The best investment over 25 years

[Alpha1999]

If we talk about investing in Pakistan even Rs 1lakh PKR could make a big difference .
Yesterday i attended a financial literacy session. The speaker showed us what Rs.100k PKR could have grown over the last 25 years if invested in different ways. At first he talked about keeping money in the bank. For many of us it may feel safe but inflation slowly reduces its value .He gave examples that how Rs 100k PKR from 2001 could have value (or purchasing power) of only around 9 thousand PKR today.Then we looked at national savings. Rs 100k PKR could have grown 15 lakh PKR which is around 11.5% in 25 years, if we take the average rate every year. When he calculated real estate with 13% annual growth Rs 1 lakh PKR could have grown into 21.2 lakh PKR in 25 years. The Gold was more interesting . Its one tola was around 8k in 2001 Rs 100kPKR were equal to 12.5 tolas at that time. Today tola is around 465,000.It could be 58 lakh PKR today.
But the biggest surprise for me was mutual funds that had given a very high return in that period , including around 430% growth. So if we invested Rs 1lakh PKR and it grew 25%, it would almost become Rs 40 millions today . Offcourse these are the past records and cannot guaranteed the same progress in future but still it was huge. it was an interesting session and made me think what is my money doing while i m not using it?
If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

[lovesmayfamilis]

Dude, are you sure you didn't get the wrong section? This isn't India.  Oh, I see you're from Pakistan. Yes, of course you're from there.

If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

It would be better to communicate among your own people when it comes to local currency.

[Jubilee58]

Yesterday i attended a financial literacy session. The speaker showed us what Rs.1lac could have grown over the last 25 years if invested in different ways. At first he talked about keeping money in the bank. For many of us it may feel safe but inflation slowly reduces its value .He gave examples that how Rs 1lac from 2001 could have value (or purchasing power) of only around 9 thousand today.Then we looked at national savings. Rs 1lac could have grown 15 lac which is around 11.5% in 25 years, if we take the average rate every year. When he calculated real estate with 13% annual growth Rs 1 lac could have grown into 21.2 lac in 25 years. The Gold was more interesting . Its one tola was around 8k in 2001 Rs 1lac were equal to 12.5 tolas at that time. today tola is around 465,000.It could be 58 lac today.
But the biggest surprise for me was mutual funds that had given a very high return in that period , including around 430% growth and islamic funds showed 287% growth. So if we invested Rs 1lac and it grew 25%, it would almost become Rs 4 crore. Offcourse these are the past records and cannot guaranteed the same progress in future but still it was huge. it was an interesting session and made me think what is my money doing while i m not using it?
If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

It is quite understandable that keeping money in the bank does not make you any profit, rather bank will help you to enrich themselves with your money, and give you nothing as interest. If you must save money in the bank, let it be for emergency alone , and your money should be properly invested to make good profit on the long run. However, there are many investment that can help you grow your money in a long period of time, and they are mutual fund, high yield savings account, stock, and Bitcoin. These investments, and assets mentioned can really make you gain financial freedom on the long run, and we should understand that wealth is more easy to build on long term investment, for instance assets like Bitcoin, and stock can make you good money, but only on the platform of patience, when you lack patience, you will actually give up before your success comes.

[Alpha1999]

Dude, are you sure you didn't get the wrong section? This isn't India.  Oh, I see you're from Pakistan. Yes, of course you're from there.

If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

It would be better to communicate among your own people when it comes to local currency.

I was simply mentioning investment trends. The idea is same all our the world.

[drangos]

I guess the key takeaway here is the fact that while the asset that gave you the most is the most important, over time, inflation and compounding can make a huge difference. Of course, there's volatility, liquidity, taxes, fees and the risk associated with realizing those returns, but any 25-year comparison can make one investment seem unbeatable. For instance, a 25% yield per year may seem like a dream but rather than having this happen in selected periods it must occur over time. To me, it's better to diversify rather than throw all the Rs 100k at one asset. The best investment is one that you can tolerate for 25 years.

[Porfirii]

-snip- To me, it's better to diversify rather than throw all the Rs 100k at one asset. The best investment is one that you can tolerate for 25 years.

That's the key, I guess. In retrospect we can do the maths and figure out what the best investment would have been, but in the world of investments we do not have that privilege the other way around.

Knowing what I know today, and answering the OP's question, if I had Rs 100,000 in 2001 or the equivalent part in my national currency, I would've saved it in the bank until 2009 and then buy as much Bitcoin as I could with that money in the early stages of the cryptocurrency. Simple, why complicate it more?

But, without the certainty of hindsight, the best thing to do is to diversify and ensure the sustainability of the investment, as drangos said.

