Interactive · Gold Calculator
If you'd bought gold in…
Drag the year. See what would have happened. The answer is rarely what you'd guess.
Growth shown after inflation — your real gain in purchasing power.
What your money became
Value today of $10,000 invested in 1971, in constant 1971 dollars — inflation stripped out.
If you'd bought $10,000 of gold in 1971, that's worth $106,298 today in constant 1971 dollars — a 10.6× real return, after inflation, over 54 years. Gold beat cash by 84.5×, and trailed the S&P 500 by 3.9×.
The journey
Growth of $1, log scale · indexed to 19711971
August 15. Nixon ends the dollar’s convertibility to gold, closing the gold window and ending Bretton Woods. Gold breaks free from $35 for the first time in a generation.
Read the full story of gold in 1971 →Ready to act on the long record? Our guides walk through buying, storing and owning physical gold — without the hype.
How to buy gold →Today's gold price moves daily. See live gold prices →
Methodology & sources. Annual data, 1928–2025. Gold: annual-average spot (London basis). S&P 500 and 10-year Treasuries: total return with dividends and coupons reinvested (Damodaran, NYU Stern). Housing: Shiller/Case-Shiller national index. Inflation: BLS CPI-U. No fees, taxes or transaction costs. Full methodology →