Roaming Returns

130 - The Truth About Gold: Overrated, Overhyped, or Essential?

• Tim & Carmela • Episode 130

šŸ”„ Is Gold Actually a Smart Investment — or Just an Overhyped Security Blanket?
This episode breaks down one of the most controversial topics in investing: whether gold really deserves a place in your portfolio.

Despite decades of advice telling investors to hold 3–10% in precious metals, the data tells a VERY different story. We dig deep into:

✨ The biggest myths about gold
 šŸ“‰ Why gold underperforms stocks again and again
 šŸ’° The hidden costs investors never account for
 šŸ“Š 100-year return comparisons
 šŸ§  The psychology of fear, scarcity, and ā€œsafe havenā€ bias
 šŸš« Why modern investors — especially income-focused or minimalist lifestyles — should think twice

This isn’t an attack on gold. It’s a reality check backed by history, math, and real-world data. If you’ve ever wondered whether gold is a smart hedge… or just a shiny distraction… this episode is for you.

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**DISCLAIMER**
Ticker metrics change as markets and companies change, so always do your own research. The content in this podcast is based on personal experience and is for educational purposes, not financial advice. See full disclaimer here.

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Welcome to roaming returns a podcast about generating a passive income with dividend stocks so you can secure your finances and liberate your life. 

Today we’re taking on one of the most sacred cows in the finance world: gold. Yep — the thing everyone says you must own ā€˜just in case the world ends.’
But here’s the truth… most people don’t actually understand what gold does, what it doesn’t do, or why the advice to own 3–10% of it is basically a recycled talking point from the 1970s.

No income, unpredictable price behavior, insane storage and insurance fees, awful tax treatment — and historically? It gets obliterated by stocks.

So today, we’re breaking down the myths, the data, the psychology, and whether gold actually deserves a spot in a modern portfolio…
or if it’s just a shiny emotional support metal. Let’s get into it.

What's up y'all? All right. We are still sick, me especially. I don't know what the hell's going on.Oh, next week I'll have my, my sloth on. Oh, I forgot. Or your whoopee cushion that I actually found.Oh, the whoopee cushion, yeah. I did find it when we were like unpacking. So I will be in Halloween costume for Thanksgiving, before Thanksgiving.So I do, I do want to give a quick update on the condo situation. So for whatever reason, I completely whiffed on the furlough, which is odd considering I used to work at the government, but we weren't really getting any, many showings and we weren't getting many offers or any offers. And I was like, WTF is happening.Like, this is so weird because the condo is like pristine. And then I realized, oh crap. Well, so we lowered the price 10 grand.Cause like we want to get stuff moving. Cause that still hits our, uh, our goal target threshold. We were just trying to see if any fish would bite at the other price range.You're being greedy. Well, he was doing whatever he was doing. I know what it's worth.It's worth what we put it for. So someone's getting the deal. Well, anyway, uh, now that we changed it down and this furlough bill got signed, the government's open again today.Yeah. I got signed this morning. We, uh, I have like three or four showings already on the list.So end of January, pretty sure that had something to do with it. I completely whiffed on it. So we'll keep you updated on the whole condo situation as it transpires because it's holding us up from being able to invest that money, which you guys desperately want to see.Everything's hinging upon it. I know. Very stressful.It's not my fault. It's all I have to say. Totally your fault.Okay. So back to the controversy. This is going to piss off a lot of people.So if you want to sit back with popcorn and watch the comments coming about how people are gonna be pissed off, this is the one that's going to piss them off. Yeah. All right.All the stuff we say this is, yeah. Um, so we're going to talk about gold today and how everybody loves it. Like, Oh, I need gold in my portfolio.Like every expert says you should have anywhere between 3% and 10% depending on what publications that you frequent and they all say gold, gold, gold, gold. So I said, look, I'm taking a unbiased look. I just looked like I basically just researched why is gold a good investment and why is gold a bad investment? And then I'll give you my two cents at the end.So the information part at the beginning is unbiased. Then obviously my opinion is going to have some bias in it. A lot of bias.Okay. So the, the number one reason why people think gold is a good investment investment is because it's a safe Haven asset. That means gold prices tend to rise during times of geopolitical tension, economic crisis, or stock market downturns, which