It’s the question most frequently asked by customers over the last week: Is now a good time to buy gold? My answer is that I like gold. Who doesn’t? But I don’t buy it hoping it goes up. I buy it and hope it goes down, because most of the stuff I own in my portfolio goes up when gold goes down, as should be the case in yours.
But if you have invested in gold over the last 10 years, you’ve beaten the pants off the Dow Jones Industrial Average total return. Look at the chart below for a comparison. The chart shows you what $100 invested in the Dow or gold on December 31, 1999, would be worth in your portfolio today. You earned $500 on your gold, but only $50 on the Dow. Gold outperformed the Dow by 10 times.
Don’t be a hero with gold. Only invest what you can afford to lose. You can’t eat it in retirement if it doesn’t go your way. Think of gold as insurance. When was the last time you wanted to spend more money than you needed to on insurance? Keep gold around 5% or so in your portfolio and you won’t have to worry if it’s having a good year or not.
