Your right, if you buy gold at worst time when the price rose up a lot under very high demand, then there is chance you can be in the loss for the next 10 years, but generally gold retain the purchasing value quite well (not absolute dollar value as dollar steadily inflates). So you should not expect to be wealthier by purchasing gold after long time, but just to keep the wealth. But of course fluctuation in demand for gold might make you a loser as well especially when you need to sell the gold when the demand and prices felt a lot.