Increasing gold holdings may be in many peoples’ future as an atmosphere of diminishing positive outlook of world economic growth becomes more apparent. In a statement from a senior executive of Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland, Coutts, Gary Dugan, Coutts’chief investment officer for Asia and the Middle East, remarked that many investors need to increase their holdings of gold because the decline in the value of paper money and that they should maintain seven to eight percent of their assets in gold.

“What’s happening in precious metals is that they are becoming more mainstream,” Dugan stated, remembering that ten years ago investors barely kept any gold in their portfolios.

“Some of the clients ask where gold prices are going, and I say don’t even think about prices. It’s a store of value.”

This echoes admonitions from other economic sages including Richard Russell of the “Dow Theory Letter,” who has said that it used to be that the one who gains the most wins, “I believe that from now on, the idea will be to hang on to as much of our wealth as we can. In other words, from here on the trick will be to avoid losing money. He who looses the least will be the winner.”

Dugan anticipates the price of gold to move in the direction of $2,000 in the months to come, held up by, among other things, purchases by central banks of emerging-markets.

Due to the world economy turning more turbulent and unpredictable after many years of normally dependable growth, gold’s attraction is also likely to grow, and there seems to be no quick answer to the economic difficulties coming out of the U.S. and Europe, Dugan remarked.

“We are going back to normality, and the normality is that precious metals are the core part of your portfolio,” he added.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that in these strange and unnerving times an idea for ones personal finances might need to be increasing gold holdings.