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How a gold investment could boost your portfolio in 2025
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One of the most popular and successful investments in recent years is also one of the more traditional ones: gold. Investing in the precious metal surged to an 11-year high in 2023 and the price broke multiple records in 2024, the latest of which came in late October. And it’s possible that the metal could hit a new price record of $3,000 per ounce, possibly even before December 31.
Understanding this dynamic, those who are considering a gold investment now, as well as those who have already got started, may be wondering how the precious metal could help their portfolio in the new year. While gold’s benefits remain traditional and reliable, they can be particularly beneficial now. Below, we’ll break down three ways a gold investment could boost your portfolio in 2025.
Learn more about the gold investment options available to you here.
How a gold investment could boost your portfolio in 2025
Here are three clear ways an investment in gold could enhance your overall portfolio for the new year:
By continuing its current price surge
No one knows when gold’s current price surge will end. It surpassed the $2,700 per ounce mark in October but then dropped slightly to begin November. Now in the $2,600 range, gold could break additional price records in 2025. And if you’re invested before it does, you could earn a quick (and substantial) profit. “With economic uncertainty, rising inflation and central banks maintaining interest in gold as a reserve seat, prices are likely to climb,” Brandon Aversano, founder of The Alloy Market, recently told CBS News.
This is a rare opportunity for an investment better known for portfolio protection versus income generation. So don’t let it pass by. Waiting could cause the price to become fully out of reach.
Get invested in gold online today.
By protecting against other asset volatility
Gold, despite some minor drops in price, tends to only move in one direction: upward. Can you say the same about your other assets, particularly over the last few years? If those assets are more volatile then it makes sense to protect against that risk with a layer of gold added to your portfolio. Because those assets are more likely to produce greater income, however, the amount of gold you add should be minimal. An amount of 10% or less of your overall portfolio, then, should help protect against economic headwinds to come in 2025.
By diversifying should inflation rise again
The path down to the Federal Reserve’s target 2% inflation rate goal has been a bumpy one, with the latest inflation reading for October showing an increase. Now at 2.6%, inflation is more than half a percentage point higher than the Fed wants it to be. If the November report released on December 11 shows another hike, it could be problematic for the broader economy — and your portfolio. Investing in gold before that happens, however, could help lift other assets more affected by these developments. That’s because gold tends to maintain and even rise in value during inflationary periods. And that ability is unlikely to change in a new year. Consider investing in the metal now, then, to build in some reliable protection in advance.
The bottom line
A gold investment isn’t right for every single adult. But for those looking to boost their portfolio in 2025 by adding a potential income-producer, protector against asset volatility and diversifier amid inflation concerns, it may be. So start exploring your gold options now while you can still potentially invest at a reasonable entry point. Waiting for 2025, when competition could increase based on the aforementioned considerations, could prove to be costly.
Have more gold questions heading into 2025? Learn more about your options here.
Amazon secretly excluded two zip codes from its fastest delivery service while charging nearly 50,000 Prime members who live in the areas its full Prime subscription price, the District of Columbia’s attorney general alleges in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Amazon violated consumer protection laws by stopping its quickest delivery service to the two historically lower-income neighborhoods, then misled customers about why their packages were arriving later than advertised when they complained, according to the suit filed in D.C. Superior Court.
The world’s biggest online retailer’s paid subscription service, Amazon Prime, offers two-day delivery for millions of items, as well as next-day or same-day for many other products for $139 a year, or $14.99 a month.
Amazon in June 2022 decided to stop using its fleet of branded trucks to make Prime deliveries to DC zip codes 20019 and 20020, servicing them instead with third-party delivery services like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. The company knew the decision would result in significantly slower deliveries for the areas, but did not tell existing or prospective customers, the suit alleges.
Amazon informed the attorney general’s office that the change came as the result of safety concerns for its drivers, the attorney general said. Yet the company was legally obligated to disclose the change to customers.
“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide. While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another,” D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb stated in a news release.”We’re suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they’re paying for.”
Amazon Prime two-day delivery
Last year, the rest of the city’s Prime members received packages within two days of checkout 75% of the time, but those in the impacted ZIP codes received their orders within two days just 24% of the time, according to the suit.
Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia
Amazon dismissed as “categorically false” claims that its business practices are discriminatory or deceptive.
“We want to be able to deliver as fast as we possibly can to every zip code across the country, however, at the same time we must put the safety of delivery drivers first,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The spokesperson added, “In the zip codes in question, there have been specific and targeted acts against drivers delivering Amazon packages. We made the deliberate choice to adjust our operations, including delivery routes and times, for the sole reason of protecting the safety of drivers.”
The company said it’s clear with customers about expected delivery dates. “And we’re always transparent with customers during the shopping journey and checkout process about when, exactly, they can expect their orders to arrive,” the spokesperson said.
Amazon would like to work with the attorney general’s office to reduce crime and improve safety in those areas, the spokesperson stated. “Nevertheless, we will proceed in the process and demonstrate that providing fast and accurate delivery times and prioritizing the same of customers and delivery partners are not mutually exclusive.”
The lawsuit is not the first time Amazon has been accused of providing discriminatory service.
A Bloomberg analysis in 2016 found that Amazon excluded predominantly black ZIP codes to varying degrees from same-day delivery in six major cites. Amazon at the time said the issue had nothing to do with race.
And two years later, the since-discontinued Amazon Restaurants delivery service excluded the same D.C. neighborhoods that are the focus of the Prime delivery lawsuit. The company told local news at the time that it was working to bring more eateries online.
Pope Francis has received the first-ever all-electric popemobile from automaker Mercedes-Benz.
The open-top vehicle, which for the last 45 years has been manufactured by the German luxury automaker, is used by Pope Francis to greet pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square during general audiences and other papal ceremonies. The company’s CEO Ola Kallenius personally handed over the new model to the pope on Wednesday at the Vatican.
“With the new Popemobile, Pope Francis is the first pope to be traveling in a fully electric Mercedes-Benz when making public appearances,” Kallenius said in a statement. “This is a special honor for our company, and I would like to thank His Holiness for his trust.”
Pool photo/Aigav
The vehicle, a modified version of the company’s G-class mid-size luxury SUV, is in classic pearl-white, and has been developed in close cooperation with the Vatican tailored to the needs of the pope, the company said in a statement. The engine has been particularly adapted for low speeds; the seat has been heated and elevated for better visibility; and a grab bar provides stability when the Pope is standing.
“Every detail is perfection,” Kallenius told Reuters. It took “hundreds of hours of craftsmanship … to build a one-of-a-kind popemobile,” he said.
Francis has made care for the environment a priority of his papacy and has used electric cars on some of his foreign trips, but this is the first time an all-electric vehicle will be used. In 2011, the pope opted to use a plug-in hybrid as the electric version was not yet fast enough to bring the pontiff to safety in an emergency.
The first “official” popemobile was a bespoke Mercedes-Benz Nurburg 460 Pullman given to Pope Pius XI by the company in 1930. The luxurious model had silk carpeting and embossed doves decorating the interior. Subsequent popemobiles have included a 600 Pullman Landaulet and 300 SEL for Pope Jon XXIII; a modified G Class for Pope John Paul II; and the previous popemobile, used by both Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, another Mercedes-Benz M Class.
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