No safe assets over the long run – but some lose less than others

IMAGINE receiving $1 million today, along with the responsibility to safeguard and grow it over the next decade. Your primary goal: preserve its real value – and ideally increase it. How would you allocate this capital?

There is no straightforward answer. History shows that even the most secure-seeming options carry hidden risks.

Capital at risk, always

US financial data from 1900 to 2024 shows that inflation averaged 3 per cent a year. This means over a century, one dollar eroded to less than four cents – a loss of more than 96 per cent in purchasing power.