amount of gold and silver in a portfolio

[Happy Hoosier]

12. I'm less cautious...

Lots of recent evidence to sugest that having signficant holdings in bonds doesn't really insulate you in the long term... but that's up to you. I have 100% of my 401K in a total market index fund.

I keep cash outside my 401K in a HYSA, plus I have a brokerage account. Until retirement, I just keep 3 months expenses in cash, plus some accounts for anticipated future expenses.... house is gonna need a new roof and HVAC... car purchase/maintenance, vacation. At retirement, I'll shift cash on hand to 2 years living expenses.

I do own a small amount of PM, largely a remanant of my earlier (mistaken in my current view) belief that it would be useful in an economic disruption.
My current views are that no one will care about shiny metal in an economic disruption. They will care about things they can use, or physical cash... So I do keep some physical cash on hand to tide me over if, say, tornados wipe out electronic payment systems for a couple weeks.

I persoanlly don't see any advantage to PM's. In recent years their performance has not insulated from market declines. But again, if it helps you psychologically, go for it.