Best Tangible Investments Going Into 2027

The best tangible investments going into 2027 are precious metals, real estate and collectibles. These are physical assets you own outright, and they can help protect your savings outside the stock market. 

Below, you’ll see how each one works, what it costs to hold, and what to check before you buy.

Key takeaways

• Precious metals, real estate and collectibles are the three main tangible investments, and each has its own costs to buy, hold and sell.
• Tangible assets can protect your buying power over the long term and add diversification to a portfolio of stocks and bonds.
• Precious metals take the least money to start and are usually the quickest of the three to sell.

What are the best tangible investments for 2027?

The three main types of tangible investments are:

1. Precious metals: Long-term store of value that’s simple to hold
2. Real estate: Rental income and control over the property
3. Collectibles: Items you can enjoy while they may gain value

They are all different to start, hold and sell:

	Precious metals	Real estate	Collectibles
To get started	A single coin or bar	A large down payment, usually with a loan	A high price for each quality item
Time to sell	Usually quick through a dealer	Often several months	Slow, often needs an appraiser and a buyer
Income	None	Rent	None
Holding costs	Depository storage from $125 a year, insurance usually included	Maintenance, insurance, property taxes, HOA fees	Storage, insurance and upkeep
Federal tax on long-term gains outside an IRA	Up to 28% (collectibles rate)	0% to 20%, up to 25% on the depreciation portion	Up to 28% (collectibles rate)

The economic backdrop going into 2027

On September 16, 2026, the Federal Reserve raised its target rate by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4% and said that inflation “remains elevated.” Consumer prices were up 3.4% over the 12 months through August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For real estate, higher rates increase property ownership costs. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.03% on September 24, 2026, up from 6.30% a year earlier, according to Freddie Mac.

What are tangible assets?

Tangible assets are physical assets you can touch and hold that have real-world value. You’ll also hear them called real assets or hard assets.

Intangible assets like stocks and bonds have monetary value as well, but they exist as electronic records at a brokerage or bank. To sell them and get cash, you rely on third-party financial services companies. 

What tangible assets can do for your portfolio

Inflation shrinks what your cash can buy, and the loss adds up over time. The dollar has lost about 97% of its purchasing power since 1913, which is the year the Federal Reserve was created.

A physical asset isn’t a fixed number of dollars. When prices rise, the value of a home, an ounce of gold, or a piece of art can rise with them, so the asset can keep its buying power while your cash loses it. Tangible assets can also add diversification. These assets don’t depend on a company’s earnings the way stocks do. 

Precious metals

Tangible investment metals are gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Pros of owning physical metals

• Liquidity: You can buy and sell precious metals through a dealer, which makes it easy to raise cash when you need it.
• Hedge against inflation: Gold can help your savings keep pace as prices rise.
• Diversification: Adding gold, silver or platinum spreads your savings beyond stocks and bonds.

We talked through these reasons for owning physical gold in a recent episode of our podcast:

Cons of owning precious metals

• Price movement: Metal prices can rise or fall over weeks or months, so they are best as a long-term investment.
• No income: Gold or silver doesn’t pay interest or dividends. Your return depends on the price when you sell.
• Dealer spreads: Dealers sell above the spot price and buy back below it, so the price has to rise enough to cover that gap before you see a gain.
• Storage and insurance: If you’d rather not keep metals at home, a bank safe deposit box or a depository can hold them for a fee. 

Real estate

Real estate includes homes, rental buildings, raw land and farmland. 

With real estate, you have direct control over your investment and can apply a few different strategies. This could include renovating an existing building or building something entirely new to attract more tenants and charge higher rents.

Pros of owning real estate

• Tax advantages: Owning real estate provides some tax benefits, such as depreciation expenses as paper losses.
• Appreciation: Property values tend to rise over the long term, which can help offset inflation.
• Income potential: You can rent out a property to earn monthly income.

