Why the Wealthy Own Assets While the Dollar Loses Value (Real Numbers)

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Every Friday I look at the same dashboard: what dollars earn, what inflation is doing, and what the common alternatives to dollars did over the last year. The point isn't hype — it's to show, with real numbers, why people who are doing well tend to hold assets instead of stacks of cash.

In this one I walk through savings rates, CDs, treasuries, gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Dow and the S&P 500, and I compare all of it to inflation.

What you'll learn

• What the US dollar's purchasing power has done since 1900
• What savings accounts, 3-month CDs and 3-month treasuries actually paid, then and now
• One year of returns on gold, silver, Bitcoin, Ethereum, the Dow and the S&P 500
• Why inflation above 2% keeps eating your dollars even when the headline number falls
• Why I watch the 2-year and 10-year treasury (and what the 10-year says about mortgage rates)
• Why an ETF is usually easier to sell than a gold bar

Dollars go down over time — that's the starting point

I show a chart of the purchasing power of the US dollar from 1900 to 2020. It goes one direction: down. If you had $100 back then, it simply bought less as the years went by. That's inflation. So the question isn't whether your dollars lose value sitting still — it's what you're doing about it.

What "holding dollars" pays right now

I always compare apples to apples, same categories, same sources. The average national savings rate was about 0.46% a year ago and about 0.41% now. That is nothing. A 3-month CD went from 1.69% to 1.42%. A 3-month treasury went from 5.42% to 4.32%. These are the things closest to plain cash. If inflation runs higher than what you're earning, your money is losing ground while it sits.

One year of asset returns

Gold ran from roughly $2,000 an ounce up to about $3,300 — call it a 75% move. Silver went from $22.88 to $33.24, roughly 50%. Bitcoin went from about $43,000 to about $95,000, more than double. Ethereum went the other way, from about $2,299 down to about $1,800. They don't always go up. That's why dollar cost averaging matters — buying a set amount every month, say $100, instead of trying to time it.

On the stock side, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (30 weighted NYSE names) was still up about 5% over the year despite a lot of recent down days. The S&P 500, the classic set-it-and-forget-it index, was up about 10%. Everything on the board was up except Ethereum. Meanwhile $100 in the bank went to about $102.

Inflation, unemployment and the treasury curve

Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed inflation drifting from about 3.5% down to 2.4% for March. But look back: during the sickness it spiked as high as 9%. Those price increases never came back down — they'd need a long stretch of near-zero or negative inflation for that. A different site, True Inflation, showed about 1.42% using a different method. Unemployment moved from about 3.9% to 4.2%. The 2-year treasury sat around 3.78% and the 10-year around 4.2% — the longer bond paying more, which is the healthy shape. The 10-year also tracks 30-year mortgage rates more closely than anything else, so it hints at where mortgage rates are headed.

Why ETFs over a gold bar

You can buy a gold bar at Costco, but selling it means finding a buyer and eating fees, so you often don't get spot price. With a spot ETF inside a brokerage like Fidelity, you buy and sell shares instantly and it's cash again. There's a list of gold, silver, Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs linked from the video description.

Key steps

1. Knock out high-interest debt first — run it in the Credit Card Payoff Calculator.
2. Write down what your cash actually earns and compare it to inflation.
3. Pick broad, simple categories instead of chasing one hot thing.
4. Dollar cost average a fixed amount every month.
5. Prefer ETFs you can sell instantly over physical items with fees.
6. Track the 10-year treasury if a mortgage decision is coming — try the Mortgage Calculator.

FAQ

Should I invest before my credit cards are paid off?

Compare the guaranteed cost of your debt to an uncertain return. A card at 20%+ costs you far more than savings pays. I walk through that decision in Pay Off Debt or Invest First and Investing While in Debt.

What is dollar cost averaging?

Buying a set amount on a schedule — $100 a month, for example — instead of trying to pick the bottom. Prices move up and down; a schedule keeps you from guessing.

Do these assets always go up?

No. Ethereum fell from about $2,299 to about $1,800 over the year I reviewed. Crypto is new; gold and silver have a long price history. Nothing here is a guarantee and none of it is advice — do your own research. See the two-year follow-up in Cash vs. Assets: Two Years of Real Returns.