Gold matters, or doesn't it?

I managed to survive the 2008 financial crisis unscaved. However, when soon after the European debt crisis hit I started to get seriously worried. Living in a eurozone country I lost trust in the Euro as a currency and in the financial markets in general.

Searching for alternatives I ended up looking at gold. A company like Goldmoney allows you to dollar cost average into physical gold without the exorbitant fees normally associated with such a strategy for the small retail investor. Soon after gold left its peak in 2011 I started saving a small portion of my money in gold in early 2012. Now, 8 years later, what has that strategy brought me?

While my friends made money in the stock market or used cheap mortgages to get into real estate, I ended up with a small loss. Now I know that this is not a desastrous result given that there are many people who got hurt far worse by the shenanigans of the financial market. Still, you can hardly call it a success.

Would I do things differently if I had a chance? No, probably not! I'm not a gambling man. Buying overpriced assets, using cheap credit as one can always default if things go south, is not my style. I like to live a frugal life, setting something aside for a rainy day and to now and then treat myself or my loved ones to something special. Unfortunately that lifestyle is fully out of fashion.

There are some, often those selling gold, that claim that you just have to be patient. Gold will shine again! I sincerely doubt it. After a decade of monetary expansion I feel that the adverse effects of a return to a sound monetary system would be far worse than the benefits that any kind of physical gold holding or even a crytocurrency can ever offer. Still, I do hope that gold will offer me some kind of protection.

Unfortunately we are living in a world where people are forced into taking ever increasing amounts of risk to achieve any kind of upward mobility. It is a sad, sad state of affairs.