Why Precious Metals Could Be the Key to a Diverse Investment Portfolio

Precious metals, including gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, have become prominent in recent years as viable investment alternatives. The good news is precious metals can make your portfolio shine. Palladium has consistently performed well in recent years, although no precious metal has dominated over the past five years. Keep reading as the precious metals pros from First National Bullion, Scottsdale residents’ top choice for unmatched expertise and high-quality service, explore the possibilities with precious metals and how they can enhance your portfolio.

Why It’s a Good Idea to Invest in Precious Metals

Precious metals hold their value well, since they’re scarce and fixed resources. Because of this scarcity, the value of precious metals very rarely decreases over time, regardless of economic trends and monetary policies. The short answer to the question posed in the title of this article is yes, precious metals can be a smart investment choice and a great way to expand your portfolio or make it safer.

How to Invest in Precious Metals

• Bullion

If you prefer precious metals you can hold and touch, consider bullion. Bullion is the solid form of gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals. The value of bullion varies depending on the type of metal as well as its age, rarity, and weight.

• Mining company stocks and mutual funds 

As part of your portfolio, consider mining company stocks and mutual funds. These can be purchased and sold just like regular stocks.

• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)

With ETFs, investors pool their money into funds that own financial assets such as stocks, bonds, currencies, futures contracts, and/or commodities like gold bullion. With precious metals ETFs, you can have both physical metals and shares of mining companies.

• Futures 

With futures, you agree to purchase assets at an agreed-upon price at a later date. If you’re willing to take on risk, investing in precious metals futures can result in a nice return for your investment.

• Individual retirement accounts (IRAs)

You can use precious metal investments to fund your retirement. These retirement accounts are self-directed, and they’re a common choice for retirement portfolios because precious metals are historically stable.

What to Consider with Precious Metals Investments

Scarcity and availability are concerns with bullion, since it’s a physical asset with a limited supply. Furthermore, obtaining the metals isn’t easy. They must be extracted from mines, treated, tested, shipped, and molded. Precious metals are affected by market swings. Market prices can change dramatically, which can impact investments such as stocks, futures, ETFs, and IRAs.

Adding precious metals to your investment portfolio is a great way to diversify your holdings. The good news is you can invest in precious metals relatively easily. First-time investors without much money to invest can enter the precious metals market by buying a few stocks, opening a small IRA, or purchasing gold, silver, or platinum bullion. Gold, in particular, is a good precious metal to start with if you’re new to precious metals investments, since it’s fairly stable and plentiful.

If you’re building your portfolio and looking for the best place to purchase precious metals, including Scottsdale gold and bullion, reach out to the trustworthy professionals at First National Bullion. We can answer all your questions and help you find all the information you need on how precious metals can figure into your investment planning decisions. Give one of our experienced dealers a call today.

The statements made in this blog are opinions, and past performance is not indicative of future returns. Precious metals, like all investments, carry risk. Precious metals and coins may appreciate, depreciate, or stay the same in cash value depending on a variety of factors. First National Bullion does not guarantee, and its website and employees make no representation, that any metals for sale will appreciate sufficiently to earn the customers a profit. The decision to buy, sell, or borrow precious metals and which precious metals to purchase, borrow, or sell are made at the customer’s sole discretion.