Physical commodities are investments that you can physically own, such as gold, silver, natural gas, and oil.\xa0\n\nTake gold, for example. The price of gold rises and falls, depending on the demand.\n\nDemand tends to go up only when people are feeling afraid or uncertain about the future. The problem with investing in gold is that you can\u2019t accurately predict what the demand will be at any particular time. That makes investing in gold more like gambling than like smart investing.\n\nIf you really want to learn how to invest the smart way, it takes a good amount of due diligence and patience but the long-term payoff is worth it. By following smart investment practices that have made people like Warren Buffett extremely wealthy, you may not make money fast, but you have the potential to make more of it.\n\nWarren Buffett started with a small amount of money too, and he turned it into $30 billion. This goes to show that it isn\u2019t about the money you have, it\u2019s about the knowledge you have.\xa0\n\nIn this vault episode of the InvestED podcast, Phil and Danielle discuss investing in commodities, whether or not they keep up with inflation, and in what scenarios they could be a worthwhile investment despite their inherent risk.\xa0\n\nIf you want to learn how to reduce your risk while investing, check out this guide where Phil explains how to pick stocks the Rule #1 way: https://bit.ly/3fX1adE\n\nTopics discussed in this episode:\n\nValuation methods of investing\n\nTypes of investments\n\nHow to pick stocks\n\nCommodity stocks\n\n\xa0\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices