Gold vs equity vs SGB
The family says gold is safer; you think equity compounds harder. Here's an honest, three-way comparison — including the making charges that quietly drain physical gold and the 2.5% coupon that makes SGBs better than jewellery. We don't rig the result: change the return rates and whichever option the numbers favour wins.
Educational tool — not investment advice. Figures are estimates based on your inputs, not predictions. Details
Final corpus on the same ₹ invested:
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Buy gold jewellery and you lose 8–25% immediately to making charges and GST — money that never compounds. You also earn nothing while you hold it; the only return is the price rising. Sovereign Gold Bonds track the same gold price but charge no making fee and pay a 2.5% annual coupon on top. For pure gold exposure, SGBs almost always beat jewellery — the comparison above shows by how much.
Equity has historically compounded faster than gold over long periods, but not always, and not without volatility. This tool does not hard-code equity as the winner. If you believe gold will return more than equity, set the rates that way and gold or SGB will win — as it should. Equity also carries higher short-term volatility than gold, which this projection, being a smoothed long-term estimate, doesn't show. Neither figure is a guarantee.
Equity SIP gains are taxed at 12.5% LTCG above ₹1.25 lakh. Gold and SGB taxation differ (SGBs held to maturity have had favourable treatment). See the methodology page for how each is modelled, and verify current rules before deciding.
Questions
No. Over long periods equity has tended to compound faster, but gold has had strong stretches too, and it's less volatile in some downturns. This tool lets you set both return rates, so whichever you believe will perform better is the one that wins — it isn't rigged.
SGBs track the same gold price but have no making charges and pay a 2.5% annual coupon on top. Physical jewellery loses 8–25% to making charges and GST up front and earns nothing while held. For gold exposure, SGBs are usually the stronger vehicle.
There's no guaranteed figure. The tool pre-fills approximate historical averages (clearly labelled, editable) when data is loaded, but you should set rates you actually believe. Past performance does not predict future returns.
It uses a monthly-updated history of Nifty 50 and gold where available, falling back to your return assumptions otherwise. It is not a live-price ticker, and all figures are estimates, not advice.