Why Gold Jewellery Is Not an Investment: The 16% Loss Maths

A Rs 1,00,000 bill for 22K jewellery holds only about Rs 86,700 of actual gold. Making charges at roughly 12% take Rs 10,400 and GST at 3% takes Rs 2,900. Resale returns neither, and dealers deduct another 2 to 3% on top, so the piece fetches about Rs 84,000 a day later.

The video opened with a question. Last Dhanteras, 10 g of gold was at Rs 78,840, and gold is up about 80% over two years. So the person who bought Rs 1,00,000 of jewellery then must be sitting on a profit, right?

No. They are still in loss.

What the Rs 1,00,000 turns into the next day:

Mint's Dhanteras comparison of jewellery, coins, ETFs and bonds puts jewellery making charges anywhere from 5% to 25%. I used 12% as the standard in the video, and none of it comes back at any level.

Gold's rise does not rescue you here. The gold price climbed, but the piece starts about Rs 16,000 behind on day one, and the rise has to cover that gap before you break even.

Jewellery is bought for wearing, gifting, weddings and blessings, so its worth is not counted in rupees. It becomes a mistake only when the buyer labels it an investment. Ritual and investment are two separate categories, and one purchase cannot be asked to do both jobs.

I was careful about this in the video. Jewellery is not useless, I said, because 'jewellery is for wearing', and the trouble only starts when we call it an investment.

My rule was plain: for ritual, take jewellery or a coin, but for wealth an ETF or a gold fund does the job better. Ritual is one thing and investment is another, and the whole video stands on that single line.

I closed it both ways. Do not call jewellery an investment, and if you are investing, do not call it a ritual.

A gold ETF or gold fund has no making charges, no GST on the gold and no locker, and either can start small. That is why I called them the better route for wealth in the video. Sovereign Gold Bonds bought on exchanges lost their tax-free maturity after the 2026 budget, so older advice stopped working.

'The advice that was best two years ago does not work anymore.' I said that about SGBs and called it the surprise of the video.

Six ways to hold gold in 2026:

Older SGB issues paid 2.5% annual interest, but only original-issue holders kept the tax-free maturity. Kotak Mutual Fund's gold ETF vs physical gold comparison lays out the cost gap between holding paper and holding metal.

Digital gold is fine only for small amounts, starting from Rs 10, because 'SEBI itself has warned that it is outside its regulation' and there is no complaint route.

NSC electronic gold receipts launched in May 2026 and trade on thin volume, so I said not to jump in immediately.

The chart below shows gold futures on hourly candles with the 3,900 level from the video marked, a reminder of how fast the global price can move. For gold price setups, see how gold trading strategies work for Indian traders.

The counter checklist in the video covered the HUID and BIS hallmark, purity, today's rate, making charges, separate stone weight, 3% GST and written buyback terms. Three questions then separate a straight jeweller from a slippery one: the making charge in percent and per gram, buyback terms on paper, and stone weight listed separately.

I walked through the checks in this order:

• Hallmark check: BIS mark, purity and a six-character hallmark code on every piece. Verifying it on the BIS Care app takes about 10 seconds.
• Purity and rate: 22K equals 916, meaning 91.6% gold. Compare the board rate with today's IBA rate, and remember 22K is always priced lower than 24K.
• Making and stones: making is quoted in percent and per gram, and plain chains or coins carry less than designer pieces. Stone weight is shown separately and the gold rate is never charged on stones.
• Paper trail: GST shows at 3% and buyback terms are written on the bill, not spoken. Pay by UPI or card and keep the invoice. PAN is needed above Rs 2,00,000, and cash above that is not allowed.
• Hallmark fee: Rs 75 per piece. When someone says hallmarked jewellery costs more, my answer in the video was blunt: 'That excuse won't work, my friend.'

A seller who answers all three questions directly is the one I said can be trusted. The ones who go round and round can be left alone.

Photographing a jewellery bill and pasting it into an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini took about 30 seconds in the video. On the sample bill it flagged a stone charged at gold rate, about Rs 8,000 extra, and chain making at 14% instead of 12%, about Rs 2,700 extra.

The same scan caught no hallmark code on the earrings, no buyback terms and no PAN record above Rs 2,00,000. 'One photo, friend. Thirty seconds, and a question worth more than Rs 10,000.'

The prompt and sources are in the video description. For more on this kind of workflow, see using AI in trading strategies.

Global gold peaked near $5,600 in January 2026 and, as stated in the video, later fell below $3,900, roughly 30% off the peak. Indian prices fell less because the government raised basic customs duty from 5% to 10% in May 2026. That 5% gap shows up at the counter.

I refused to predict direction. 'Whether it goes up or down, I can't guarantee, and the person who says he can doesn't actually know.' Anyone who wants to trade the price itself can start with XAUUSD liquidity using daily highs and lows.

My rule was to skip predictions and buy small, regular amounts: 'Don't predict, keep one rule.'