Cons of owning real estate

• High barriers to entry: It takes knowledge and a large amount of capital to buy a property, and financing depends on meeting a lender’s income, employment and credit requirements.
• Illiquid: Buying and selling real estate can take several months. This is not ideal if you need to access your money quickly.
• Upkeep and costs: You’re responsible for maintaining the property, plus you’ll have insurance, taxes and other operating costs.

Collectibles (art, wine, cars and coins)

A collectible is anything that has value and a marketplace where people buy and sell it. Examples include:

• Fine art
• High-end wine
• Classic cars
• Watches
• Memorabilia, comic books and trading cards
• Rare and collectible coins

Collectibles have smaller trading markets than stocks, bonds or real estate, often through auctions and private sales, so there’s no single public price to check. Before you buy, an expert appraisal can confirm that an item is authentic and fairly priced.

Pros of owning collectibles

• Appreciation: Rare items can gain value over time. A classic car that’s no longer in production, for example, can become more valuable as others like it get harder to find.
• Personal use: You can drive a classic car or wear a luxury watch.

Cons of owning collectibles

• High barriers to entry: Top-quality pieces often cost more than many investors want to put into a single item.
• Illiquid: It can be difficult to buy and sell rare collectibles quickly. Plus it requires an appraiser and a motivated buyer.
• Care and insurance: Art, wine and cars need the right storage conditions and insurance to hold their value.
• No income: Most collectible assets do not create income, so you only earn a return if the asset increases in value.

How much should you hold in tangible assets?

Tangible assets are one part of your portfolio, and the right amount depends on your goals and your timeline. For gold, financial advisors often recommend 5% to 15% of your portfolio.

Buying precious metals as tangible investments

If you want to buy precious metals, here is how you get started:

Decide which metal

Gold holds more value in a smaller coin or bar, while silver costs less per ounce, so you can buy it in smaller amounts. So far, silver has been more popular with Swiss America’s customers this year. From January to July 2026, silver made up 55.3% of our orders, up from 47.4% in the same months of 2025, and gold made up 44.0%.

Pick a form

You can buy bullion in the form of bars or coins. There are benefits to each:

• Bars: Bars tend to have a lower premium per ounce than coins.
• Coins: Coins are easy to carry and recognized around the world.

Pay cash or use an IRA

You can buy metals with your regular savings, or hold them inside a self-directed IRA. 

An IRA can hold gold, silver, platinum and palladium bullion that meets IRS purity standards. Traditional IRA withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Here’s how a Gold IRA works:

• Custodian: You’ll work with an IRS-approved custodian to manage the account.
• Funding: You can roll over portions of your 401(k), transfer an existing IRA, or start a new IRA to buy metals with your retirement funds.
• Buying metals: Once you decide what to buy, you’ll direct your custodian to purchase the metals on your behalf.
• Storage: IRA metals have to be held at an IRS-approved depository.

Final thoughts on tangible investments

Precious metals are one of the simplest tangible investments to buy, store and sell, and you can hold them in an IRA for the tax advantages. 

If you want to go into 2027 as a diversified investor, ask the Swiss America team which precious metals fit your plan. 

Best tangible investments: FAQs

What are the best real assets to invest in?

Real assets is another name for tangible assets. For individual investors, the main options are precious metals, real estate and collectibles. Large institutions also count infrastructure and commodities as real assets.

What are some examples of tangible investments?

Common examples include gold and silver coins, rental property, farmland, fine art and classic cars.

Which physical assets hold their value over time?

Gold has the longest record as a store of purchasing power, although its price can fall in the short term. Real estate can also rise in value over the long term but results vary by location, property type and the market.

What is tangible wealth?

Tangible wealth is the value of the physical things you own, like property, precious metals, vehicles and collectibles. Financial wealth, by comparison, is what you hold in stocks, bonds and bank accounts.

Are commodities tangible investments?

Physical commodities like gold, silver, oil, copper and grain are tangible. Buying a futures contract or a commodity fund gives you exposure to the price, but you don’t own the physical goods.

The information in this post is for informational purposes only and should not be considered tax or legal advice. Please consult with your own tax professionals before making any decisions or taking action based on this information.