If you have a small budget and are interested in a simple investment in a market that has been in a bull run for over a decade, then putting a little money into gold might be a good option for you.

Even though your investment may not be large by some standards, one rule of thumb when it comes to investment is not to stake any more money than you are prepared to lose. In other words, if you are prepared to lose $1000 than you can afford to invest upto $10000 dollars in gold and pull out if the market goes down 10% for example.

Check out these few different ways to invest in gold in order to make sure you investing your hard-earned money wisely.

For the Love of Gold Bricks

There is something very pleasing about the sheer idea of holding a gold brick in your hands. I have an investor acquaintance that has saved for the past few years and was finally able to buy a gold brick. He took a picture of it and posted it online. You could tell he was really proud of his purchase.

A gold brick is one of those things that will take you a long time to save up for, but on the flipside it is probably the only time you will need to buy gold. One brick will set you up for good if you are a casual investor.

Junk Gold is Your Treasure

Scrap gold jewelry and old gold coins are great ways to amass a nice little hoard of gold. What is more is that things like scrap jewelry are often available at garage sales and estate sales. People will generally put out jewelry for sale that has bits of gold in it without even thinking about what they are doing.  Maybe they do know what they are doing, but simply do not care and just want to be rid of it. This is where you come in.

Old gold coins are a bit more expensive because of purity, but they are also much easier to transport and store.  Your best bet for these is generally going to be online.

Mining Gold is Still Big Business

For some people, the mining industry is fraught with ethical issues having to do with deforestation and displacing communities. If you are going to invest in gold mining stocks, then try and find smaller companies that have a positive mission statement. In addition to better ethical standards, the smaller companies are typically easier to buy stock in. For the casual investor, smaller gold mining companies can be a great option.

In short, you do not have to be overly ambitious and wealthy to invest in gold. In fact, even though you are a casual investor does not mean that you cannot generate a neat little profit by investing in gold via the means outlined here.