You're 65. How much would you have if you BOUGHT GOLD for 47yrs with what you put into SOCIAL SECURITY???

just with some rough calculation, if you earned $7800 in 1968 and paid 7.6% SS tax, that would be $608 withheld. At $38 / oz, that would have bought about 16oz of gold. That would be worth $20,800 today and that's just from 1 year of withholding.

Doesn't sound like much of a trade to me.

Do the same math for the Dow Jones.

POTATO! A lot of them.

In 1985, the same formula based on an income of $38k would have netted you about 14oz of gold, a current value of over $18k in today's dollars.


So, let's be conservative and just go with an average of 13oz of gold annually between 1968 and 2004, again, just based on the purchasing power of what your SS withholding would have bought at the time. That would be 36yrs x 13oz of gold or 468oz of gold. That accumulation would be worth over $600k today, it would all be yours and would not be subject to inflation or someone else's promise to pay.

The last 10 years have been brutal on the dollar so lets say you retire in 2015 making a salary of $70k. That same formula now only nets you a bit over 6oz of gold. So lets say over the past 10 years, 2005 to 2015 you've only averaged 8oz / year. That's still 80oz or $100k to add to the rest. A nice retirement and without waiting by the mailbox every month to be doled back a few pennies on the dollar while they wait for you to croak..

Apples to oranges. The dollars made in stocks back in 1968 are worth shit today. They had much more buying power when they were earned. I just funded a $700k retirement nestegg solely through the combination of hard assets and an inflated dollar. Didn't cost Uncle Sam a dime.