helps you preserve wealth while your other assets decline.And you've seen that historically, like when, um, the stock market goes down, gold goes up. Or that is, that is the main argument that it's a, it's a hedge against. Oh, that's the second point.Oh, so they're different. Yeah. Oh, nevermind.I just jumped the gun. My bad guys. The second, the second reason, and this is questionable at best is that a gold is an inflation hedge.Gold has historically maintained its purchasing power and value during periods of high inflation as its supply is limited and not subject to currency devaluation by governments. So what that's basically saying is the governments can't manipulate the price of gold. Allegedly that's if you believe that inflation, it's an inflation hedge.You don't believe that the price can be manipulated. Allegedly. I like that word.Uh, the third reason is its portfolio diversification, which I'm all for diversification in your portfolio. So if you want to buy gold, that's fine for that reason. Yeah.That makes that, that's a logical reason for diversification. Gold has a low correlation with stocks and bonds. Like I was just saying, like when stocks go down, gold goes up when bonds go down, gold goes up.So like that actually holding true. Yeah. Well we saw like probably 10 years ago, like when stocks went down, bonds went up and gold went up.When stocks went up, bonds went down and gold went up. So like, it was a weird like clusterfuck of a triangle, I guess, because that, because it's independent of stocks and bonds and can't be manipulated that the, you can help you manage risk and have your overall portfolio of volatility lower because it's not tied to anything else. Allegedly.The next reason why it's a good investment is high liquidity. People are always looking for gold, physical gold and standardized bar or coin form is highly, highly liquid. You can literally buy it from any vendor or dealer worldwide.I would argue that liquidity thing, but okay. Okay. Let's hear it out.The next point that why gold is a good investment is, is a tangible asset. As a physical asset, gold provides a sense of security and control that digital or paper assets cannot offer. And that is one of the boomer, one of the biggest reasons why people like gold say that when they buy gold, they actually get a gold bar.They're like, Oh, I have a gold bar in my hand, but most people will get to that. Why? It's not a, why it's not a good investment, but most people actually have to store that someplace. And so they actually don't have tangible asset in their hand.They actually have it stored someplace. But anyway, and the last reason is that gold is a universally recognized. You can go to any country in the world with gold and they'll be like, Oh, that's gold.Yeah. Give me that gold. And my thesis is that's how a Bitcoin is going to be some at some point.Like you can go to like any bumblefoot country and be like, I have a one Bitcoin. What can I get? But that's neither here. That's another, another discussion.Another topic for another time. Gold is physically accepted worldwide. Now the reasons why gold is a bad investment.The first one for us and people, I'm assuming if you watch us, you have the similar concept. So these are not us coming up with these reasons. This is actually from research, but we're just going to make personal comments because we're in this camp.Correct? No, I have my two cents. This is just a, like this isn't from research. It's from research, but it's, I'm not going to make comments on it.If you watch us, this is going to be a big reason why you might not like gold because it does not generate income. Gold is a nonproductive asset that does not pay dividends, interest, or generate cashflow. Returns rely solely on price appreciation.Yep. Just like growth stocks. The second, second reason why gold is not a good investment is it has lower longterm return over long periods, multiple decades.The stock market has generally provided significantly higher average annual returns than gold. And that is like, you can go back a hundred years and you can see periods where gold like has a, there's a little small periods where gold has a better return than the stock market. But generally speaking, probably over 80% of the time, if you just invest in stocks, you're actually getting a higher annual return than gold.Now you saw this comment, but you actually went back and double checked that for your own data. Yes. So Tim confirmed that that wasn't just like a random comment that we just picked somebody, somebody claiming.Okay. Uh, it's, it's very volatile. Like any commodities, like, uh, silver, gold, um, soybeans, uh, oil, it's volatile.It's a safe Haven and downturn. Gold prices can be extremely volatile in the short term, short term. It may not always move in the expected direction.Like we said previously, like when stocks go down, gold goes up. There are been periods of time where stocks went down and goals went down. And there's been periods of times where