Since thousands of years, precious metals (gold and silver) have been recognized as valuable. They offer a unique inflationary protection and will help to protect purchasing power over a mid- to long-term timeframe. They have an intrinsic value as it takes a lot of knowledge energy money and time to get them out of the ground. They carry no credit risk and they themselves cannot be inflated (you can’t print more of them). They also offer genuine “upheaval insurance”, against financial or political/military upheavals.

From an investment theory standpoint, precious metals also provide low or negative correlation to other asset classes like stocks and bonds. This means that even a small percentage of precious metals in a portfolio will reduce both volatility and risk. Therefore precious metals provide a useful and effective means of diversifying a portfolio and should have an allocation of 5-25% of your net-worth.

There are many ways to buy into precious metals like gold, silver, platinum and palladium. Most importantly is to own them physically in your own hands and store them in a safe place outside the banking system.

Yet as with all other investments you need to buy low and into weakness instead of chasing a short-term exaggeration.