[BABY SHOES]

I was simply mentioning investment trends. The idea is same all our the world.

Yeah... the idea of the investment trend we can understand, it's just that your description refers to a particular local currency sometimes some people find it difficult to understand it.
Unless you're referring to the dollar bill, I think a lot of people will understand its... dollar is the most widely spread currency around the world.

The rise of gold from 2001 to the present. [1] https://www.macrotrends.net/datasets/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart

[Lembo69]

The price of gold has increased significantly since 2001. If we consider that the price of gold in 2001 was $271 and now it is $4,459–$4,650 in 2026, you can just imagine how high the price of gold has gone.
Those who invest in gold may have made a lot of profit. In these 25 years, they have made a lot of profit from their investment. Many people now fall from the sky when they hear the price of gold because how much money has increased. The price of gold will continue to increase gradually. Those who invest in gold may be able to make a lot of profit in the future.

[pooya87]

All fiat currencies are without a cap which means bag-holding any of them in the long run (includes storing in bank) is a terrible idea because inflation will eat through its total value and decrease your purchase power.

You need something that is a store of value. Obviously we are on a bitcoin forum so the choice is Bitcoin! Something that was not found amongst your poll options by the way

But what is the "best" investment? It is tough to say.
In my opinion the best investment is always starting a business of your own. But that is very difficult because it requires experience and a hard-working personality since just starting it won't bring you profit, you'll need to put a lot of effort in it. But at the same time, that is something that can grow nicely and it is a "healthy" investment that helps the economy as well.

Considering that's not for everyone, the other option is to diversify. So I wouldn't gold or bitcoin or real estate or blah blah. I'd say choose multiple options. With ~$360 bitcoin is easier to buy and if we are talking about 25 years ago (or rather from 2009) with $360 invested in bitcoin you would have been a billionaire today (~$28 billion).

P.S. Keep in mind that gold stats you quoted in OP can be a bit misleading since over the past couple of years due to international tensions the US regime started around the globe and the dumping of the dollar (which means replacing it with gold) has massively increased gold price and that's an exceptional case that will not always be true.

[snowpega]

Well, if I had two options to select from the pool, I would have chosen gold and real estate. At that time, these assets were too cheap, and if I tell you this now, these days those people are more financially free and relaxed who have more land and accumulated gold these days from that time. I have seen many people in my city who have land from old times, and many of them have it in the form if inhertance.

They are living their life more freely as compared to those who sold their lands of accumulated gold just for the sake of a little money a long time ago. We should try our best not to sell any valuable asset that has a major chance of gaining its value with the passage of time. And in my case, we are in our struggle phase, as my ancestors sold all the lands they had. There is a famous saying that one generation makes assets while struggling for so long, and the next one enjoys them.

[ZAINmalik75]

I personally don't think that references from the past can do any good for the people in the present, because things work differently even in each decade, so referencing to financial investment decisions from 25 years ago and using it to educate youngsters in today's world is not the greatest idea, in my opinion. The biggest example of this is the entry of Bitcoin in between this period. If someone had invested the same amount in Bitcoin right after it was available in the market at around 2010, they could make way more than what someone would make from mutual funds from 2001.

Now, talking about the same thing again, we can't even compare investments made in Bitcoin at the initial stage with investments made in the recent times, because there will always be a huge difference in the profits one could get from now versus then. This is why, when we are talking about financial literacy or teaching people how investments can shape their futures, we should use at least newer things, so that they can understand that investing money in mutual funds at present might not bring them the same yields that they could get 25 years ago.

[Fortify]

If we talk about investing in Pakistan even Rs 1lakh PKR could make a big difference .
Yesterday i attended a financial literacy session. The speaker showed us what Rs.100k PKR could have grown over the last 25 years if invested in different ways. At first he talked about keeping money in the bank. For many of us it may feel safe but inflation slowly reduces its value .He gave examples that how Rs 100k PKR from 2001 could have value (or purchasing power) of only around 9 thousand PKR today.Then we looked at national savings. Rs 100k PKR could have grown 15 lakh PKR which is around 11.5% in 25 years, if we take the average rate every year. When he calculated real estate with 13% annual growth Rs 1 lakh PKR could have grown into 21.2 lakh PKR in 25 years. The Gold was more interesting . Its one tola was around 8k in 2001 Rs 100kPKR were equal to 12.5 tolas at that time. Today tola is around 465,000.It could be 58 lakh PKR today.
But the biggest surprise for me was mutual funds that had given a very high return in that period , including around 430% growth. So if we invested Rs 1lakh PKR and it grew 25%, it would almost become Rs 40 millions today . Offcourse these are the past records and cannot guaranteed the same progress in future but still it was huge. it was an interesting session and made me think what is my money doing while i m not using it?
If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

