Firstly, physical gold gives your full control over your asset / investment. This means that you are able to release your investment at the time of your choice giving you full control over your wealth. This means that your assets effectively works around your personal financial needs. Physical ownership also means that you are not governed to the opening hours and operations of a third party company giving you more flexibility and influence over your wealth. The non-perishability of gold also means that gold can be kept for the long term and can be passed on to other generations.
It is argued that one should spread investment across a range of diverse markets to leverage against risk. This means it is suggested it is best practice for your investment portfolio to be split over physical gold, paper stocks and shares and property to reduce your risk of a crash in a particular industry. For instance, as we saw in 2007, the property market crash would have greatly effected an individual who held the majority of their wealth in properties. Therefore, to minimize market risks by spreading your wealth over several industries it reduces your threat of a particular marker crashing.