New York (CNN Business) For someone like me that can't afford to buy an ounce of gold, would it be just as good owning several ounces of silver vs. a half ounce of gold?

Great question. Gold, trading for more than $1,300 an ounce, is a much pricier investment than silver, which currently costs about $15 an ounce. In other words, you could purchase more than 40 ounces of silver for the same price as one half ounce of gold.

Investors treat gold more like a currency than silver, a metal that has many more industrial uses than gold. So if you want to buy silver, don't necessarily expect it to perform in tandem with gold.

Silver prices are actually down nearly 25% over the past five years while gold prices have been relatively flat. Silver has been hit harder, because investors are worried about slowing global economic growth. But both metals have undeperformed the broader stock market.

Still, investing experts say that gold, silver and other precious metals like platinum and palladium, could make sense as a small part of a broader investment portfolio.