The view for many years has been that gold and silver are among the most boring assets one can own, but that's changing now that gold has gone up nearly 70-percent since the start of 2025.
There are few stocks that can boast that kind of return on investment, but the reasons for the big jump in the precious metals are many.
Financial consultant Ron Glasgow says the metals are finite (there's only a certain about of gold and silver coming out of mines each year), they're very useful (silver is used in lots of technology, including cell phones, and becomes increasingly precious with each new application), they rarely drop catastrophically, they're famous for holding their value during times of high inflation, and they're seen as a hedge against uncertainty during times of war, pandemic or recession.
But we're living in unusual times, and with the US stock market (and many individual stocks) making record highs, it's often hard to find bargain investments. To some investors, gold and silver have turned out to be those bargains.
After a few years of Biden-era inflation, precious metals began again to look like a good investments starting last year, and gold and silver prices have just taken off in 2025.
And then, of course, there's increasing political uncertainty with Russia vs. Ukraine, Israel vs. Iran, Thailand vs. Cambodia and rumblings in the Caribbean -- worried investors have historically moved into gold, silver and other precious metals during such times.
"Everything plays a role in the prices of these metals, uncertainty builds into more uncertainty, which plays a role in the prices of gold and silver," Glasgow says.
And as uncertainty builds into the new year, there's no reason to believe these prices will go down anytime soon.