One of my favorite aspects of working for UPMA has been the opportunity to speak with so many highly educated and successful people. After several years of dealing with UPMA members it is almost too easy to forget how the average American understands the role of gold.

On a flight back from visiting my in-laws I sat next to an older gentlemen that was telling me about how back in the 1960s he bought his first house near the beach in California for $28,000. "The same property is worth a million dollars now!" he continued. I smiled and asked "How many ounces of gold did it cost you?" he seemed surprised by the question but we did the math together. In the 1960s gold was $35 an ounce so his beach house costed him 800 ounces of gold at the time.

If the beach house is worth a million dollars now then that same pile of gold could buy it just as easily today as it did fifty years ago. Eight hundred ounces is worth over a million dollars today. He was fairly shocked. The house did not appreciate in value, the U.S Federal Reserve Note dollar plummeted in value by over 95% since we went off the gold standard in 1971.

The question one needs to ask themselves is whether they would be better off saving in paper vs. gold. UPMA accounts give members an affordable way to protect their savings from significant losses of wealth over a long period of time in a way that banks have failed to achieve. We do so by offering insured gold and silver accounts. With how well things have been going lately we plan to continue to improve and expand this service for years to come.