stocks went sideways and goals went down.Gold is basically, you are dependent on other people's perception of the value of it. Just like any other tradable asset for value. Like we talk about that all the time with crypto.We talk about that all the time with stocks. It is definitely the perceived value that somebody is willing to pay or not pay. And then there are the next reason why it's not a good investment is stuff that people don't think of, but this is stuff that people don't think of across the board.So it's not just pertaining to gold. There's additional costs that come with owning gold, owning physical gold. You incur extra costs for secure storage and insurance against the theft or loss.These costs can and will show in a minute that they will, they do erode potential returns. Then there's the opportunity costs. While you're hoarding your gold, money that's invested in gold could be invested in growth oriented assets like equities, potentially leading to you missing out on like say NVIDIA or Palantir higher returns during strong economic periods because you're hoarding a physical, a physical bullion.Is that what it's called? Bullion. And especially with like, if you do decide you're going to sell it, I would consider this a non liquid asset or a non easily liquidated, just like a house. It takes time to find a buyer.It's pretty easy. Well you can go in, but that doesn't mean you're going to accept the price of the person you're going. And so you might need to go to different places to hop to figure out the price that you want.You know what I'm saying? No, it's, it's very liquid. Is it consistent for like value? No, like I did not think get that impression. Gold is at like $4,200 an ounce right now.If you went into any dealer, they'd probably give you 4,200 an ounce minus their fees. So that, that right there might be the reason why you're thinking it's not non liquid, non liquid. Because if you go to one dealer, they have like a 1.5% fee to like, and another one has a percent, 1% so you're obviously going to try to find the best physically have to go or you physically have to take it with you.You have to take it with you. You have to have like papers validate that you have a secure storage. I'm sorry if I saw somebody rolling around with gold bullion, I'd probably go whack them with a bat and take it.You have the risk of, you know, people, people robbing you. That's why it's, it's cumbersome. Like we consider it cumbersome.And then the last one that people don't think about, I don't know why blows my mind. In some jurors is jurisdictions. Just like the United States, a physical, physical gold may be taxed at a higher collectible rate.It's actually considered a collectible. It's not like a equity or money. So it's up to 28% longterm capital gains.What? When it's a lot, it's that's a very, that's higher rate than most people. Yeah. Longterm investment.That is, that is. Cause like if you hold the equities for, um, the longer term capital gains, it's 15%. Like it drops you down into that lower tax bracket.28. The 28th is actually like obviously like the different, um, income classes. Like, is that, is that the, the middle one that most people are in, which is usually around the 25, I assume 24, 25.So it'd be 24 to 28. But if you did the longterm capital gains for equities, it would be 15. So there's, there's that, that's a pretty big gap.That's over 10%. There's potential for high taxes that people don't think about. I did not know that.That's crazy. So that's like what I found in the research. Now I'm going to tell you my opinion.My opinion is a little bias, but I actually look at it from like my lifestyle. Yeah. Um, the first doesn't make sense.The first thing is while most of like a lot of the experts consider gold a safe haven investment, it can decline in value during the beginning of an equity sell-off if people need to sell the metal to make money, to meet margin calls. So if like a lot of people have like margin on their brokerage account and like the first thing that they'll sell off to actually meet the margin so they don't lose, like lose their shirt basically is their gold. I would think people would hoard their gold at all costs.Well, if it comes down to a gold or a house, they're going to obviously take the gold. I don't know. Some people do crazy stuff for that.But, but again, and same thing we talked about with equities. If you put money in that you cannot afford to lose, you are subject to the price perception of value at that point when you go to sell. And the same thing happens with gold as it does with equities, any type of stock, the same thing with houses.And then I also found out, I, I also believe that gold has, um, roles that are different than, than a safe haven. For example, it falters when the dollar rises or when people buy bonds, which can happen at the same time. And that risk event might otherwise that, that type of situation where the dollar is lower and bonds are lower should boost the price of gold.But there's