The Simple Precious Metals Investing Habit Recommended for Beginners in 2026
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Investing in precious metals can be intimidating — but there are ways to do it simply. You don’t need to understand the ins and outs of intricate methods like options trading to make gold investing work for you.
Read on for a simple strategy that will allow you to make investing in gold and other precious metals part of your investing routine, allowing you to benefit from their opportunities for diversification and inflation protection.
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What the gold investing habit looks like
This habit has a straightforward setup that doesn’t take much time to implement. Start by determining a fixed, modest allocation range to gold or other precious metals, such as silver, in your portfolio. Financial advisors tend to recommend keeping your total gold allocation to 5% to 10% of your portfolio. But you don’t have to get there immediately. Dollar-cost averaging — or investing a set amount during regular intervals — is the habit that will help you build your exposure.
Review your entire investment portfolio regularly, like once or twice each year, to help ensure that precious metals don’t grow or drop in value enough to take up too much or too little of your portfolio. If your desired range is 5-10% of your portfolio, it would make sense to buy more gold when the total allocation falls below 5%. Similarly, selling gold is the better option if it becomes more than 10% of your portfolio. Semi-annual or annual checkups let you keep a pulse on your portfolio without getting overwhelmed by excessive portfolio reviews.
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How to start the habit from zero
The first step to instilling this habit in your portfolio is to ensure that gold makes sense for you. Not everyone should invest in gold. It often makes the most sense if you have a lengthy time horizon and enough cash to cover immediate expenses.
If you determine that gold accumulation is aligned with your goals and risk tolerance, the next step is to pick a small initial target percentage, such as 3% of your portfolio. Then, add slowly until you reach your threshold. At that point, you can decide if you want to get closer to the more common 5-10% range or hold steady with gold representing 3% of your portfolio.
While investing in physical gold can be complicated, you can buy shares of gold and silver exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as easily as you buy shares in stock ETFs.
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Why this habit works better than reacting to headlines
Disciplined, calendar-based adjustments to your portfolio allow you to avoid emotional trading decisions that can amplify losses. Some investors panic during downturns and sell their assets, but those same investments tend to eventually recover. When they do, investors who pulled their money to the sidelines suffer. On the other hand, when an asset rallies, you may be tempted to panic buy. But then you may be buying the asset when the price is already high, and allowing it to take up more of your portfolio than makes sense for your goals and risk tolerance.
Beginners who make semi-annual or annual portfolio adjustments can avoid chasing spikes or bailing during dips.
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