Should You Own Gold? What It Does in a Portfolio, and How to Hold It From Singapore

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Last updated: 16 October 2026 · By Spencer Li, CFTe

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Owning some gold can make sense if you want a part of your portfolio that behaves differently from stocks and bonds, and you accept that it pays you nothing while you wait. It works best as a small slice, held for what it might do in a bad year, and not as a bet on the price.

The harder questions are how much and in what form. From Singapore you have 3 main routes: physical bars and coins, gold funds listed on an exchange, and gold bought with CPF money under its own limit. Each has different costs, and physical gold comes with a GST rule worth knowing before you buy.

What does gold actually do in a portfolio?

It gives you something that doesn’t depend on a company making a profit or a government paying its debts. That is the whole case. Stocks need earnings, and bonds need the borrower to pay. Gold needs neither, so it can hold up in years when one or both of them are in trouble.

I think of it as insurance you hope not to need. You pay a premium in the form of lost income, because gold pays no interest and no dividend. In return, you hold something that may move on its own path when the rest of the portfolio is under stress.

That “may” matters. Gold doesn’t always rise when stocks fall, and it can go through long stretches where it goes nowhere or falls. Anyone who tells you gold always protects you is selling something.

Is now a good time to buy gold?

A thread on HardwareZone’s Money Mind forum in July 2026 asked exactly this: “Is it a good time to buy physical gold now?” It is the most common gold question, and I’d gently suggest it is the wrong one.

If you are buying gold because you think the price will rise, you are trading, and you need an entry, an exit and a stop like any other trade. If you are buying it as a portfolio slice, timing matters much less. You pick a share, buy it, and rebalance it like everything else.

Personally, I find the second approach much easier to stick with. When I set the rules for my own long-term portfolio, gold went in as a fixed sleeve inside a barbell, with the job of holding up when stocks and bonds struggle together. Its size is set by the rules, and the price on the day I buy doesn’t change it.

How much gold should you own?

There is no rule that fits everyone. Below a few percent, it barely changes how the portfolio behaves. The bigger the slice, the more income you give up for an asset that might sit flat for years. In my own design the gold sleeve came out at about 15%, because it shares the crisis job with one other sleeve.

If you plan to buy with CPF money, the scheme sets its own cap. CPF Board says “you can only invest up to 35% and 10% of your investible savings in stocks and gold”. CPF and SRS in a DIY portfolio explains how investible savings are worked out.

The better question is what job you want gold to do. If it is there to soften the years when stocks and bonds fall together, size it so that it would make a noticeable difference in that kind of year, and no bigger.

What are the ways to hold gold from Singapore?

There are 3 main routes, and they suit different people.

Physical gold is the simplest to understand and the hardest to hold well. You need somewhere safe to keep it, and the gap between the dealer’s buying and selling prices can be wide on small pieces.

A gold fund listed on an exchange is the easiest to buy, sell and rebalance. You trade it like a share. Check what the fund holds and what it charges each year, because that fee is your cost of owning gold in this form. How to choose an index ETF covers the same checks for any listed fund.

Gold through CPF is worth considering only if the gold would beat the CPF interest rate you give up. Since gold pays no income, that is a high bar.

Do you pay GST on gold in Singapore?

Qualifying investment gold is exempt. The rule comes from IRAS’s guide on investment precious metals (IPM), last published on 30 January 2026: “The importation and local supply of IPM are exempt from GST”. That exemption “took effect from 1 Oct 2012”.

The catch is in the word “qualifying”. IRAS says “Only precious metals in the form of a bar, ingot, wafer and coin which meet certain criteria can qualify as IPM”. For gold, the criteria include being “gold of at least 99.5% purity” and “capable of being traded on the international bullion market”, which in practice means a refiner on the London Bullion Market Association’s Good Delivery list.

Anything outside that pays GST, now 9% since 1 January 2024. IRAS gives the examples: “jewelry, scrap precious metals, numismatic coins”. So a gold necklace is not an investment in the GST sense, and neither is a rare collector’s coin. Ask the dealer to confirm that a product qualifies as IPM before you buy.

So should you own gold?

If you want a part of your portfolio that doesn’t depend on earnings or interest, and you can hold it through years of nothing, a small slice can earn its place. If you need your portfolio to pay you an income, or you would lose patience with an asset that goes sideways for a long time, you may be better off without it.

Either way, decide the size before you look at the price. For more on building a portfolio that holds up in bad years, see the anti-fragile portfolio and how to build a portfolio for a market crash. The full build is in the DIY guide to building your investment portfolio.

If you trade as well as invest, the free 15-Minute Swing Trader’s Checklist is at the end of this post.

If you already own some gold, can you say in one sentence what job it is doing in your portfolio?

FAQ

Is gold a good investment for Singapore investors?

It can be a useful small slice for diversification. It pays no income, can stay flat for long periods, and works best held for its role in the portfolio rather than as a price bet.

Is there GST on gold in Singapore?

Investment precious metals are exempt from GST, according to IRAS. For gold, that means bars, ingots, wafers and certain coins of at least 99.5% purity from approved refiners. Jewellery and collector coins are not exempt.

Can I buy gold with my CPF?

Yes, under CPFIS, but CPF Board caps gold at 10% of your investible savings. Remember that the gold has to beat the CPF interest you give up.

How much of my portfolio should be in gold?

There is no single answer. Size it for the job you want it to do in a bad year, and decide before you look at the price.

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About the author. Spencer Li is the founder of Synapse Trading and a Certified Financial Technician (CFTe). His trade log is public: every trade since April 2024, dated, losses left in.

Educational content only, not personalised financial advice. Trading carries risk, including loss of capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Synapse Trading is not licensed or regulated by MAS.

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Educational content only, not personalised financial advice. Trading carries risk, including loss of capital. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Synapse Trading is not licensed or regulated by MAS.