like lots of instances where gold went down with the bonds and the dollar. So you would argue the hedge comment, the safe haven or whatever you would argue that comment just based on reality. I don't think it's a safe haven because like it used to be back when back in the eighties and nineties, it had a very particular pattern.But now like in the two thousands, cause everything is. So the pattern has changed just kind of like, and this kind of reminds me of like Amazon. So when Amazon first came out and like you bought products there, they had the lowest prices now.And then people got used to that claim that they have the lowest prices. They have the lowest prices. Well now if you actually go out and look, so people got accustomed to that or just assume that and stopped comparing.Amazon does not always have the lowest prices anymore. And I imagine that there's a very similar correlation here with gold that it doesn't always, you know, do that store value. From like 2001 on, especially during 2009, the recession that we had and the COVID recession, like you would think that the price of gold would have with us a certain way because it's a safe haven basically up and it didn't, it went sideways or down.So like that, that narrative has changed. Yeah. So that means people's perceptions and the correlations have changed or there's manipulation or there's both who knows.Mm hmm. And then my pattern has shifted as a safe haven. You would think that it wouldn't have volatile prices, but what I'm actually seeing is commodities in general.And this is across the board, oil, copper, silver, soybeans, whatever. They are especially prone to ups and downs because they, um, they're in use. Uses are tightly tied to the ebbs and flows of the global global economy.Gold, gold just used to be bars, but now they're actually starting to use it for other stuff. So it's kind of tied into the whole, what other stuff? they actually find a utility for it. Cause that was my biggest pitch about gold.They have, I didn't write the silver super usable and send like all sorts of tech batteries, all sorts of crap. Batteries. I don't know.Right. That's what I'm saying. Like gold doesn't actually have like a utility.Jewelry. Everything that comes to mind is like jewelry and um, coins, coin collections and stuff like that. Not utility.That's not, but as a safe haven, you shouldn't have to deal with like super high volatile ebbs and flows of price that kind of defeats the safe haven thing. It's not like T bonds. Like we've seen in the last like three weeks, gold went up to 4,400 an ounce and then dropped back down to 3,900 now.So that's like a $500 swing. And like for literally no reason. That's a big percent change too.Eighth, 12%. Yeah. So that's my take on the safe haven aspect.Um, my biggest bitch with it is you actually need a safe place to store physical gold. You can't actually store it in your house unless you buy a big safe and you have a gun to watch it. So if you don't want to store gold at home, you'll have to pay a third party like a bank or a specialty facility to house your goal for you.And you have to qualify them because there's a lot of people that have got scammed with trusting somebody else to manage their gold. And then it actually wasn't physically, you know, because you can actually buy gold for, what are they called? Some arbitrator or something like how I trust has it where you can buy it and they store it and they house it and they, whatever it, I don't know, but you never have to touch it. You never have to see it third party.So you never have to actually physically touch it and this and that. And like, there's a lot of like comments and stuff and worry out there that it's not real. I mean, it's very similar to the whole crypto, not your wallet, not your key, not your wallet, not your crypto or whatever.It was very similar. Like if you don't actually physically have the gold or see the gold, it might not be what I found is it. The average fee for storing gold is around 0.5% of the total value of your gold.so if you have a hundred thousand, a hundred thousand of gold, you're paying $500 to them to store it. So you had been, is that a yearly charge? Yes. But that assumes you prefer non segregated storage.Meaning your goal is stored with everyone else's gold, segregated storage, which I would imagine if you have goals where your goal is stored separate from other people's will run around 1%. So you're paying twice as much to have your shit by itself. I mean, so that means a hundred thousand again, and you're paying a thousand dollars.Well, not only that. So like we're getting into the van life thing and like, we can't even justify having physical books because of the space and like the, the weight and all that. Do you really think we're going to be toting gold around in the middle of nowhere? If we're going to be keeping it on hand ourself to not want to pay these fees? Absolutely not.So that's something that the people don't think about. They don't think about