[Gaffer]

You don’t officially ‘lose’ unless you actually divest yourself of it at a price lower than you paid for it. So there is always the ever optimist out there saying it’s a good deal. Buy it now, or then, or when it’s at it’s highest because ‘analysts’ say it’s gonna hit $3000/oz.

Frankly, I’ve invested my cash in other things. Steel, copper, lead brass, etc. Under some circumstances this could be worth much more than gold.

[Graybeard58]

The only “costly” metal I ever bought was silver, not for it's intrinsic value but as an amateur numismatist. 30 or 40 years ago, I couldn't afford gold coins anyway but I have a good size collection of silver and copper coins, I quit tracking their value a long time ago as I will never sell them, eventually they will go to my kids and they can sell or keep them.

[The Duke]

You don’t officially ‘lose’ unless you actually divest yourself of it at a price lower than you paid for it.

Implicit to this statement (because you use the word "price") is that you are using some currency (almost certainly the dollar) as your frame of reference for assessing value.

However, dollars can be (and are being) printed arbitrarily. It's the value of the dollar that varies, an oz of gold, however, it always an oz of gold.

I'm not being critical of your thought process here (I had that same thought process for 95% of my own life), I'm just pointing out that there is another perspective that can make a lot of sense if you ponder it a bit.