A Story About Digging Money Out of the Ground and a Dumb Finance Professor -

They say money doesn’t grow on trees.
I guess that’s true, but you can dig money out of the ground.
And a lot of people are trying to do that right now, with gold prices hovering around $5,000 an ounce.
<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/27/current-gold-price-record-high/88836219007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USA Today ran a story</a> about the renewed interest in gold prospecting. The article featured Kevin Singel, a “longtime prospector and guidebook author.”
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It also featured a finance professor who should be sued for malpractice. I’ll get to him in a bit.
Singel pans for gold in the South Platte River, within eyesight of Denver skyscrapers. Over the years, he said he’s collected “tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold.”
A word of caution before you pack up your car and head to Colorado in search of riches. You’re probably going to be better off packing up your car and heading to work. Gold mining is hard, and most people aren’t going to get rich. Singel said when he works his more lucrative claim in the mountains near a Colorado ski resort, he can collect gold worth about $30 in a day.
<blockquote>
“It's not like you're going to find a $10,000 nugget. It's the equivalent to picking up dimes off the sidewalk ‒ eventually you get enough to pay for lunch."
</blockquote>
When it comes to gold’s role as money, the difficulty in obtaining it is a feature, not a bug. That’s why government people hate sound money. They want the ability to print it so they can increase their power. Gold naturally limits the size and scope of government.
However, while a fiat system is a gold mine (pun intended) for the government, it’s not so great for you and me. The relentless money creation devalues the dollar. It’s like pouring water into your milk. Singel kind of swerved into this truth during his interview.
<blockquote>
“There's a lot of people out there whose mom or dad or grandparents bought 10 ounces of gold 20 years ago and that 10 ounces is now enough to buy a car."
</blockquote>
That 10 ounces of gold would have cost about $6,000 20 years ago. It’s worth more than $50,000 today. Here’s the thing that grabbed my attention: 20 years ago, I wouldn’t have had much trouble finding a decent used car for $6,000. Now I can get a brand new car for the same amount of gold. It’s not because cars are “more expensive.” This issue is that your dollar keeps losing value.
No wonder people are running to Colorado to pan for gold!
And you know, it is possible to find a $10,000 nugget. Just like it’s possible I could win the lottery. In 1979, a couple using a metal detector in the Kalgoorlie Goldfields of Western Australia located <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/05/30/10-pound-gold-nugget-on-the-auction-block-004092">a massive gold nugget</a>. Known today as the "Golden Beauty," the nugget weighs in at nearly 10 pounds.
If you go prospecting, you’re more likely to have an experience like Singel describes in the USA Today story, picking gold flecks the size of a grain of sand out of the gravel.
Anyway, Singel is making the big money by selling his guidebooks. According to USA Today, they are “flying off the shelves” with the surging interest in prospecting. Singel said every month, hundreds of new people join his prospecting Facebook group.
Gold fever is nothing new. You’re probably familiar with the California and Alaska gold rushes, but there have been <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/guides/the-untold-history-of-gold-rushes-in-the-united-states">plenty of others over the years</a>. Did you know the first major gold rush here in the U.S. was in North Carolina? It started when a farmer found a 17-pound nugget on his property.
<h2>And Now the Dumb Guy</h2>
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As prices surge, not everybody is running out trying to get gold. A lot of people are selling it. Half the USA Today article highlights the rush to cash in on the higher prices.
I get selling gold when you need to make ends meet. I don’t understand selling gold just to “make a profit.” You’re literally trading good money for bad, and if you hang on to those dollars you get for your gold, they are going to just sit there and lose purchasing power.
Unsurprisingly, USA Today managed to find a finance professor who thinks buying gold is dumb. (I think mainstream investment people who think gold is dumb are dumb.) Peter Ricchiuti said he “remains mystified why people buy gold when the economy feels shaky.”
<blockquote>
"It's all about the insecurity of the global economy. It's a fear factor."
</blockquote>
The dude answered his own question. I mean, does our intrepid professor think those fears are misplaced? I suppose he hasn’t been paying attention to the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/02/19/no-the-national-debt-problem-isnt-getting-better-004701">unsustainable national debt</a>, the aforementioned money printing and <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/02/16/cpi-is-cooling-but-what-about-inflation-004692">inflation</a>, <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/02/22/the-dollar-is-losing-credibility-so-what-004710">the weaponization of the dollar</a>, <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/03/11/de-dollarization-gold-and-a-shift-to-a-multipolar-world-003898">de-dollarization</a>, and the <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/02/26/could-the-ai-bubble-pop-and-cause-a-credit-crisis-004722">massive stock market bubble</a>.
USA Today noted that Ricchiuti used to run Louisiana’s state pension system. Ah – a government man. Now we know why he doesn’t think much of gold.
He told USA Today that he remains skeptical that gold is ever a good investment. He thinks you should invest in “shares of a good public company.”
Just think about what this guy said. He doesn’t think gold is “ever” a good investment. Now go look at gold’s gains over the last two years and draw your own conclusions.
If you want a fun activity, go look up Louisiana’s pension system, and you’ll get a sense of how good Ricchiuti was at his job. As the saying goes, those who can, do. Those who can’t teach.
Ricchiuti is typical of most mainstream financial advisors. They’ve been propagandized to hate gold. Meanwhile, by telling their clients to avoid gold, they’re cheating them. It’s as simple as that.
But the tide seems to be turning, especially after Morgan Stanley CIO Michael Wilson said investors should consider <a href="https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/10/07/seismic-shift-morgan-stanley-recommends-602020-portfolio-with-20-allocated-to-gold-004389">abandoning the traditional 60/40 equity/bond portfolio allocation</a> and adopt a 60/20/20 distribution with 20 percent allocated to precious metals.
On average, Western investors (institutional and private) currently hold less than 1 percent of gold in their portfolios. That’s because they listen to people like Ricchiuti.
Don’t do that.
If you want real money that will hold its value over time, get a pan and head to Colorado. Or just give us a call at 800-800-1865. We can get you some gold (or silver) without making you stand in a cold river.

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