. Into physical gold.

When you understand how fragile the system is, you don't waste time with proxies. You secure the real thing.

If the very institutions that built the system are hedging against it, that should tell you everything you need to know.

Most people are still making the wrong move

While the central banks buy real gold, most everyday investors are getting it wrong.

In the first quarter of 2025, over $21 billion flowed into gold ETFs.

On the surface, that looks like a rush into safety. But it isn’t. ETFs aren’t gold. They are promises of gold, backed by layers of institutions and custodians.

When things get messy, promises don’t always get honoured.

There’s counterparty risk: trusting someone else to actually have the gold when you want it. There’s liquidity risk: hoping you can sell when everyone else is trying to do the same.

And always the lingering question: is there really enough physical gold to back up all these paper promises? How would you even know if there wasn't?

What would happen if everyone wanted to get their hands on their gold at the same time?

If you're buying an ETF, you're still inside the system you're trying to protect yourself from.

Real protection means stepping outside entirely. Physical gold. No middlemen. No need for promises.

How to own gold the smart way

If you’ve decided to step outside the system, it’s not enough to just buy any gold. How you own it matters.

The simplest and most effective approach if you’re in the UK is to buy legal tender coins like British Sovereigns or Britannias.

Because they are official currency, any gains you make when selling them are exempt from capital gains tax. You could double your money and pay nothing to the taxman.

It’s one of the few legal advantages left to savers, and it’s there for the taking.

Then there’s the question of storage.

I don’t believe in putting all your gold in one place. Some should be kept at home, where you can get to it if you need it. The rest should be held securely in a professional vault.

This mix gives you the best of both worlds: access and security.

Act while you still have the choice

If things move fast - and history shows they often do - you won’t get a warning.

When Cyprus faced a banking crisis in 2013, the government froze bank accounts and imposed strict capital controls overnight. Ordinary people woke up to find they couldn’t move their own money. They had no time to prepare.

That’s how it always happens. Controls are introduced suddenly because if people were warned, they would move first.

If you wait until it feels urgent, you’ve probably waited too long.

The smart move is to prepare while it still feels early. While you still have choices.