Gold has long been considered a rather old investment: not very profitable and mainly for nefarious investors. But recently, investors around the world have had a new shine on gold.
Image of Paul Katz/Getty
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Image of Paul Katz/Getty
Gold has long been considered a rather old investment: not very profitable and mainly for nefarious investors. But recently, investors around the world have had a new shine on gold.
Image of Paul Katz/Getty
2022 has been a rough year for investors: Between inflation, falling stock prices, and the collapse of cryptocurrencies, it’s hard to find safe havens.
All that economic turmoil has led many investors to one of the oldest places to store their wealth: gold.
For decades, investing in gold has been considered a very old form of investment, reserved for nefarious investors, perhaps a bit anti-establishment.
But last year, it seemed like everyone wanted to participate. Global gold demand increased by nearly 20% to a decade high.
Julia Grugan, 20, a senior at Temple University recently made one of her first big investments: A 10-gram gold bar.
Julia Grugan
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Julia Grugan
Julia Grugan, 20, a senior at Temple University recently made one of her first big investments: A 10-gram gold bar.
Julia Grugan
New Gold Investor
One of those buyers was 20-year-old Julia Grugen, a finance student at Temple University. A few months ago, she made one of her first big investments. In gold.
“I walked into the coin shop and it was all men,” she recalls with a smile. Grugan quickly realized she was not your typical golden customer. “I’m a little shy and I have hairpins in my hair.”
But Grugan was determined. She used to study economics and finance and she is not interested in the investments her friends are excited about, like NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
“I’m a former schoolgirl,” she said. “And specifically for gold, I definitely see it as a store of value rather than an investment.”
Investors around the world are looking for a store of value: a safe haven from inflation, geopolitical issues, and other things that can erode the value of a country’s currency. family.
So, with barrettes and all, Grugan went to the counter at the coin shop and placed an order for her. “I said, ‘I want a 10-gram bar.'” 10 grams of gold costs about $625.
Have gold in their portfolio
Millions of Americans have been and are doing so. Stefan Gleason is the president of Exchange metal coins, one of the largest gold and silver jewelry dealers in the country. Gleason said that since prices started rising during the early hours of the lockdown, his business has grown tremendously.
“We’ve seen five to ten times more order volume,” he said. Currently, his team works six days a week, packing and shipping around 2,000 boxes of gold bullion, silver bullion and coins each day.
Gleason said clients tell him that over the past few years they have shaken confidence in the US dollar, stocks and cryptocurrencies. But they trust gold.
Sound money
After all, gold is one of the oldest investments out there. A lot of the language around our money stems from gold. Like sound money, refers to an ancient method that people used to test the purity of gold.
The term “sound money” refers to an ancient method used to test gold purity: People would pound gold and listen to the sound it made. Pure gold has a special ring.
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Today, of course, the Money Metals Exchange uses high-tech equipment to test the purity of gold.
And there’s a lot of testing. The company is expanding rapidly: building a 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Eagle, Idaho.
Mike Gleason, Director of Money Metal Exchange, stands at the site of what will be the company’s new headquarters: A 40,000-square-foot facility in Eagle, Idaho.
Stacey Vanek Smith
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Mike Gleason, Director of Money Metal Exchange, stands at the site of what will be the company’s new headquarters: A 40,000-square-foot facility in Eagle, Idaho.
Stacey Vanek Smith
Mike Gleason, Stefan’s brother, is the director of the Money Metal Exchange. He is overseeing the construction. “Right now, we’re leveling the ground underneath the cellar,” he explains. “We’re really building for the future here.”
Countries are buying gold
The Gleasons are betting the future is gold. After all, countries like Turkey, China, Russia, and Poland are said to be buying huge amounts of gold. They also worry about inflation and geopolitical conflicts.
Gold doesn’t have a good track record as an investment: Gold right now is worth the same as it was 12 years ago. Almost any good stock will be a better bet.
But that doesn’t discourage true believers like 20-year-old Julia Grugan. She finally got her gold: a small bar the size of a postage stamp. She likes to take it out and just look at it from time to time.
Gold has a lot of cultural weight
“There’s a lot of cultural value that comes with gold,” she said. “You feel, you feel a little bougie, you feel special.”
Grugan said her grandfather, a teacher, invested in stocks and gold and was able to retire comfortably. In fact, one of the first things she did after receiving her gold nugget was text her grandma:
“I said, ‘Tell Poppy I just bought my first 10 grams of gold.’ And she said,’ Poppy said, ‘WOW. Great.'”
