Investing €170,000 in commodities: gold, uranium or index funds

€170,000 in commodities: the dilemma between gold, uranium and indexing

Anyone who has sold a property for €340,000 and is left with €170,000 cannot afford to make a mistake. Nor can they afford to do nothing. The question is simple: where do you park €170,000 for three or five years without paying attention to it? Opinions are divided between the prudence of index funds and the temptation of commodities.

Gold is no longer what it used to be

Gold has gone up, and those who didn't get in have been left behind. Ray Dalio's classic recommendation -15% in gold- clashes with the fact that the metal is near its all-time high. Some prefer cheaper metals: silver, platinum and palladium. A fund with 35% gold, 20% silver, 20% platinum and 5% palladium is a bet on the recovery of industrial metals, not on safe haven.

Uranium and copper: the nuclear bet

Uranium appears as the great hope. Mines cannot keep up with the hypothetical demand of a nuclear world. Copper, for its part, remains the metal of electrification. But these are bets that require conviction and time, exactly what the investor who wants to forget about their portfolio doesn't have.

The alternative: index and sleep soundly

The most sensible answer for a moderate profile remains the old recipe: index funds tracking the S&P 500, Europe or MSCI World, with 5-10% in gold and 5% in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is risky, but at that percentage the damage is limited. The doubt between lump-sum or gradual entry (DCA) also has its subtleties: €14,166 a month for twelve months reduces anxiety, but historically lump-sum investing maximizes returns.

Meanwhile, some are looking at Brazil. If the right wins, Petrobras could rise. It's a political bet, not an investment. And in times of uncertainty, political bets tend to be the most expensive. Time will tell whether gold was a safe haven or a trap, but the investor who cannot watch their portfolio will probably end up in an index fund. With reservations, of course.