2025 Got Your Attention Yet?

2025 arrives with, well, not too much drama. Of course, it's only the first week of the New Year. So what did you expect?

Seems the market gods have not shown their hand yet. Sometimes they do, sometimes not. 

One yarn (and it's not all that far from the truth) is that as January goes, so goes the year.

Speaking of years, stocks had another 20+% year. First 2023, then 2024. If you had invested all your dough in stocks, you'd be a happy man or woman. 

Of course, things could have gone the other way one or both years. Then you might not be so happy. That's why we don't throw all our eggs into one basket, right?

Then again, if you're 20 years old, know you'll live another 50 years, have no intention of touching your money for any reason whatsoever (and who really can know that?), you might throw it all into a brokerage account and let it sit. Good luck.

"Good luck" because, despite the occasional anecdotal story of some old biddy whose family found stock certificates squirreled away in some cubby hole that were worth a bloody fortune, most folks wind up tapping into their stock nut for one of a list of reasons too long to get into.

So all those miracle compound numbers you read about hardly ever - if ever - actually come alive and provide that comfy "retirement" that's supposed to be the reward for your brilliance.

And so we put our money here and there, but not in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon will be here. Frankly, if we can preserve our purchasing power over some length of time, we will hae done a pretty good job.

But wait, what's this? It seems that despite all the hoopla, stocks weren't the top dog in 2024. Turns out Gold did much better. Gold? Yeah, Gold.

In fact, since 2007 - right before the GFC (Great Financial Crisis) hit, you'd have been better holding Gold rather than stocks. And...what's this? It seems that since the dollar value of Gold was allowed to be determined by the marketplace rather than be assigned a fixed dollar value ($35 per ounce) Gold has outpaced - you guessed it - stocks.

Yes, the story that stocks are always and everywhere the best place to plop down your hard-earned money is apparently, and quite simply, not true.

So does any of this grab your attention yet? How about this:

Stocks, by any measure, are overvalued, have been for a long time.

Gold is not.

(Even better, silver's dollar value is about where it was in the early 1970s. Is there anything you can think of with a dollar value the same as it was then? Doesn't that imply that maybe putting some money in silver might be at least worth consideration?)

Now, don't just take our word. And certainly don't think we're recommending anything here. We're just pointing out some facts - facts that might reasonably get our attention as we look forward to 2025.