Decade of blogs shows safe path forward

Ten years ago today this blog was begun.

If you had told me then that I would have managed to post something every business day for a decade, I wouldn't have believed you.

But this is Blog No. 2,584.

I was curious to see what had changed in that time, so I did a little checking of historical market charts.

The year was the final year of an economic expansion. Numismatic auctions were setting records.

Gold was trading at $686.90 a troy ounce, according to the Kitco website. This morning it was $1,269.90.

That means if you had bought gold the week I started writing this blog, you would be ahead by $583, which works out to a gain of 84.87 percent.

It seems like everybody always writes about the great potential of silver compared to gold, but the 10-year period in question shows just the opposite.

Silver was $13.43 a troy ounce then.

Now it is $17.79. The gain is $4.36. This works out to 32.46 percent.

Gold clearly outperformed.

The euro is up sharply this morning on the French election results.

However, in the past 10 years it has dropped by 20 percent.

It was $1.358 then. Now it is $1.087.

For sticklers, that works out to a decline of 19.95 percent, but I rounded up.

What did the Dow Jones Industrial Average do in this time?

It was 12,961.98 then. Now it is 20,547.76.

That works out to a gain of 58.52 percent.

It beat silver.

But you would have been scared to death during the financial and banking crash of 2008.

If you add in dividends, the Dow number would give gold a run for its money.

But that is the beauty of diversification.

When you are scared to death over the performance of one asset, you should be able to find some comfort in others.

Coin collectors own some stocks. They own some gold. They own some silver.

All these are up.

This is what gives them the confidence to buy coins for their collections.

I do not expect the dynamic to change in the next 10 years.

Diversify your investments. Collect coins.

You will be fine.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

• Like this blog? Read more by subscribing to Numismatic News.