If I'd invested in gold since 1999
$1,000 put into gold at the end of 1999 would be worth about $14,624 today — a 14.6× return, or roughly 10.7% a year. Change the amount below to run your own number.
You'd have
$14,624
from $1,000 invested — up 1362%.
The story behind the number
Gold since 1999 has been a remarkably smooth ride. $1,000 put in at the end of 1999 grew to $14,624 — a 14.6× return, or about 10.7% a year. That beat the S&P 500, which turned the same $1,000 into $5,050 — you'd have come out roughly 2.90× ahead of simply buying the index.
The ride mattered as much as the destination. The strongest single year was 2026, up 13%; the worst was 2008, down 17%.
Holding on took nerve: the position fell as much as 42% from its 2011 peak to its 2015 low, before climbing back above that high by 2016.
Common questions
- How much would I have if I'd invested $1,000 in gold in 1999?
- $1,000 invested in gold at the end of 1999 would be worth about $14,624 today — a 14.6× return, or roughly 10.7% per year.
- What were the best and worst years for gold since 1999?
- The best year was 2026, up about 13%. The toughest was 2008, when it fell about 17%. Across the window, 144 of 318 years finished lower than they started.
- What was the biggest drop along the way?
- The steepest decline was about 42%, from a peak in 2011 to a low in 2015, with the value recovering above its prior high by 2016.
- Would I have done better in S&P 500?
- No — the S&P 500 turned $1,000 into about $5,050 over the same window, while gold reached $14,624. Gold came out ahead.
The chart above shows the whole journey, not just the destination. Try switching to a bit each year to see how spreading your buying would have changed the outcome — or skip the latte to find out what a small daily habit could have grown into instead.
More gold scenarios
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since 1971
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