Archive · 17 Aug 2025
Equities Outperform Gold and Real Estate in Long-Term Returns
Imagine you have some money to invest.
This report looks at how different investments like stocks, gold, and real estate have grown your money over time.
Stocks have done the best, growing your money the most, even though the market has ups and downs.
Gold has also done well, almost as good as stocks.
Debt and real estate grew much slower.
It’s important to remember that even though stocks can be volatile, with ups and downs, over the long run, they've been the best way to grow your money, especially compared to how fast prices go up (inflation).
Also, trying to guess when to buy and sell stocks can be risky; staying invested for a long time usually works out best.
Equities and gold were the strongest performers over the last twenty years.
Indian equities returned 14% annually, multiplying investments 13.7 times over twenty years.
U.S. equities returned 14.6% annually, multiplying investments 15.3 times.
Gold in rupee terms performed nearly as well as equities, compounding at 14.7% over two decades.
Debt and real estate provided much lower returns compared to equities and gold.
- Who
- The FundsIndia Wealth Conversations report and investors seeking to understand investment performance.
- What
- A report comparing the performance of various investment options over 20 years.
- When
- The data analysis is based on the FundsIndia Wealth Conversations report of August 2025, examining returns up to July 31, 2025.
- Where
- The analysis includes Indian and U.S. equity markets.
- Why
- To provide insights into which asset classes have historically performed best for wealth creation and to understand associated risks.
Those favouring market timing
Those favouring long-term investing
Investment Strategy
Those favouring market timing
Attempting to time the market and avoid downturns.
Those favouring long-term investing
Remaining invested through market cycles.
- Nifty 50 TRI 20-Year CAGR
- 14%
- US Equity 20-Year CAGR
- 14.6%
- Gold 20-Year CAGR
- 14.7%
- Debt 20-Year CAGR
- 7.6%
- Real Estate 20-Year CAGR
- 7.7%
- Nifty Midcap 150 TRI 20-year CAGR
- 16.9%