# Will Gold Matter in the Post-apocalypse?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-gold-matter-in-the-post-apocalypse/841115>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 1, 2019, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-gold-matter-in-the-post-apocalypse/841115 "2019-10-01T21:15:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 9

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**Author:** ![ZurBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71e660/32.png) [@ZurBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZurBob)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-gold-matter-in-the-post-apocalypse/841115/161 "2019-10-05T07:44:25Z")

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> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#):
>
> Inigo Montoya the 1850s Prepper: “Aluminum is where it’s at! Why I’ve spent my family’s entire fortune on this ingot of fantastic metal! When the Union breaks up following the next big national crisis, I will have enough wealth to buy Hawai’i. Whatever that is.”

If it’s \>3 micron.

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**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2019, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-gold-matter-in-the-post-apocalypse/841115/162 "2019-10-05T14:43:02Z")

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> [@ASL\_v2.0](#):
>
> Of course, but then there’s the non-binary question of what to do after we’ve determined that gold is not, in fact, a sure thing. It leads us to ponder what to do, with our money pre-collapse, and whether gold is such s good bet in less troubling times. Gold beneath the floorboards may be better than cash dollars under the mattress, but is it better than a stock index fund as a long-term investment?

Well there’s no one answer to how to invest money but IMO gold is clearly not where to put a large % of a significant amount of money, because some variation on ‘normal times’ is the most likely scenario, and under that circumstance gold has an expected return of around 0% after inflation pre tax (and let’s assuming you’d do your taxes legally and pay capital gains tax on the phantom gains due to inflation when you sell it) but a pretty high volatility. Risk for negative real expected after tax return.

I think there’s an argument though for a relatively small allocation to gold for very bad scenario’s. Which again is not a ‘sure thing’ by definition since not even likely those scenario’s will come to pass, but they could. It’s really secondary actually that gold isn’t _gteed_ to help you if they did. Again as long as there’s a good chance it could, which I think there is.

But in some cases (like adjacent thread how to store $7k in gold) people are talking about basically trivial amounts. It doesn’t matter _that_ much how you invest $7k as long as it’s not completely stupidly. People with $7k need to prioritize somehow accumulating a lot more savings than that rather than worrying too much how the currently too small amount is invested. But I’d personally say a bank is the right place for that small an amount of money, since in everyday life stuff can come up (the roof leaks or something) where you need it. IMO you need much more money than that, or be on the way to accumulating it, before thinking about stocks or gold.

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