If You Invested $1K in Gold 10 Years Ago, How Much Would You Have Today?

Question

When you think of buying gold, you may envision physical gold bars stacked in a safe just begging for a heist. However, whether you are looking to buy or sell gold products, it can be quite a lucrative long-term investment.

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Learn More Powered by Money.com - Yahoo may earn commission from the links above. Like most market-based investments, the price of gold gyrates in all directions, yet it has a safer reputation than stocks, bonds or digital currency. Tracking out how it has performed over the last 10 years is a great way to see how it could perform for you in the long run. So, if you invested $1,000 in gold a decade ago, how much would it be worth today?

Quick Take: 10 Years of Investing In Gold

Ten years ago, the price of gold had an average closing price of $1,158.86 per ounce. Today, it’s worth about $3,334.90 per ounce. That marks a 187% increase in value, or an average annual return of about 16% (not calculated for compounding interest) By that assessment, if you had invested $1,000 in gold a decade ago, it would be worth approximately $2,878 today. That’s a solid return. However, how does it compare to, say, an investment in stocks?

The S&P 500 rose 174.05% over the last ten years, for an average annual return of 17.41%. And that doesn’t even include its dividend yield over that time. Consider, too, that as volatile as the S&P 500 is, gold’s returns have varied even more in modern history.

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Gold’s Uneven History

When Richard Nixon severed the dollar from gold backing in 1971, the price of gold suddenly started floating at market rates. It consequently skyrocketed over the rest of the 1970s, delivering an average annual return of 40.2%. Then the 80s arrived, and the gold party screeched to a halt. From 1980 through the end of 2023, gold notched an average annual return of just 4.4%. Gold lost value throughout the 90s, for example.

Gold doesn’t work like other investments. Traditional investments like stocks and real estate work because they generate revenue. Investors measure that revenue, assess the likelihood of future revenue growth and put a value on the investment based on it.

Gold doesn’t produce revenue. In fact, it doesn’t “do” anything. It sits there and looks pretty. This may not mean much when the rest of the economy hums along healthily, but it can become plenty meaningful when a wrench gets thrown in the gears.

Why Investors Look To Gold Futures

Many investors consider varying amounts of gold the ultimate safe haven investment. When “the world goes to hell in a handbasket,” investors can buy gold in the form of gold coins, gold ETFs and more on the gold market.

Story ContinuesWhy? Precisely because it’s been used as a store of value for millennia Investors like gold as a hedge against geopolitical uncertainty. If global markets and supply chains look like they might get disrupted, investors flock to gold. In 2020, for example, gold jumped 24.43%.

Likewise, investors retreat to gold when fiat currencies lose value fast due to inflation. Amidst all the inflation anxiety in 2023, gold rose 13.08%. Even in 2025, according to current forecasts, the price of gold is expected to increase by around 10%, potentially pushing it close to the $3,000 per ounce mark, which as of halfway through the year in July, it has now surpassed.

Final Take To GO: Is Gold a Good Investment?

The bottom line is that gold offers a non-correlated hedge against stock market crashes. In other words, gold offers diversification — a collapse in financial markets doesn’t cause a collapse in gold prices. Quite the opposite: Many investors believe gold will rise in price if a bear market hits.

In tougher economic times, hedging against inflation with alternative assets like gold can be a steadfast option and is considered by many investors to be a safe haven, especially during political turmoil and market uncertainty. Not only does it diversify your portfolio, but behaves differently than classic stocks and bonds, mitigating risk as not all of your nest eggs are in one basket.

So, is gold a buy? Though there are no guarantees, it has proven historically to be a defensive investment. Don’t expect it to generate the same returns as stocks or real estate or pay any cash flow. However, when the zombie apocalypse comes, gold will have value, even if no other investments do.

G. Brian Davis contributed to the reporting for this article.

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