Hey! Welcome to that time of year when I feel reflective on the past, present, and future.

First off, this table from Kitco: 

https://www.kitco.com/charts/livegold.html#:~:text=Historical%20Gold%20Price,%2B550.03%25 

If you had purchased gold in 2000, and held it until now, you be up 550%! 

Of course, this would only be true if you were holding .9999 Fine (PURE) gold. Whoever you are selling your gold to will first verify your shipment (some sort of assay process) as well as validate the amount of gold you are trying to sell. You can expect to pay for shipping and insurance both to and from the buyer and there may also be other misc. charges deducted from your sale. 

Too, that 550% does not reflect all the premiums you had to pay to accumulate 22 years' worth of gold purchases. Your 550% could easily be below 400%, but still, that's not bad. 

As you should know by now, if you are going to invest in gold with the expectation that it will increase in value, then be prepared to hold on for the long haul without getting greedy, holding when you should have sold, or selling out of fear. Just ask those folks who bought gold in 2011 and were underwater until 2019. 

For those of us who like to pan our own gold, I think the strategy I like best is buying paydirt, panning it out, and passing on the gold recovered to the grandchildren. That would be a cool inheritance! 

What about you? I hope you are buying gold paydirt because you love that Eureka moment as much as I do - gold in the pan is what it's all about for me.

Let me know your thoughts. Michael