Why the Dollar Loses Value: Tracking Cash vs. Gold, Bitcoin and Index Funds Every Friday

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Every Friday I run the same simple comparison: what a dollar earns sitting in a bank versus what a basket of assets did over the same period. Not to scare you, and not to sell you anything — just to show the same numbers week after week until the pattern is obvious.

This episode covers what savings accounts, CDs and Treasuries actually pay, where gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum and the big stock indexes stand, and how ordinary people can hold those assets through a normal brokerage account without learning anything technical.

What you'll learn

• Why inflation quietly shrinks the buying power of money sitting in cash
• What average savings, short-term CD and Treasury rates were paying at the time of this show
• How gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Dow 30 and the S&P 500 compared over the same stretch
• How spot ETFs let you buy gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum from a regular brokerage
• What the 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields and the yield curve inversion may be signaling
• Why an emergency fund comes before any of this

Why I do this show every week

I started this Friday series in February 2024. The idea is repetition: show the same basket of alternatives to holding U.S. dollars, week after week, so you can see over time what happens to cash versus assets. Inflation means your dollars buy less. You already know this because prices went up. I'm not a financial planner or advisor — this is informational only.

The household debt picture isn't as bad as the headlines

I walked through a Wolf Street article showing home prices up roughly 50% since 2020 and CPI up more than 20% over the same stretch. But household debt as a percent of disposable income sat around 82–83%, serious delinquencies (90+ days) were still under 2%, and foreclosures, third-party collections and bankruptcies were all low historically. The economy overall looked better than the panic headlines suggest. What matters more is your household. If you have debt problems, start there — see the get out of debt courses and run your own numbers with the credit card payoff calculator.

What cash was actually paying

From the FDIC's national rate chart: average savings around 0.45%. A three-month CD around 1.54% — I look at three-month so the money turns back into cash fast. A short Treasury around 4.73%, which barely beats inflation, if at all. So dollars parked in a bank are mostly losing buying power.

The basket: metals, crypto, and the indexes

Gold was around $2,576 and silver around $30 — both up substantially from where they started the year. Bitcoin had more than doubled since I started the show, from roughly $40,000 to around $90,000. So $1,000 in the bank would be $1,000 plus a tiny bit of interest; converted to Bitcoin it would have been over $2,000. Ethereum is the number two crypto by market cap; everything besides Bitcoin is called an altcoin.

On stocks: the Dow tracks 30 companies and was up about 15% year to date; the S&P 500 tracks 500 companies and was up about 24% year to date. You don't buy 500 stocks — you buy the index fund.

How easy it actually is

You don't need a vault or a crypto exchange. There are spot ETFs for gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum — for every dollar you put in, they hold a dollar of the underlying asset. You buy a share at your broker; when you want cash, you hit sell. All six strategies — gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, an S&P 500 index fund, a Dow 30 index fund — can run from one brokerage account, plus cash on the side for emergencies.

What the bond market was saying

The 2-year Treasury was around 4.32% and the 10-year around 4.47%. Normally locking money up for 10 years should pay more than two years. When it doesn't, that's an inversion — and we'd been inverted a long time before coming out of it. Historically, inversions have shown up before recessions. That doesn't guarantee one, but it's a reason to be careful.

Key steps

1. Build an emergency fund in cash first, so you never have to sell an asset while it's down.
2. Deal with high-interest debt — that's the highest guaranteed return you can get.
3. Check what your cash is actually earning against inflation.
4. Open or use a brokerage account you already have.
5. Diversify with a mix — gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, S&P 500 and Dow index funds — instead of betting on one.
6. Keep watching the same numbers weekly so you see the trend, not the noise.

FAQ

Should I buy assets before I pay off my credit cards?

My whole channel is built on getting out of debt first. High-interest debt eats returns faster than most assets produce them. Get a plan, then invest. Start with the Avalanche Debt Eliminator or the pay off debt or invest first breakdown.

Do I have to buy physical gold or use a crypto exchange?

No. Spot ETFs for gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum trade like a stock at your broker. Buy a share, sell a share. That's it.

What if markets drop right after I buy?

Markets go up and markets go down — that's why the emergency fund comes first. You don't want to be forced to sell an asset when it's down because your car needed a repair. Read how much emergency fund you need while paying off debt.