the storage fees. And like in some States, the storage fee is like 1.5%. So, I mean, we're just saying like, that's, that's a pretty big chunk.Yeah. Eating into your actual returns. If you're going to sell.So I took the low end 0.5 to 1%. Obviously the high end would have been about prop one and a half to like two and a half percent. Whoa. So that's actually going to eat near total returns, and then I went into long-term real returns since 1971. So are those all the bad reasons? No, no. Oh, there's more? Okay.Well, since 1971, after the gold standard ended, if you're not old enough to remember or you didn't look at history, Nixon said the dollar's not going to be tied to gold anymore in 1971. Yeah, we've all heard about the gold tie standard. So what's happened since then, since 1971, so what is that, 29, 54 years, gold has delivered a real annual return of approximately 4.75% per year.Which is less than a 10% stock market average. Over the past two centuries, gold's real annual returns have averaged just 0.4% per year, only slightly beating cash in the very long run, two centuries, obviously. That's like not even enough to beat inflation.So then I said, okay, so like I was going through that, I said, what's gold versus stocks? Well, there was a professor at NYU who did something since 1928, he said, his data came out with that if you had bought $100 worth of gold in 1928, your gold would be worth $8,867 at the end of 2022. If you invested $100 in stocks in the S&P, your value would be $624,535. That's a huge difference, $8,800 versus $624,000.And then he went from 1970 to 2020, which is a 50 year period, $100 investment in the S&P with dividends reinvested would have got you 68,000%, while gold depreciation was around 5,333%. Again, that's a wide disparity. Then he went 84 to 24, which is 1640 years.S&P was returning an annualized rate of 11.6, whereas gold was 4.3. The average inflation rate during the same period was 2.8. So that means after your storage fees and insurance fees, you're basically at break even or even down with your gold investment. I forgot, I didn't mention when we were talking about the storage fees, insurance fees, what's it basically whenever you have gold, you want to make sure it's insured. So if someone steals it, you get your money back.Insurance fees are 1.5%. So you're looking at... On top of that 0.5 to 1%. So if you have $100,000 in gold, you're paying $1,500 in insurance. So again, you're basically at break even.So as an inflation hedge, it's not so much. I guess it's better than holding cash, I guess we'll say that. But the overall CAGR from 1971 to 2025, the S&P, it's a total return.It's a total return metric that you use in stocks, had a compound annual growth rate. That's what it is. Compound annual growth rate of 11.52 while gold's was 11.19. You mean 8.19? Or 8.19, yeah.So 11.52 versus 8.19. So you're making 3% more from 71 through 2025. And you have to remember 2024 was a huge year for gold. Gold went up like I want to say 50% or 60% in 2024.So that's even including that big year, which probably really skews that freaking percent. So the total returns, you're actually making a shit ton more with stocks. Inflation hedge, you're actually not actually hedging inflation because if you take in the total return of 4% for the 40 or 50 years, 4.75 I think it was, I remember.And so you take out your fees, 1.5 for your insurance takes that down to 3.25 and then you take out your 1% for your storage fees, you're at 2.25 and inflation is running around 3%. So you're actually losing almost a percent compared to inflation after you take out the fees for your gold. Now I can see the argument for a lot of people who argue towards gold with the cost of the dollar or the devaluation of the dollar, which is I'm assuming the reason most people get into gold is because they see where the dollar is losing power, it's weakening, it's not globally recognized as well as it used to be and gold is still globally recognized as good.But Bitcoin is also coming up as well. At the same time, I understand the dollar is weakening, but when you buy gold, generally it's priced in US dollars. Yeah.Like over 90% of the exchanges that I found actually, gold was to US dollars. Oh, that's interesting. Very interesting.So any changes to the dollar's value has a direct impact upon your gold price. So you have to have a basic currency understanding of like... So wait a minute, that actually makes a bigger impact on the price of gold too because even though it's not technically tied to the dollar, people are still viewing it as tied to the dollar? To buy it, it's in dollar form. That's interesting.Same as that's why we have the oil contracts that we do because oil's pegged to the US dollar. That's why if you look at any of the exchanges, it'll say $60 per barrel or whatever. That's really interesting.So when the US dollar strengthens against other currencies, it becomes more expensive for investors holding other currencies to buy gold because then they