Right now, I see a lot of people talking about saving gold, so I decided to study what it really is and why people have started to become interested in it.

In fact, saving gold means using a small amount of money—just 100 baht—to buy digital gold through an application, and then gradually accumulating it over time. The system calculates your small deposits into a “gold weight” in real time. Once you have accumulated enough to meet your goal (such as 0.5 grams), you can press a button in the app to have real gold bars delivered to your home.

This method is called DCA, or dollar-cost averaging. You don’t need to guess whether gold will go up or down tomorrow. Just set it so it deducts 1,000–2,000 baht from your salary each month to buy. When gold prices drop, you get more; when gold prices rise, you get less. Over the long run, your costs are averaged out appropriately.

Why do people save gold? Take a look at the situation happening right now. The Bank of Thailand has cut the policy interest rate, leaving it at just 1.0%, but inflation has jumped to 3.2%. This means prices are getting more expensive. The money kept in a bank account is being eaten away by inflation every day, so its value disappears.

Also, the global situation is very chaotic right now. News about international tensions has pushed crude oil prices up, which clearly drives up gold prices as well. This year, the price of gold bars in Thailand was first introduced at 64,850 baht at the beginning of the year, and then surged to 81,850 baht. If you wait to save up a lump sum to buy, you might not be able to afford it anymore—this is where saving gold comes into play.

One advantage of saving gold is that it’s incredibly easy. You don’t have to go to a gold shop—you can buy through an app. It has an automatic monthly deduction system. You can start even with a small amount of capital. You don’t have to worry about thieves stealing it because the gold is stored within an institutional financial system. And when you need money, you just click to sell—the money is credited to your account immediately.

But there are also downsides. When gold prices swing heavily, hundreds of thousands of people rush into the app. Sometimes the system becomes slow or even freezes, causing you to miss the timing for buying or selling. In addition, the Thai baht fluctuates strongly. At certain times, global gold prices may soar, but the baht strengthens, resulting in gold prices in Thailand staying flat or even turning into losses. And when withdrawing into real gold bars, you will be charged a block fee of about 150–300 baht.

Saving gold is different from buying gold bars at a storefront or from buying gold ETFs. Saving gold requires less capital and lets you accumulate gradually, making it suitable for people with limited funds who want to build financial discipline. Buying gold bars at a storefront requires a lot more capital, but you get real gold immediately. Gold ETFs are easy to trade through a stock portfolio, but you don’t receive physical gold.

Popular saving gold apps in Thailand right now include Dime!, which lets you trade 99.99% gold directly with dollars and has no fees; Gold Now by Hua Seng Heng, a trusted brand; Gold2Go, which lets you withdraw gold starting from 0.5 grams; and Gold Wallet from Krungthai, which offers free money transfer fees.

If you want to start, just take out your phone and follow these steps: download an app that fits you, verify your identity through E-KYC, link your bank account, and set it to automatically deduct money every month. Don’t try to time the market, because no one knows where the lowest point is.

Saving gold is a long-term game. It’s suitable for people who want to hedge against inflation and build financial security. If you want to profit from price movements, another option is trading gold CFDs, which allows both long and short positions—but that’s a short-term, high-risk game. No matter which option you choose, what determines whether you make it through or fall in this market is knowledge and discipline—there are no shortcuts.