Buying Gold: Smart Move or Fool’s Gold?

The markets are near all-time highs—just like they were back in 2007. Everywhere you turn, someone’s warning you to “do something” before it all comes crashing down. The usual advice? Buy gold, commodities, or some “safe haven” that’s supposed to protect you from the next financial apocalypse.

Let’s be real. Buying gold because you’re scared of a crash is not a strategy—it’s a bet. You’re betting that a once-in-a-generation disaster is about to happen. That’s a long shot, and it’s usually a losing one.

Even the Great Recession of 2008 lasted only six months before the recovery began. Meanwhile, investors who panicked, pulled out, or piled into gold missed out on one of the strongest market rebounds in history.

Politicians will bicker and threaten fiscal cliffs—but they all share one thing: a survival instinct. No one in Washington wants to take the blame for tanking the economy. So, they always find a way to kick the can down the road. It’s not noble, but it’s predictable. And the markets know it.

Here’s the truth:
The stock and bond markets have been doing their jobs for over a century—through wars, depressions, recessions, pandemics, and political chaos. Stocks have averaged around 9% annual returns; bonds about 5%. Not perfect, but steady enough to build wealth for those who stay invested.

The world, for all its noise, is remarkably stable. Most of us will wake up tomorrow, go to work, pay bills, and carry on. Civilization isn’t collapsing anytime soon.

So what should you do?
Build a diversified portfolio—large, mid, and small-cap stocks, international exposure, and bonds roughly equal to your age or your time horizon. (The Companies that dig for gold and the large retailers that sell gold are in the Total Stock Market Index anyway, and that’s what I own.) Then… stay the course.

If the headlines still make you nervous, hire a fiduciary financial adviser (paid by the hour only, NO AUM! and certainly NEVER by commission) to help you keep calm and stick to your plan.

And above all—
IGNORE THE BLOODY NOISE. 

Steve’s Bio

Stephen A. Schullo, Ph.D. (UCLA ’96) taught elementary students and educational technology to teachers and students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 24 years, and UCLA Extension taught educational technology to student teachers. Due to his negative experiences with annuity agents, unions, and his school district’s benefits personnel regarding the most horrific tax-deferred plan in history, the 403(b), Steve wrote investment articles for the United Teachers-Los Angeles (UTLA) newspaper for 13 years. 

So, he became a 403(b) activist and spoke to anyone who would listen about reforming this flawed plan. He simply wanted to inform his colleagues that districts and the insurance industry are looking out for their best interests, not teachers. The media began listening for the first time in the entire history of the 403(b) plan, commonly known as the TSA, in 1998. From 1961 to 1998, no one in or out of education ever discussed this terrible 403(b) specifically with K-12 school districts. I kid you not!

Consequently, he thrice featured as a retirement plan advocate for reformed 403(b) plans for public K-12 colleagues in the Los Angeles Times and U.S. News and World Report. He co-founded an investor self-help group (403bAware with a colleague, Sandy Keaton) for teacher colleagues. He also wrote 7,000 helpful posts in three online investment forums since 1997. Frequently quoted by the media, testified at California State legislative hearings and was honored with the “Unsung Hero” award by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) for his retirement planning advocacy.

For the last 19 years, he continues to serve on LAUSD’s Retirement Investment Advisory Committee (RIAC) as a “Member-at-Large” and former co-chair. The committee monitors the district’s 457b/403b of 55,000 former and current LAUSD employees, worth $3.2 billion in total assets. Lastly, Steve and his late husband, Dan, were featured participants in the award-winning PBS Frontline documentary “The Retirement Gamble,” which aired on April 23, 2013.

Steve is the author of two books, “Fighting Powerful Interests: Educators Challenge Tax-sheltered Annuities and WIN!“, a story of how a handful of LAUSD educators struggled for years to improve the 403(b) to no avail. But we never quit! We were instrumental in LAUSD’s implementation of the new 457(b) plan and earned a very rare “Plan Design” award. 

Steve is the co-author with his late husband, Dan, of a book on learning the investment process from the ground up, Late Bloomer Millionaires. It’s a heartfelt story about two ordinary chaps and how they discovered investing and money management without a professional financial adviser. They list all of their successes and massive mistakes, and they still retired earlier than most Americans.

For a copy of both books, email Steve at steve.schullo@latebloomerwealth.com, and he will happily email you both books, FREE, with no obligation except to read them and get informed, in a pdf file format.