Cash vs. Assets: Two Years of Real Returns (2024 and 2025)

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Since 2023 I've said the same thing on this channel: get out of debt, then grow your wealth, because real freedom is financial freedom. Part of growing wealth is understanding why holding dollars quietly costs you buying power. In this yearly update I go back through the numbers I tracked every week in 2024 and 2025 and show what $10,000 would have done in cash versus a basket of assets.

Quick disclaimer up front, same as always: I'm not a financial advisor, this is for informational and educational purposes only, and you should always do your own research.

What you'll learn

• Why I keep saying "own assets, not dollars"
• What savings accounts, CDs and short-term Treasuries actually averaged in 2024 and 2025
• What a six-asset basket (gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dow 30, S&P 500) averaged over the same two years
• How $10,000 in each bucket compared after two full years
• Why inflation means a small cash gain can still be a loss in buying power

Why I started tracking this on January 1, 2024

I didn't know how it would turn out. I said out loud that I believed owning assets beats holding cash, and then I put it on the record every week so I couldn't quietly walk it back. I'd throw up a chart showing what you could earn on savings, on a CD, and on a three-month T-bill, and then I'd put the same dollars into a basket of non-cash assets and show the difference.

The 2024 numbers

On the cash side I used three things: a savings account, a CD, and a short-term Treasury. The T-bill was the best of the three at 4.58%, but the average across all three was 2.17% over twelve months. Split $10,000 evenly among them and you ended 2024 with about $10,217.

Then the asset basket: gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Dow Jones 30 and the S&P 500 — two commodities, two cryptocurrencies, two stock indexes you can buy through index funds. The average return across those six was 42%. That same $10,000, split evenly, ended the year at about $14,195. On a $10,000 investment, that's roughly a $4,000 difference in one year.

The 2025 numbers

Same setup, same six assets. Cash did a little better: savings, CD and Treasury averaged 3% over twelve months, so $10,000 became about $10,300.

The asset side had a very different mix underneath. Bitcoin and Ethereum were both down in 2025. Gold and silver went through the roof. The Dow was still over 10%. Average across the six: 37%. That $10,000 would be worth about $13,683.

Adding up two full years

I'm not compounding here, I'm just adding the gains, but the picture is clear. Over 2024 and 2025 combined, $10,000 in cash or cash equivalents lands around $10,500. The same $10,000 in the asset basket lands around $18,000 — close to doubling in two years.

And here's the part people skip: over those same two years, prices went up. So even though the cash side gained about $500, you very likely have less buying power than you started with at the beginning of 2024. That's what I mean when I say the dollar is dead.

Why the wealthy hold assets

I'm not promising those kinds of gains repeat. They don't always. But look at what the top couple percent in this country actually hold: assets. Stocks, bonds, commodities like gold and silver, real estate, land, cars, watches, cattle — and now cryptocurrency as one more option on the menu. Assets have historically gone up more than cash, and that's what lets you stay ahead of inflation and grow net worth instead of spinning your wheels.

I come at crypto from a specific background — I'm an attorney who doesn't practice anymore, I was a computer scientist and programmer, and I ran a company through the late-1990s internet boom when people genuinely asked why anyone would send an email or want a domain name. I think crypto is that same kind of leap. But it's one option among many, not the whole plan.

Key steps

1. Kill the high-interest debt first — that's the guaranteed return. Run your card with the Credit Card Payoff Calculator.
2. Pick a payoff method and stick with it. Compare them on the Avalanche vs. Snowball tool.
3. Keep an emergency cushion in cash, and accept that cash is for safety, not growth.
4. Once the expensive debt is gone, redirect those payments into assets rather than letting dollars sit.
5. Spread across categories instead of betting on one thing — that's the whole point of a six-asset basket.
6. Project what your money can do over time with the Investment Interest Calculator, and keep working the plan at Get Out of Debt.

FAQ

Does this mean I should stop using savings accounts?

No. Cash has a job — it's there so a flat tire doesn't become a credit card balance. The point of the comparison is that cash is a parking spot, not a growth engine. Over 2024 and 2025 the cash average was 2.17% and 3%, which is a real return but a small one against rising prices.

Should I invest before I pay off my credit cards?

Paying off a high-rate card is a guaranteed, risk-free return equal to the interest rate — and card rates are usually higher than the cash returns in this comparison. That's why I've always led with debt first. Run your own numbers on the Debt Avalanche Calculator before you decide.

Will the asset basket do 40% again?

I'm not saying those kinds of gains always happen — I said that in the video and I'll say it here. In 2025 Bitcoin and Ethereum were down while gold and silver were way up. Different years, different winners. The reason for holding a mix is that you don't have to guess which one.