What about so-called safe havens?
You might say that the solution is to convert your capital into tangible assets whose value rises with inflation and which are unlikely to disappear over time. This is particularly true of real estate and precious metals. While these assets offer no significant return (or even no return in the case of gold, for example), they do offer the possibility of preserving the value of your capital and increasing its purchasing power over time, as inflation erodes the value of monetary currency. This is why they are known as “safe havens”: currencies may be devalued, stock markets may collapse, and the entire economy may disappear in a major crisis. However, a building will always remain a place of refuge and a gold or silver coin will always retain its universally recognised exchange value.
In a more traditional situation, i.e. with an economy that is progressing year on year without excessive speed but without any real major crisis either (despite the apocalypse theorists), this type of asset is very important in a balanced portfolio. It offers great resilience to temporary turbulence and provides at least a partial guarantee of the integrity of your capital.
However, here again, we cannot talk about 100% ‘guaranteed capital’ or even risk-free investments, because safe havens are also subject to certain unavoidable, although limited, hazards. For example, while the yield on a rental property may be adversely affected by a prolonged period of vacancy or even by unpaid rent, the value of the property itself may also fall as a result, of damage to the property or a downturn in the market (property crash) or, for example downgrading of the geographical area in which the property is located (impoverishment of the neighbourhood or industrialisation of the surrounding area) or a change in legislation on living standards (energy performance, anti-pollution standards, etc.). In such cases, the value of the property depreciates and the capital invested in it is no longer guaranteed.
As for gold and precious metals in general, everything will depend on how they are kept, bearing in mind that such assets are coveted and can therefore be stolen, resulting in a total loss of capital. But it can also happen that, in the case of coins in particular, and more especially those that have been acquired with a premium linked to their condition (new, corner jewel, splendid, etc.), poor storage conditions lead to a deterioration in their general appearance (scratches, wear, impact marks), drastically reducing their market value and at the same time causing a more or less significant loss of the corresponding capital.
