Is Your Retirement at Risk Without Precious Metals?

A retirement portfolio can be at risk from several factors, including market volatility, inflation, and interest rates.

But risk can be managed with a diverse portfolio.

The appropriate level of risk depends heavily on your proximity to retirement. Towards early middle age, asset holdings tend to increase rapidly as investors save for retirement, while current labor income flattens out. To prepare for your retirement lifestyle, the key is to organize your portfolio in favor of risk-adjusted returns.

Gold can play a strategic role in a diversified plan as an insurance policy against economic uncertainty and inflation, working as a complementary asset to stocks and bonds.

To learn more about how gold can protect your retirement portfolio from risk, please give us a call at 1-800-831-0007 or email us.

Key Risks to Your Retirement Portfolio

• Sequence-of-Returns: There is always some risk of experiencing poor market returns during the critical period just before or at the beginning of retirement when you start withdrawing funds. Unforeseen circumstances like the Covid-19 pandemic or the 2008 real estate market crash can come seemingly out of nowhere and impact economies worldwide. An event like this could permanently deplete your nest egg, as early losses are magnified at times like these, leaving less time for the portfolio to recover. However, keeping several years of living expenses in a stable asset like gold acts as a buffer against having to sell your stocks if your retirement timing coincides with a down market.
• Inflation: With persistent inflation remaining an issue, there is a real possibility your investments will not grow fast enough to keep pace with the rising cost of living, eroding your purchasing power over time. Long term—as in over the course of decades—gold is can be utilized as a store of value to protect your wealth. Gold's price often rises when the value of paper currency drops, helping to preserve purchasing power.
• Market Volatility: Your investments can lose value due to a multitude of economic or political factors. Stocks are generally more susceptible to market risk, but they offer growth potential needed to combat inflation and longevity risk. Owning gold, which tends to perform well when equities are in a downturn, will help to offset major market volatility in higher-risk assets.
• Interest Rates: Interest rates surged from 2022-2024, driven by the Federal Reserve's aggressive moves to combat high inflation and reaching levels not seen since the 1980’s. 30-year mortgage rates peaked around 8.85% in 2023. While the recent interest rate spike was well below the 16%+ peaks of the early 1980’s, borrowers still felt the sting of painfully high rates compared to the recent historic lows of 2021. The value of existing fixed-income investments, like bonds, typically falls when interest rates rise, impacting the conservative portion of a portfolio. Owning a diverse range of assets can help to soften the blow when bonds cannot be trusted to perform steadily, especially as those nearing retirement prepare to shift their allocations away from stocks to bonds.
• Longevity: Are you afraid of outliving your savings due to increasing life expectancies? Your plan needs to be sustainable for 30 years or more. Since 2000, gold has actually outperformed standard "paper" investment assets like stocks.

By allocating a share of your retirement savings to physical metals, you can enhance financial resilience and better safeguard your purchasing power against these risks.

Strategies to Manage Risk

• Adjust Asset Allocation with Age: As you near retirement, it's generally recommended to shift toward a more conservative asset allocation to protect your principal. Most financial experts recommend that you maintain some stock exposure to ensure growth that outpaces inflation, while shifting towards more stable assets to protect your wealth. Recent findings have even encouraged major institutions like Morgan Stanley to suggest an allocation of 60% stocks/ 20% bonds/20% gold. While a 20% allocation to precious metals might seem extreme (World Gold Council recommends 8-12%), maintaining gold in your portfolio
• Implement a "Bucket Strategy": Divide your portfolio into buckets: a cash or stable fixed-income "safety" bucket for immediate withdrawal needs, and additional buckets for mid- and long-term needs. This helps avoid selling growth assets during a market downturn.
• Diversify Your Holdings: Spread your investments across different asset classes (stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, etc.) to mitigate the impact of poor performance in any single investment. Avoid having too much exposure to any single asset class.
• Own Gold: It’s important to own physical gold, not an ETF as this actually counts towards your equities allocations.
• Consult a Financial Advisor: A professional can help assess your personal risk tolerance, stress-test your portfolio against various scenarios, and create a plan tailored to your specific circumstances and goals. No gold dealer is fit to give financial advice or guarantee the performance of any bullion product or coin. Any dealer who makes promises that sound too good to be true should be avoided. Buy your bullion from a gold dealer with a long-lasting, solid reputation, and get your financial advice from a Certified Financial Planner with a fiduciary responsibility to work in your best interest.

There is plenty of risk, but a sound strategy for a diverse portfolio is the best way to manage it and protect your wealth for a relaxing and enjoyable retirement.

Ready to Get Started?

Whether your retirement years are quickly approaching or decades away, it’s never too late or too early to protect your retirement portfolio from risk with a solid allocation to precious metals.

One way to do this is with a self-directed IRA.

Gold's performance in the last bull market resulted in a boom of brokerage firms more willing to specialize in helping investors utilize alternative assets to meet their retirement savings goals.

In 2025, gold is up 61%, outperforming last year’s gains of 27%, and poised for strong performance in 2026 as well. It’s well past time to make sure precious metals are a part of your plan to protect your retirement against risk.

To learn more about how gold can protect your retirement portfolio from risk, please give us a call at 1-800-831-0007 or email us.