Is anyone else feeling the inflation pinch and looking at

• •Man, these grocery bills lately are just insane.
• •Every time I hit Reasor's, it feels like I'm leaving a small fortune at the checkout.
• •My paycheck from the oil company just doesn't stretch like it used to, even with a decent salary as an exec assistant.

Man, these grocery bills lately are just insane. Every time I hit Reasor's, it feels like I'm leaving a small fortune at the checkout. My paycheck from the oil company just doesn't stretch like it used to, even with a decent salary as an exec assistant. I've been investing for a while now, mostly learning from the folks at work – those guys are usually pretty savvy about where the economy's headed.

I've always had a decent chunk of my portfolio (around 15-20% of my roughly $200k total) in physical gold, primarily through a Gold IRA since 2020. My thinking was always diversification and a hedge against uncertainty, but with inflation hitting like this, I’m seriously considering upping that allocation. I’m wondering if anyone else here is feeling the same pressure and actively shifting more into gold specifically for inflation protection?

I know the traditional advice is to own it, not trade it, and I've stuck to that so far. The executives I work for always talk about real assets during times of economic instability, and gold always comes up. Has anyone had a really strong positive experience using gold to weather significant inflationary periods in the past? Are there any pitfalls I should be extra aware of if I increase my allocation significantly, say up to 30-35%? I'm based out of Tulsa, and while the oil industry here usually brings some stability, even we're feeling the ripples.

Just trying to make sure my nest egg stays solid for the long haul. Any thoughts or experiences would be super helpful!