The gold thing is interesting, the price hasn't really moved much. I know folks have been hawking gold since 2009 as if it's going to make you rich. Obviously it can't. It could keep you from being poor.
Over the past five years, gold is up about 34% in dollar value, which isn't bad, but the S&P500 has nearly doubled.
Past performance of course.
One thing my money manager did when he took over my IRA was ditch the gold in 2012 when I retired. I asked why, it turns out he was right to do so. I didn't have much, maybe 2% of the portfolio. I bought some GOLD back five years ago or so, not much, but some, it hasn't really done that well.
Since gold bullion is heavy stuff, we tend not to transport it, we create paper that indicates you own gold in some vault somewhere.