To determine why it is not too late to buy gold, we must consider why many people might be inclined to think that it is too late.
First, gold has experienced an explosive bull run, as can be seen in the chart below. After remaining virtually flat for the first three and a half years of the 2020s, with strong resistance at $2,000/oz, it shot up to higher ground and has not stopped rising since. In March 2023, the price of gold was around $1,900 per troy ounce. By March 2025, it had risen to around $3,038, representing a 60% increase. It is even higher now ($3,125). Gold significantly outperformed both the S&P 500 (+41%) and the NASDAQ (+49%) during that same two-year period.
And it has been reaching ever higher highs. Anyone would think that the bull must be on the verge of exhaustion.
But not so fast...
When looking at the appreciation of gold (or any other asset), what you always see is the gain in nominal terms. However, the correct way to view it is in inflation-adjusted terms. Let me illustrate: what is the current purchasing power of the asset—in US dollars, assuming that is your currency—compared to what it was when you acquired it? This is the true measure of something's value. Because inflation is a currency killer.
We haven't had zero annual inflation since the 19th century, and the last 50 years have been particularly brutal. The dollar has fallen 88% since 1971 (not coincidentally, the year President Nixon ended the dollar's convertibility into gold).
Now let's look at gold—also known as real money—from this perspective. In early 1980, its price peaked at $850 per ounce. While it has far surpassed that benchmark in the meantime, it has never done so adjusted for inflation. What you could buy with $850 in 1980 would require a whopping $3,291.50 today.