When it comes to running a stress test on your holdings ahead of the next market move, the age/2 rule is hard to ignore. It is a plain-spoken method for weighing up risk and tells you precisely what your gold position should be at any given point in your life.
Case in point: as of 06.50 am on Tuesday, July 14, 2026, gold was trading at Rs 1,40,580 for 10 grams and 999 fine silver at Rs 2,17,750 a kg. With those numbers in view, there has been a return to a rule that is as simple to put in place as it is to stick with.
Why the age/2 rule is in vogue
Alok Jain, the SEBI-registered advisor and head of Weekend Investing, is the one behind it, and Sanjay Kathuria has been making some noise about it of late. It is not meant to be a one-size-fits-all, but for an investor in need of some order, it is a good place to begin.
Kathuria put it in a nutshell in a podcast clip with Jain: divide your age in half and you have your gold percentage. What makes it work is the natural bias toward holding onto what you have as the years go by.
By design, the rule means more gold as you get older. It is in step with the move from building wealth to protecting it when retirement is on the horizon, and it spares you from having to call the tops and bottoms in commodities.
For the most part, here is what investors are taking from it:
– The formula: age / 2
– More of it as you age
– A monthly rebalance to hit your number
– Gold is the choice, not silver
How much to have on hand: a few examples
The numbers look different depending on where you are. A 50-year-old is looking at 25% in gold, a 30-year-old at 15%. By 60, it is 30%; at 40, you are in the 20% range.
Kathuria offered a 42-year-old at 21% as a case in point for when you want to be exact. It is the kind of detail that makes for an easy review, whether you do it once a month or a quarter.
Put it in terms of actual money and it is even clearer. On a Rs 20 lakh book, a 30-year-old would put aside some Rs 3 lakh for gold. Do the same for a 50-year-old and the figure is Rs 5 lakh.
Take a 50-year-old with an investment of Rs 50 lakh: the gold in the mix would come to some Rs 12.5 lakh.
Staying on target with a monthly check-in
This is not a matter of running after a rally or bailing out of a position. In Kathuria’s view, one does not simply walk away from gold; you rebalance. When it overreaches, you pare it down. If it underperforms, you add to it.
By way of example: a Rs 10 lakh portfolio
Let’s say the plan is for 20% in gold, or Rs 2 lakh. A price run-up could see that stake grow to Rs 3 lakh, making up 30% of the whole while the other holdings stand still. Offload what is over and you are back at your 20% mark.
There is a certain unfeeling nature to this. It makes gold what it is meant to be – a diversifier, not a gamble. The formula ensures one is buying low and selling high without having to think about it.
Then there is the question of silver
Silver has had its moment, but it is left out of this equation. Kathuria’s reasoning is that central banks are in the market for gold, not silver, which speaks to its standing as a store of value.
With silver, you are tied to the industrial side of things – the solar, the EVs, the electronics. Its price is at the mercy of the manufacturing cycle and the broader economy, and that is not in line with a rule designed to keep risk in check as one gets older.
The next step for an investor
Think of the age/2 rule as a good place to start, not something set in stone. Planners will tell you that the right amount of gold also hinges on income, time horizon, how much risk one is willing to take, and what is already in the equity and debt side of the books.
It is a case of taking the framework and fitting it to one’s own situation. Do the rebalancing as prescribed and let the headlines be. The point is to have a bit more gold as the years go by to put some ballast in the portfolio.
If one is already in the habit, there is a kind of advantage in the simplicity. You have your number, you know when to make a move, and you understand why it is gold and not silver that is doing the heavy lifting here.
For a newcomer, the math is straightforward. Age over two gives the percentage. From there it is a matter of discipline, whether the sum is Rs 10 lakh or Rs 50 lakh, with a monthly review to keep things in order.
The return on this is not in any forecast for bullion. It is in a steady process that can be followed from one cycle to the next, underpinned by an asset the very same policymakers are holding onto, and a system that works with the passage of time.
