Should you invest in gold now or wait until 2024?
Timing is everything. And when it comes to personal financial decisions, it's really everything. Just look at the current interest rate environment for proof. If you had bought a home in 2020 or 2021, for example, you would have secured an interest rate of around 3%. Mortgage rates today, however, are more than double that. Similarly, the returns on a certificate of deposit (CD) account then were negligible. Now, certain CD accounts come with a 7% interest rate.
So the timing has certainly changed for those sorts of purchases and savings. But what about some other sorts of investments? Gold investing, for instance, hit an 11-year high in September. That's due to various factors, some of which may be more obvious than others. So now, in the waning weeks of 2023, is a gold investment still worth it? Or are prospective investors better off waiting until the new year?
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Should you invest in gold now or wait until 2024?
There are some compelling reasons why investing in gold could make sense now. Here are three reasons why you may not want to wait to invest in the precious metal.
Gold prices could rise
The price of gold today is $1,954.68 per ounce. That's up more than $100 from where it was on October 4 (at $1,822.74 an ounce). So gold is on an upward trajectory currently.
While that means you'll pay more than you would have a few weeks ago, it also means that you could make more of a return, more quickly than you otherwise may have. There's no telling where the price of gold will ultimately fall, but if recent history is an indicator, it could easily surpass $2,000 per ounce soon. By acting now, you can buy in when prices are low and potentially sell when prices are higher.
Learn more about buying gold here now.
Inflation could remain stubborn
Inflation has come down significantly over the last year, but it's still stubborn and not exactly where the Federal Reserve would like it. While the current 3.7% rate it sits at is substantially lower than where it was in 2022, it's still above the Fed's goal of 2%.
As such, interest rates will likely remain elevated and the benefit of a gold investment will remain attractive for investors. That's because gold tends to maintain its value during inflationary periods and may even tick up in price. So, until inflation has completely cooled — and it hasn't quite yet — gold may still be worth relying on for many investors.
Your other assets could be underperforming
If you've been upset about how your other assets have been performing this year then it may make sense to switch up your portfolio by diversifying it with some gold. An investment in gold of 10% or less of your portfolio can help give your other assets some breathing room.
As mentioned, gold's value tends to remain relatively steady. So when other assets like stocks, bonds and real estate look shaky, gold can help level things off. That said, gold is not the income-producing asset that others are, so you'll want to be careful with how much you invest in order to get the benefits of other assets as well.
The bottom line
For many investors, gold makes sense to invest in now, before the clock hits midnight on December 31. By investing in gold now, investors can potentially get in before the price of the yellow metal ticks up even further. But they could also immediately get the edge against inflation that gold is known for while giving their portfolio breathing room as other, more volatile assets rise and drop in value. For all these reasons and more, it may make sense for investors to invest in gold now and not wait to see what a new year can bring.
