“Over time, an allocation to gold can enhance the returns of a balanced portfolio,” says George Milling-Stanley, chief gold strategist at Boston-based State Street Global Advisors.
When mainstay assets like equities or real estate or bonds are crashing, or inflation is devaluing your cash, where can you go? For some investors, the answer is to devote a small portion of their portfolio to gold. In particular, gold tends to appeal to investors as a “safe haven” in times of economic distress. While other potential stores of value like cryptocurrency are essentially brand new on the timeline of human history, and even the New York Stock Exchange only traces its origins back to 1792, gold has enjoyed a hold on the human imagination for thousands of years dating all the way back to the Egyptian Pharaohs.
If you are the type of investor who likes assets with a long track record, there is a certain yellow metal that might fit the bill.
