Gold Vs Equity Mutual Funds
- Vinay Kumar Laxman
- Nov 15
- 3 min read
Gold price has shot up over the last one year or so. Do you feel missed out? I got a few enquiries to buy gold via the mutual fund route. I suggested that they not get affected by last one year return. It can create FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), hindsight bias and force them to make wrong decisions. I suggested they look at the longer-term picture and take a bird’s eye view of the situation.
I thought of sharing the facts and figures to give investors better clarity to enable them to make the right choices. Let’s take the period from 2011 to 2025 to compare gold vs equity mutual funds.
Let’s accumulate gold and equity mutual fund units every year in January and see how each asset class has fared over the 15 year period.
Option-1: Buy gold every year
Option-2: Invest in a mutual fund scheme every year. I chose to invest in XYZ India Midcap fund. It is a real existing scheme. I don’t want to share the scheme name because it might create bias towards this particular scheme.
1. Buy Gold every year
Investment | Date | Price of 1 gm | No. of gms |
100000 | 01-Jan-11 | 2069 | 48.33 |
100000 | 01-Jan-12 | 2732 | 36.60 |
100000 | 01-Jan-13 | 3089 | 32.37 |
100000 | 01-Jan-14 | 2843 | 35.17 |
100000 | 01-Jan-15 | 2670 | 37.45 |
100000 | 01-Jan-16 | 2,497 | 40.05 |
100000 | 01-Jan-17 | 2745 | 36.43 |
100000 | 01-Jan-18 | 2912 | 34.34 |
100000 | 01-Jan-19 | 3141 | 31.84 |
100000 | 01-Jan-20 | 3909 | 25.58 |
100000 | 01-Jan-21 | 5026 | 19.90 |
100000 | 01-Jan-22 | 4809 | 20.79 |
100000 | 01-Jan-23 | 5497 | 18.19 |
100000 | 01-Jan-24 | 6333 | 15.79 |
100000 | 01-Jan-25 | 7680 | 13.02 |
TOTAL no. of gms bought | 445.87 |
As on 14-Nov-2025
Total amount invested | ₹ 15,00,000 |
Price of 1 gm | ₹ 12,277 |
Total no. of gms | 445.87 |
Total value of gold | ₹ 54,73,913 |
2. Invest in XYZ India Midcap Fund every year
NAV – Net Asset Value (Value of one mutual fund unit)
Investment | Date | NAV | No. of units |
100000 | 01-Jan-11 | 14.76 | 6775.1 |
100000 | 01-Jan-12 | 12.46 | 8025.7 |
100000 | 01-Jan-13 | 17.74 | 5637.0 |
100000 | 01-Jan-14 | 18.35 | 5449.6 |
100000 | 01-Jan-15 | 33.03 | 3027.6 |
100000 | 01-Jan-16 | 34.69 | 2882.7 |
100000 | 01-Jan-17 | 36.15 | 2766.3 |
100000 | 01-Jan-18 | 52.56 | 1902.6 |
100000 | 01-Jan-19 | 47.67 | 2097.8 |
100000 | 01-Jan-20 | 50.33 | 1986.9 |
100000 | 01-Jan-21 | 62.92 | 1589.3 |
100000 | 01-Jan-22 | 89.39 | 1118.7 |
100000 | 01-Jan-23 | 90.5 | 1105.0 |
100000 | 01-Jan-24 | 120.3 | 831.0 |
100000 | 01-Jan-25 | 173 | 578.0 |
NAV – Net Asset Value
As on 14-Nov-2025
Total amount invested | ₹ 15,00,000 |
NAV | 185.06 |
Total no. of units | 45773.0 |
Total mutual fund value | ₹ 84,70,756 |
Total Gold value | ₹ 54,73,913 |
Total Mutual fund value | ₹ 84,70,756 |
I hope it is clear that, rather than buying Gold every year, if you have invested in above mutual fund scheme every year, you can buy 50% more Gold at the end of the period.
Even if you want to invest in Gold for wealth creation, then it is clear that mutual fund scheme might have created more wealth and delivered better returns.
Disclaimer:
Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks. Please read the scheme information and other related documents before investing. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Please consider your specific investment requirements before choosing a fund, or designing a portfolio that suits your needs. This blog post is for illustration purpose only. Past performance may or may not be repeated in the future.
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