Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below.
Gold-bug Peter Schiff has admitted he could have made a lot more money over the last decade if he had focused his investing on high-performing stocks instead of gold.
“Had I had all my money 10 years ago in the ‘Magnificent Seven,’ I’d be a lot richer than I am today,” the investor said on the PBD Podcast in 2024 (1).
“I mean, I’m rich enough, but I would have more money had I concentrated on those names,” Schiff added — referring to the seven giants dominating the U.S. stock market: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon, Alphabet (GOOGL), Nvidia (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA) and Meta (META).
Here’s why U.S. stock investors saw their wealth explode in the last decade, why Schiff still cautions against being overweight equities and you can do to bolster your own portfolio.
The total net worth of the wealthiest 1% in the U.S. hit $51.9 trillion in Q2 2025, according to Federal Reserve data [2].
Schiff, who said in June 2023 that his “net worth is a lot more than $80 million,” would fit within the Fed’s top 1% definition for Q2 2025 — but unlike some of his wealthy peers, the growth in his net worth was somewhat restricted by his investing philosophy, which is hyper-focused on gold.
If wealth generation was his sole focus, Schiff said he could have earned even more money by investing more heavily in the “Magnificent Seven,” all of which have dramatically outperformed the S&P 500 in the past decade. If you want to try adding the Magnificent 7 to your portfolio, there are tools available that can make this endeavor simple so you don’t have to miss out like Schiff has.
One of the easiest ways to invest is to open a self-directed trade account with SoFi. This DIY approach allows you to invest with no commission fees, plus for a limited time you can get up to $1,000 in stock when you fund a new account.
SoFi is designed to help you learn investing as you go, with real-time investing news, curated content and the data you need to make smart decisions about the stocks that matter most to you.
Read more: Warren Buffett used 8 solid, repeatable money rules to turn $9,800 into a $150B fortune. Start using them today to get rich (and stay rich)
Schiff believed that the $44.6 trillion held by America’s top 1% in 2023 was “all artificial [and] all on paper because of what we claim stocks are worth.”
He believed investors are simply “benefiting from the inflated asset price level” caused by the Fed’s monetary policy decisions in the past decade — specifically the low-interest rate policy (hovering near 0%) in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and the two years prior.
Schiff is also predicting a phenomenon known as “de-dollarization” — when countries shift away from the greenback as a reserve currency, medium of exchange or unit of account.
“Gold has already broken out,” he told Bet-David, alluding to the fact that central banks bought gold at “breakneck pace” in 2023, per the World Gold Council (WGC), with annual net purchases of 1,037 tonnes, just 45 tonnes short of the 2022 record.
You can get in on this golden action by opening a Gold IRA — a type of individual retirement account that allows you to invest in gold and other precious metals in physical forms.
Priority Gold is an industry leader in precious metals, offering physical delivery of gold and silver. Plus, they have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 5-star rating from Trust Link.
If you’d like to convert an existing IRA into a gold IRA, Priority Gold offers 100% free rollover, as well as free shipping, and free storage for up to five years. Qualifying purchases will also receive up to $10,000 in free silver.
To learn more about how Priority Gold can help you reduce inflation’s impact on your nest egg, download their free 2025 gold investor bundle.
If you’re not interested in dealing with the stock market ‘s volatility, there are other ways to up your cash flow over time and platforms that make investing in alternative assets accessible.
One standout example: post-war and contemporary art, which outpaced the S&P 500 by 15% from 1995 to 2025 while showing near-zero correlation to traditional equities.
Until recently, this world was off-limits. Now, with Masterworks, you can buy fractional shares in multimillion-dollar works by icons like Banksy, Picasso and Basquiat. While art can be illiquid and typically requires a long-term hold, it offers unique portfolio diversification.
Masterworks has sold 25 artworks so far, yielding net annualized returns like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.*
Moneywise readers can get priority access to diversify with art: Skip the waitlist here
*Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Investing involves risk. See important Regulation A disclosures at Masterworks.com/cd
At Moneywise, we consider it our responsibility to produce accurate and trustworthy content people can rely on to inform their financial decisions. We rely on vetted sources such as government data, financial records and expert interviews and highlight credible third-party reporting when appropriate.
We are committed to transparency and accountability, correcting errors openly and adhering to the best practices of the journalism industry. For more details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.
PBD Podcast, YouTube (1); Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (2)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
