[Toddsterpatriot]

What the lackluster professor Siegel did not mention is that if you had saved a $100 in fiat cash, even as late as 1913, then your loss in buying power would have been over 96%! Hahaha! So, what do you want in your future? Depreciated and stupid fiat money, where you end up broke and bitter, or gold, where you end up where you started in terms of buying power, or (as now) ahead of the game and making big, big money on gold's rising price? Hahaha!

Who ever said that holding on to cash was a good idea? There are other investments. Even a few that do better than gold

Who's preening now?

[ArrogantBustard]

I can't read the x-axis on that graph.

[Skywalk]

You are conflating insurance against fiat collapse (and preservation of purchasing power) with 'investment vehicles.'

This really isn't a thread so much about INVESTING in gold as it is about the virtue of gold as a store of wealth. Now, I'm not jumping into this argument, but I don't like it when people escape simple points being made in a thread.

It's NOT ABOUT INVESTING (generally) with gold, it's about protecting oneself from the vagaries of fiat monetary systems.

Read what happened to Confederate bills during the war?

[simon says what]

Your chart is deceptive. Prior to 1971, Gold was fixed at $35 an ounce. It did not appreciate. After Richard Nixon closed the Gold Window in 1971, Gold was free to appreciate and depreciate like any other investment vehicle. Prior to 1971 Gold was money. A 100% return in Dollars for a stock equaled a 100% return in Gold. Dollars and Gold were interchangeable amongst countries. Here is a chart of price level returns only (no dividends) for Gold against the three major stock indexes.

Gold=Light Green   Nasdaq=Dark Green   S&P 500=Light Blue   Dow=Dark Blue

The Nasdaq is by far head and shoulders ahead of all. The Nasdaq has outperformed Gold since 1971 by 1830%. But Gold has outperformed the S&P 500 by 7.2% and the Dow by 75% since 1971. Again, this does not include dividend re-investment but you can clearly see from the chart from 1971 to 1991, Gold offered the best returns. I'd wager with dividends re-invested, the Dow and S&P 500 came close to the same returns by 1991.