Hard Asset Allocation Calculator

Hard asset allocation is the percentage of your portfolio held in tangible, physical assets — precious metals, real estate, and cash — versus paper assets like stocks and bonds. Understanding this split helps you assess your portfolio's resilience to inflation, currency devaluation, and systemic financial risk.

The Golden Butterfly is a portfolio strategy that divides assets into five equal 20% buckets: total stock market, small-cap value stocks, long-term bonds, short-term bonds, and gold. It was designed by Tyler of portfoliocharts.com to balance growth, stability, and inflation protection. The 20% gold allocation makes it popular among hard-asset-minded FIRE investors.

It depends on the strategy. Traditional 60/40 portfolios include zero gold. The Permanent Portfolio allocates 25%, the Golden Butterfly 20%, and the All-Weather portfolio about 7.5%. Most FIRE practitioners who include gold target 5-20% of their total portfolio, with the goal of reducing sequence-of-returns risk in early retirement.

Most FIRE calculations exclude your primary residence from investable assets because you can't easily liquidate it to cover expenses. However, if you own rental properties or land as investments, those should be included. This calculator lets you add real estate as you see fit — just be consistent in your approach.

The Allocation Calculator recommends how much gold and silver to buy based on your net worth. This Hard Asset Allocation tool does the opposite — it analyzes your existing portfolio to show you how your current mix compares to proven FIRE strategies. Use both together: analyze where you are, then plan where you want to be.

Sequence-of-returns risk is the danger of poor market returns in the early years of retirement depleting your portfolio. Hard assets like gold tend to perform well during stock market downturns, providing a buffer. By selling gold instead of stocks during a crash, you avoid locking in paper losses — a strategy sometimes called a 'golden bucket.'