actually have to transfer their whatever they have into dollars to buy gold. So they're losing... Oh, you get a transfer fee. They're losing the money, transferring it to dollars so you have less to buy, less dollars to begin with.But on the other hand, a weaker dollar can relate to rising gold prices because as the US dollar weakens, you're actually getting more in your currency exchange. So I guess people are liking the fact that the dollar's down like 20% this year or 25%. Maybe that's why gold went up.The surge in demand for gold has the potential to drive prices up, making it an enticing option. Which is just like anything supply and demand. That's one of my biggest bitches about gold.I found... Who said it? I think it was Warren Buffett. It was Warren Buffett. This is one of Warren Buffett's awesome quotes.He said that the price of gold is when you buy gold, you're basically dependent on that somebody else is going to be more scared than you are in the future and willing to pay more than you pay for it. Yeah, because people only really buy gold out of fear. Fear, unknown, uncertainty, it comes from that unknowing thing.That's the reason people buy gold. Everybody I've ever talked to that's ever had it, they have that scarcity mindset. It's very interesting.So as we said before, storage and security requires 0.5 to 1%. That's at the low end. Insurance at the low end is 1%, at the medium end is 2% of your gold's value.Transaction costs, when you buy physical gold, you often pay a premium over the spot price whenever you go to the gold distributors. The exchanges places? It's generally 1% to 2% of your gold's value, what you're paying for their transaction fee. Your taxes, as we mentioned previously, can be subject to up to 28% of your capital gains.So you look at all those fees. We'll just do the low end, which I'm not saying that's what you're going to pay. It's 0.5, 1%, and 1%.So that's 2.5% on the low end. Most likely you'd end up paying the 2% for the transaction fee, 1.5 for your insurance. So you're looking at 3.5, probably 0.5 for your storage fee.So you're looking at 4% right there. And then over the last 50 years, gold's correlation to inflation has been super weak. Statistically, it's only 0.16 on a scale where zero means no relationship and one means they move together.That means gold is a super unreliable hedge against inflation because it's almost damn near zero, where there's no relation between inflation and gold. That's not even close. So what I'm saying, and I cannot stress this enough, is if you buy gold, bully for you, but most people don't take in the storage, the insurance, and the transaction costs.We're basically saying if you choose to buy gold, make sure that you're aware of all these extra things and factor that in before you make the decision. If you still decide to make the decision, power to you. That is exactly the point.Informed consent is all we care about. If you're making intelligent, deliberate decisions based on your circumstances. So that was 4%. So you remember the number before, 4.75 over a 50 year period. I thought it was 4.3. It was 4.75, is what they returned with. So you're only making 0.75. Inflation is at 3%. So you're actually losing 2.25% against inflation. So that whole, it's a hedge against inflation, and I'm telling you, it's something where they spin the narrative so that you feel, oh, I have to get this scarce. Because it is scarce.There's only so much gold. That part is accurate. There's only so much gold.Once it's all dug up, that's it. Yeah, but one of the weird things I don't like about gold is the cumbersomeness of it. And I just, it's shiny.So gold doesn't pay dividends. It doesn't generate income. It doesn't promise to repay you later.So it's basically your only- It doesn't fit anything in our approach. The only thing is it's based purely on supply and demand, which is very unpredictable and driven by fear rather than logic. So you're not getting any income, and you're not getting your inflation hedge.Which are the two things that they preach the most. Yeah. So when you buy gold, you're essentially hoping that someone in the future will pay you more for what you pay for it.That's not investing. That's speculating. That is no different than when people do- Hold and hope.That's hold and hope. When people do the penny stocks, it is no different than when people do the cryptocurrency stuff. You're speculating, hoping that someone will pay you more in the future.Now granted, gold has a better track record of going up in price- Than penny stocks, yes. So the probability is in your favor that someone will pay you more for it in the future. But you might disagree with everything that I just said about gold.You can do your own research, or you can just have your own opinion. It's fine. But Warren Buffett, everyone basically ... I don't like him a lot, but he's on point with it.He's on point with gold. He said, with an asset like gold, for example, you know, basically gold is a way of going long