Gold? Who buys Gold?

By Team BAC

If you’re in the business of managing your wealth, you probably own some Vanguard shares.

You might discretely own Apple, Tesla, NVIDIA. You probably also have a 401k, and separately, a high yield savings account. So do we. You might also own crypto. So do we. But what if there’s another market crash? What if the power is out? What if the rate at which the dollar is issued and US debt is added to keeps up? It turns out these things are not as decorrelated as they appear. Central banks think about this. The Saudis think about this. China thinks about this.

They buy gold.

But what business do you have owning any gold? What business don’t you have buying gold. Why should gold be something you don’t own? Have you thought about the long history of gold as a reserve asset? It's not tied to the fate of any company or government. When markets collapse and currencies lose value, gold has historically been a refuge.

Gold doesn't depend on the grid staying up or the internet working. It doesn’t require trust in financial institutions or the latest tech. It’s a way to hold wealth that doesn't require an intermediary. You don’t have to rely on the solvency of banks or the performance of tech stocks. It’s your wealth, directly accessible and unmediated.

Consider the scenarios where digital assets or fiat currencies fail. A cyberattack could wipe out bank records, a prolonged power outage could render digital currencies inaccessible, and hyperinflation could erode the value of cash. In these instances, having a portion of your wealth in a physical, universally recognized asset like gold provides a safeguard. It's not about fear-mongering; it's about prudent risk management.

Furthermore, gold’s liquidity ensures that you can convert it to cash or other assets as needed. In times of financial distress, markets for gold remain active, allowing you to leverage this asset without the volatility that might affect stocks or cryptocurrencies. Gold’s universal value transcends borders and political systems, making it a truly global form of wealth.

Do you need to become a gold bug? Do you need to become Peter Schiff? We wouldn’t recommend that. We designed the BAC holder to be something like the opposite of late night infomercials selling Gold Eagles after advertising diabetes medication. We don’t think the US Dollar is going to collapse. But we do think it’s gotten less valuable in the last five years. We do think that it’s worth storing wealth in a way that’s universally valuable, but more physically self-custodied than in fiat cash and just as readily transacted with as crypto. We don’t think of ourselves as preppers. We don’t think of ourselves as wild-eyed goldbugs in a bunker with canned food and reverse osmosis water. We built BAC because we wanted a way to easily account for a form of wealth that could be financially legible, liquidatable, and storable.

Who buys gold? We do; we’re software engineers, angel investors, designers, founders, watch collectors, etc. We live in Silicon Valley, New York City, and Texas. We’re in our 20s and 30s. We’re new parents. We’re singles. We’re who buys gold. We think you might be, too!