[Tom Tetroxide]

If you had bought gold back in 1976 for $125/oz and held it until now at $3570/oz you would have a gain of 2856% on your investment.

[Alberta's Child]

If you invested in an S&P 500 index fund in 1976 and reinvested all the dividends over the years, I believe you’d have a total return of almost 24,000% right now.

[Chad_the_Impaler]

Sorry, but a small quibble on your math: that is only a 2756% return since you have to subtract the original 100%.

[plain talk]

“If you had bought gold back in 1976 for $125/oz and held it until now at $3570/oz you would have a gain of 2,856% on your investment.”

Well a lot has gone up since 1976. That’s almost 50 years. If you had bought the S&P 500 back in 1976 and held it until now you would have a gain of 23,898% on your investment.

Of course it’s not either/or as one can have many kinds of investments in a diversified portfolio.

[Georgia Girl 2]

We bought 18 years ago. 😊