About
Ounce by Ounce is written by an index fund investor who keeps about 5% of his portfolio in physical gold and silver. This site is where I think out loud about that decision.
How I got here
For years I was a textbook index fund investor. Broad market funds, low costs, dollar-cost average, don't complicate it, don't try to time the market. I had absorbed every standard argument against gold — it doesn't produce anything, it pays no dividend, it just sits in a vault. Buffett's line about all the gold in the world fitting in a cube and still not growing a single ear of corn. I bought that completely. Zero precious metals exposure. Not one ounce.
That changed in January 2026, and I started buying at all-time highs — which I'm aware is not the flex it sounds like. It wasn't one thing that shifted it. The national debt crossing $38 trillion, deficits with no realistic path back, inflation that cooled on paper while groceries and housing kept telling a different story, and central banks buying gold at a pace we hadn't seen in decades. When the people who actually run monetary policy start stacking, that's worth sitting with.
How I think about it
I don't consider gold and silver investments. I consider them insurance. You pay for homeowners insurance every year and hope you never use it, and nobody calls that a bad trade — it's the cost of protecting something valuable. That framing is why 5% is my number. Not 10%, not 20%. Five. The other 95% is still boring index funds, and I'd rather the metals never had to earn their keep.
That's also why this site isn't a gold bug site. I'm not forecasting the collapse of the dollar, I'm not selling you a monster box, and I've published pieces arguing gold is a terrible investment and that goldbacks aren't worth buying. If the strongest case for an asset can't survive someone honestly describing its downsides, it isn't a strong case.
What I'm not
I'm not a financial advisor, a broker, or a tax professional, and I'm not a precious metals expert. I started buying physical metal recently and I'm documenting the learning curve in public, mistakes included — including the 1/10 oz Britannia I paid a 128% premium over spot for, which I wrote up in detail so you don't repeat it. Nothing here is personalized advice. See Disclosures for how this site makes money and how the articles get researched.
What you'll find here
Premiums, dealers, allocation, and the occasional deep dive, plus a daily read on the gold and silver market. Every factual claim in the news posts traces to a named source, and those sources are listed at the bottom of each article so you can check my numbers rather than trusting me. Most posts here accompany a video on the Ounce by Ounce YouTube channel.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections, or a coin you want a second opinion on — email contact@ounce-by-ounce.com. If you spot an error in a post, send it over and I'll fix it.