on fear, and it has been a pretty good way of going long on fear from time to time. But you really have to hope people become more afraid in a year or two years than they are now.And if they become more afraid, you make money. If they become less afraid, you lose money. But the gold itself doesn't produce anything.The only value, so that was what he said, the only value in gold has is if people are so scared they're willing to pay more for gold than you bought. That's all I have to say about it. With stocks, you don't have to worry about the fear in that regard, because obviously if you invest in, say, Walmart, it's basically based on the financials.Now there is the fear of when the financials come out where people will overreact. But there is numbers behind it. There are metrics behind it.So you have a board. There's work being done. There's people purchasing products.There's shifting changes. There's people moving inventory. And they adapt as, like gold doesn't adapt, whereas businesses adapt as things come out if they're a good business.And Warren Buffett is also one of those people who is about dividends, correct? That's why he said they're... Except for his company. He's like, we will not pay it if I own it. Basically if everyone feels great, you lose money.If everyone is terrified, you make money. So right now in the market of FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt... Right now you're making money because everyone's terrified. Everyone's terrified.But again, you have to sell to lock in your profit. And most people don't want to sell. They get greedy or they think it's going to continue in that direction.But even if you sell right now, you have to worry about the fucking capital gains tax being like twice as much as equity. I did not know that. That's crazy.That is crazy. I didn't break down that. Did you look at... So 28 was the middle bracket.I don't know if 20 is the middle or if it's the upper. I don't know. You're the worst.This is why I shouldn't let you do your own research. Okay. Yell at him, guys.Let's yell at him. So gold does have long-term holds, long-term gains. So if you're holding it more than a year, the maximum rate you could pay is 28%. So that is exactly correlated to the 15% that we were talking about earlier for stocks. If you're in the lower tax bracket, it's actually zero. So we're actually in the lower tax bracket.So 28% rate for the long-term hold? Yeah. That's a big difference. In short-term, taxed at ordinary income, which could be actually up to 37% depending which tax bracket you're in.So short-term holding of gold is the same as your tax bracket, which is exactly the same as stocks for short-term holds. So honestly, there's actually no difference whether you're holding gold or you're holding stocks for less than a year. So the only difference is the long-term hold.But most people do hold gold for the long-term, which then turns it into that collectible where you do not go below that 28%. Oh, so you still have lower. So basically, just like any other freaking investment, it has different things depending on your tax bracket.Gold's because of the collectible is at a higher rate than it would be for the stocks at the 15 cap top is what I'm seeing. But it can be less depending if your income is less. I'm not going to get into the weeds.You can always look up a chart or I can link to a chart since apparently describing it through talking is very difficult when it comes to income brackets. And we'll go from there. Probability is if you're getting $100,000 in gold, you're in one of the upper brackets.Upper brackets. So you probably are paying the 28% versus 15. Yes.So if that was the point you made, okay. Gotcha. But again, simple equation.People feel good, you lose money. If people feel scared, you make money. That's the only equation you have to know about.That's the goal. Send us hate comments. Send us hate comments.Well, the people that usually argue are the ones who don't want to look at the facts and that's not our problem. If you're ignoring objective facts, that's on you. Next week's podcast is a banger.I basically create a breakdown of the starter portfolio based on current data. So we have X percent in X sector. So we'll go through that and then I'll give you an idea if you put $1,000 into each investment that I suggested, how much you'd make in a year.And it's pretty good. It's really good. I think I may have broken the retirement equation paradigm, whatever you want to call it, last night because I was typing it up next week's podcast last night and I was like, I think I just broke the retirement system.If anybody will actually accept it, which they will never ever talk about it, but we will and we'll talk about it next week. That's next week. Next week will be fun.Hopefully we're better by then. We'll see. God, I swear to God, my voice needs to come back.And this is actually, I sound good right now compared to how I've been. It is like ridiculous. See you guys next week.See you next week.