Barefoot- Stackers, Their Wives and Stocks

granted the stock market has made a lot more money over 200 years but that was the life cycle of this massive debt ponzi. Now we are at the end of it, (surely) gold will show a better return... unless confiscated

 

I find the discussion about opportunity cost interesting.
Must admit it never enters my mind.
I make the call and live with the outcome- good or bad.
There are missed opportunities every day.

Do you measure everything against the perfect outcome in hindsight ?
Do you include all the money you spent on travelling or raising kids as lost investnent opportunity ?

if that couple in the story have kids they've blown a hell of a lot more than $35k over the years :lol:

 

I don't measure investments against the perfect outcome (bank interest being much less than shares for example) - and am only referring to financial investments not personal investments (education, travel etc.)

 

...

 

"Famed Wharton finance Professor Jeremy Siegel keeps long-term (inflation-adjusted) returns of various asset classes, dating all the way back to January 1802. He found that if you put one US dollar under your bed in 1802, it's purchasing power would have been eroded to just 5 cents by December 2013.

What about if you'd invested that dollar in gold? The Professor says it would be worth $3.21 today.

What if you'd invested that dollar into the share market? It would have compounded to a staggering $930,550."


Um, just a wild stab in the dark, but something tells me he's quoting an *inflation-adjusted* ROI for one, but not the other?

Kinda makes a little difference..


Of course, any numismatic value is completely & conveniently thrown out the window.


Finally, didn't realize they had index funds back in 1802..

 

My pick of the comments so far ....

 

Diversification is for wimps.

 

"A $50 dollar bill from a bank he owned in Rockford, Illinois that's signed by the fella who ran the bank for him.
They issued their own currency, so he carried that around for good luck."

http://www.gobankingrates.com/personal-finance/whats-warren-buffetts-wallet/

(Or his 20 year old Nokia flip phone) xD

 

The USD price of gold in 1802 was $19.39 per ounce (http://onlygold.com/Info/Historical-Gold-Prices.asp). This means at that time, you'd have purchased 1.606 grams of gold.

The *lowest price* in USD for gold during 2013 (comparative year) was $1195 per ounce, $38.36 per gram (http://onlygold.com/Info/Gold-Price-History-Since-1972.asp).

Your purchased 1.606 grams of gold would be worth USD $61.61, not $3.21 as stated in the article. An error margin of nearly 2000% does not engender confidence in any other claim made in said article.

It sounds more to me like someone who couldn't be bothered doing the math just pulled a number out of their hat.

 

Invest first in your health, in a positive attitude, in good friends and in emotional resilience against the inevitable bad shit that happens to virtually everyone at some point.

Then blow your money however you want, but you'll probably make better investment decisions than someone mired in doom, gloom and tales of imminent disaster, and who never gets out to just appreciate the world sometimes.

 

Oh, and Libertads, most certainly invest in Libertads. Thank you!!.

 

This is called a "Cash Cannon". xD!