[kragen]

That's a peculiar sense of "safe". The value of gold fluctuates substantially over time, even over fairly short periods of time. Sometimes (like the last decade) it goes up; other times (like most of the 1980s and some of the 1990s) it goes down. It's easy to lose half of what you invested; if you time it right, you can lose seven-eighths.

The peculiar sense in which gold is "safe" is that it tends to go down just as much as it goes up; that is, it isn't subject to secular inflation or deflation.

[checker]

Thanks for the explanation. I guess I was repeating what I've heard from the talking heads on TV that really provide popcorn financial advice.