It really depends on person and situation and the motive of investment.
One can invest in GOLD directly by buying gold in physical form like jewellery , gold biscuits , gold bars. It all of these require some maintenance and some problems are associated with investing in physical format like :
- No surety of purity , you can be sure that you got the same purity as promised
- Preserving cost : if you have physical gold , you will invest in bank locker etc for secure storage.
- Risk of theft , mishandling etc