Gold IRAs
How Much Gold Should Be in a Retirement Portfolio?
Nobody can hand you the right amount of gold for your retirement. What we can do is show you the ranges some planners talk about, what the long-run record says, and the questions that'll get you to a number you can live with.
Before you pick a percent
- Your right share of gold depends on your income needs, timeline, other savings, and tolerance for price swings.
- Some planners discuss a small slice, usually in the single digits as a percent, while many traditional portfolios hold none.
- Across 1972 through 2025, gold's average yearly return trailed stocks, yet gold rose in most of the years stocks fell.
- Gold has also had long, deep declines, which matters if you'd have to sell during one.
- Flat yearly fees make a gold IRA more expensive, as a percent, on small amounts.
Why isn't there one answer?
Because two people with the same savings can be in completely different spots. Picture yourself with a pension that covers most of your bills, then picture yourself without one, living almost entirely off what you've saved and selling something every time the checking account runs low. Same balance. The second version of you has a lot less room to wait out a long slump in any single asset, and that alone can change how much gold makes sense for you.
Gold also marches to its own beat. No interest. No dividends. Its price moves for its own reasons, sometimes the opposite way from stocks. Whether that helps you depends on what else you own and what the money has to do.
None of this is personal advice. Treat it as homework before a conversation with a financial professional, if you decide to have one.
What do planners actually suggest?
Three camps.
Each one has a reason behind it, and you'll hear all three from people who sound sure of themselves, so it helps to know what each camp is actually arguing before anyone puts a number in front of you.
- None. Plenty of traditional retirement portfolios hold only stocks, bonds, and cash. People in this camp point to gold's lack of income and its long stretches of weak returns.
- A small slice. Some planners talk about holding around 5% to 10% in gold or precious metals to diversify. The thinking: a small amount can help in some bad years without doing much damage if gold disappoints.
- A lot more. Some gold sellers and commentators push much larger shares. The bigger the share, the more your retirement rides on one asset that pays nothing and can fall for years.
Those are other people's views. Not ours.
What has gold done over the long haul?
Stocks came out ahead, and gold landed just behind a balanced stock-and-bond mix. Professor Aswath Damodaran of NYU Stern publishes yearly return data for the major asset classes, and from 1972 through 2025, his numbers give these average annual returns:
| Asset | Average annual return, 1972–2025 |
|---|---|
| S&P 500, including dividends | 11.1% |
| 60% stocks / 40% 10-year Treasuries | 9.4% |
| Gold | 8.9% |
| 10-year Treasury bonds | 5.9% |
| 3-month Treasury bills | 4.5% |
Those are nominal returns: not adjusted for inflation, and before any costs. And the past doesn't tell you what comes next.
The years gold earned its keep
Stocks fell in 11 calendar years over that span, and gold rose in 7 of them: 1973, 1974, 1977, 2001, 2002, 2008, and 2022. That's the main case for holding a little: in those years, gold could have cushioned the drop in a mixed portfolio at exactly the moment a retiree would have wanted a cushion most.
The years it didn't
Gold fell in 19 of those 54 years. Its year-end price peaked in 1980 and didn't close a year above that level again until 2006. Between 1980 and 2000, it lost about 54% on year-end prices. Twenty years.
Ten-year results swung widely too. Over every 10-year period since 1972, gold's average annual return ran between about -5.0% (1988–1997) and +24.7% (1972–1981), with a median of 4.5%. Stocks ran between -1.4% (1999–2008) and 19.0% (1989–1998), with a median of 13.0%.
Then there's 2025, when gold rose about 66%. A run like that makes gold feel like a sure thing, and the record above says otherwise; it can go a very long time without gaining, and a retiree forced to sell in the middle of a long slump would have locked in the loss.
Curious? Our gold vs. stocks comparison tool lays the years out side by side.
Costs on a small holding
A gold IRA charges fixed yearly fees for the custodian and storage, often a few hundred dollars a year combined, and the exact amount differs by company. The smaller your gold holding, the bigger those fees look as a percent.
| Gold IRA balance | $350 in yearly fees as a percent |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | 3.5% |
| $25,000 | 1.4% |
| $50,000 | 0.7% |
| $100,000 | 0.35% |
The $350 is just an example. Markups and sell spreads come on top.
Say you have a $200,000 portfolio and you settle on 5% in gold. That's $10,000, and a gold IRA for that amount could eat a big share of what gold might earn in an ordinary year. At that size, we'd look hard at cheaper ways to hold gold, like a gold fund inside an IRA you already have. Our gold IRA fee guide works through a full example.
Keeping your share on target
Pick a target and prices will pull you off it. Gold jumps? It's a bigger piece now. Gold drops? Smaller. Rebalancing means trimming what grew and adding to what shrank to get back to your target. Some people do it once a year; others wait until something drifts more than a set amount.
In a gold IRA, that takes more work than it does with funds: you sell metal through a dealer, eat a buyback spread, and wait for the cash to settle. Gold held through an exchange-traded fund in a regular IRA is far easier to rebalance, and our guide on gold IRAs vs. gold ETFs compares the two.
Six questions to settle your number
- How much of your spending does steady income cover? Social Security, pensions, and annuities give you more room to hold things that swing in price.
- When will you need this money? Money for the next few years belongs in steadier assets. Gold won't cooperate on a schedule.
- What do you already own? If you hold very little in stocks, the case for gold as a diversifier gets weaker.
- How would you feel if gold fell by half? It's happened. If you'd sell in a panic, hold less.
- Is the amount big enough to justify the fees? Do the division.
- Why do you want gold? If the answer is a prediction about the economy, remember that nobody can reliably predict gold prices.
Write your answers down, because they'll make a meeting with a fee-only financial planner or tax professional a lot more useful. And if you're still unsure whether gold belongs in your plan at all, our short quiz is a good place to start.
Common questions
Is 10% in gold too much?
For some people it is, and for others it isn't. Some planners discuss figures around there, and others suggest less or none. Where you land depends on your answers to the questions above. Work through them, ideally with a financial professional who can see the rest of your finances.
Should my gold share change as I get older?
A lot of people cut back on holdings that swing in price as the day they need the money gets closer. Gold can fall for years at a time, so that logic applies to it too.
Does gold always go up when stocks go down?
No. From 1972 through 2025, gold rose in 7 of the 11 years stocks fell. In the other 4, it didn't. It's a tendency in some periods, with exceptions.
Do coins in a safe at home count toward my gold share?
Yes, for planning. Include any gold you own outside your IRA when you add up how much of your savings is in gold.
Should I move my whole 401(k) into gold?
We wouldn't. Putting all your retirement savings into any one asset piles on risk, and gold pays no income and has had long declines. Most people who hold gold keep it as one part of a broader mix.
We base our guides on primary sources such as the IRS, the Department of Labor, and federal regulators. Read our editorial policy. Spot an error? Tell us.
