I’m obviously not talking about owning the actual metal rather own paper assets involved in the space.

That makes a lot more sense lol, and I agree. I think if someone is serious about diversifying a portion of their portfolio into precious metals that they should own and learn more about the miners than holding physical metals. But I’m in no position to be offering advice on how someone should diverse their portfolio lol I’m just here to learn reasons why not to invest into precious metals as I can give myself many reasons on why I should do so.

Best reason is low gains. They're a great hedge against loss. Not a great earner. Kind of like bonds in that sense

Recession is likely in the next ten years. If I wasnt paying off loans now id probably 50% into metals and bonds

Don't most decades have a recession?

Boy I’ve came a long way since posting this thread I couldn’t imagine reading the paragraphs I’ve been posting. I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone should own at least 5% of their portfolio in physical precious metals in case of natural disasters or financial crisis etc or the rare case where the price of precious metals increases relative to the power of the dollar. Any more than 10% of your portfolio in physical precious metals is kinda weird in my opinion unless that’s the only way you’re comfortable in investing your money (because it’s not really investing it’s rather preserving your money) .

You know that for the vast majority of cases when you "own" gold you don't actually get the physical gold, right? So during a natural disaster or financial crisis the vast majority of gold investments aren't gonna do didly squat.

Physical precious metals, not GLD, I think owning more than 10% of your portfolio in physical precious metals is weird for several reasons lol, owning at least 5% is crucial though imo.

/Physical precious metals you can touch I should say. Although there’s more money in GLD stocks than gold available so they don’t “own” as much gold as they have pledged. Meaning if everyone wanted to covert their GLD stocks right now into gold there wouldn’t be enough gold to supply. GLD does have its perks though obviously.

This post was edited by TaoTeChing on Nov 1 2019 12:06am

Gld is good for rebalancing for some portfolios. but i dont see the point of gld at all. if i wanted to own a paper asset that is correlated to golds price id way rather own the GDX and rebalance with that. Gold miners also help diversify against the risk of government seizure.