Which Investment Will You Go For!!!

Annualized returns as on 30 Sep 2025

Asset Class 1 (Gold):

-          One year: 52%. Outstanding performance by Gold

-          10 year: 16.12%

Asset Class 2 (Equities, basis Nifty 500 TRI):

-          One year: Negative 4.94%. Abysmal performance by equities in past 1 year, more so when compared to gold returns

-          10 year: 14.35%. Now it does not look that bad even if you bring gold in perspective

However, it is quite clear gold trumped equites both in long and short horizons.

Good many people will be inclined to go for gold investments going forward, now that data proves gold trumps equities even in long horizon

But hang on. What was the situation on 30 Sep 2024, and for good measure on 30 Sep 2023. Here we go…

Annualized returns as on 30 Sep 2024

Asset Class 1 (Gold):

-          One year: 30.99%. Gold still shines!!!

-          10 year: 10.92%. Still going good, even in long pull

Asset Class 2 (Equities, basis Nifty 500 TRI):

-          One year: 41.54%. Wow. Great performance by equities

-          10 year: 15.48%. Equities pull ahead of gold in long term by a good margin

This time, equities trump gold, both in long and short horizons

Annualized returns as on 30 Sep 2023

Asset Class 1 (Gold):

-          One year: 14.90%

-          10 year: 6.76%. Long horizon performance of gold was not great. Contrarian investing anybody?

Asset Class 2 (Equities, basis Nifty 500 TRI):

-          One year: 19.46%

-          10 year: 15.64%

Again, equities beat gold in both long and short horizons.

Essentially, equities won in two time periods, in both long and short horizons.

The question to you is: which asset class will you put your money going forward?

And here goes the statutory disclaimer: Past performance, may or may not be repeated in future.

My decision: I am biased towards equities. Not just on the basis of above performance data, but as I very strongly relate with Warren Buffet’s view on gold being an unproductive asset whose price rises only when fear abounds. Have a look at this excellent article on Buffet’s view on gold.

And here’s what late Charlie Munger said on gold:

“It is “peculiar to buy an asset which only will go really up if the world really goes to hell. It doesn’t strike me as an entirely rational thing to do”

After being in dilemma for few days, I sold some more gold in first week of Oct 2025 and rebalanced into equites.

That said, each to their own.