I would have converted it to anything that wasn't Pakistani rupees for starters. It's really strange to compare a safe savings rate of 11.5% with a much more volatile and unsafe real estate investment, for an extra 1.5% per year on average that is certainly not a risk worth taking, but we are only discussing this in hindsight. It's too broad to just say "mutual funds" because there are thousands of them out there and all targeting different areas of the world or types of companies, so you should be more specific. Things like investing in the global top 5,000 companies via an index fund has given great returns over that time. You really need to factor in currency volatility because if the rupee has dropped 300% in value over that time then it can really skew the equations, so these returns should all be inflation adjusted if you want a true comparison and to understand if the investing was worthwhile.

[BlackHatCoiner]

Gold would have been the easiest choice back in 2001. That Rs 40 million figure for mutual funds sounds like the speaker cherry-picked the absolute best-performing fund to make a point.

If I had the money back then, I'd have probably just bought real estate or gold for peace of mind.

[Faisal2202]

But the biggest surprise for me was mutual funds that had given a very high return in that period , including around 430% growth. So if we invested Rs 1lakh PKR and it grew 25%, it would almost become Rs 40 millions today . Offcourse these are the past records and cannot guaranteed the same progress in future but still it was huge. it was an interesting session and made me think what is my money doing while i m not using it?
If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

Boy, I did not know you were from Pakistan. What session did you attend?

BTW, before reading your post, I chose gold because I did not know mutual funds could give this much profit, although I was about to choose mutual funds as well because I knew they have made people a lot of money but I did not have any number in mind that is really big. I mean, gold only made 5.8 million, while mutual funds could have made 40 million, that's insane.

People made fortunes in this period but only those who had 1 lac in that era, even people earning 1 lac today are not the same as people earning 30k 5 years ago. Inflation has hit harder and the suffering is still the same. The salaries there are still the same, people don't have enough knowledge about investment and all that, but sessions like this can give everyone a great sense of investment.

So if you can please send me a link if it was live, or you can PM me here.

[Frankolala]

If I had such amount of money, I will invest in both gold and bitcoin at this time because bitcoin price will do better overtime. I don't like investment that will make me move about and give me much stress. With bitcoin in my wallet and gold in my vault, I'll be more relaxed and wait till I get old before taking profit bit by bit.

[Myleschetty]

Dude, are you sure you didn't get the wrong section? This isn't India.  Oh, I see you're from Pakistan. Yes, of course you're from there.

If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

It would be better to communicate among your own people when it comes to local currency.

I think he purposely used his native currency instead of promoting the US dollar.

If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

My research indicates that in 2012, the mutual fund multiplier began to outperform Gold. Given that this discussion is about something that takes place in 2001 prior to the development of Bitcoin. I'll choose mutual funds based on their past performance and the fact that Gold is one of the most reliable precious metals I will also add it. However, the creation of Bitcoin changed the story of investment by offering the solutions that also allowed it to create multipliers that outperformed all other assets.

[abhiseshakana]

Based on my real experiences at those year, i use 100.000 PKR = +/- USD 1,600 (2001 check on google) to do my first fresh fish export to Hongkong and Dubai. At that time i sell spanish mackarel. After 25 years, even i don't have my own cold storage factory but i have export  and freight forwarding business. Some of my business revenue I keep it in the form of gold bars.

Since i was young i like buying and selling goods, in college i buy cheap bag, take picture and then offering to my college friend. During college i have start working on a professional outbound activity organizer as marketing with salary around USD 75/week (if there any outbound activity) and also get commision per participating individual which i get.

I like investment on real business compared to stocks/mutual funds with consideration i have full control on my money management and at that time my motivation are unlimited potential returns especially if our goods match with buyer requirement, repeat order seems like stable routine big income. At that time, I start with simple thinking, with available amount in my pocket, how i can generates cashflow on a daily basis. Even not all going smooth but i surely said, fruitful turnover from trading more appealing than other income machine generator. At that time i didn't have good financial literacy, i only know about needs and wants and both required money.

But times have changed a lot, everyboday can start business with very minimum entry cost even my 11 years old daughther already have her own business (selling japanese dessert). She start with +/- USD 50 and after 2,5 years she has 3 digits saving from her business.

[Hamza2424]

Offcourse these are the past records and cannot guaranteed the same progress in future but still it was huge. it was an interesting session and made me think what is my money doing while i m not using it?
If you had Rs 100,000 in 2001, where would you have invested in?

Bro, this person in the session definitely skipped BTC, I know BTC did not exist in 2001, but let's compare the profit you could have made if you had bought BTC in 2013, at that time let's say it was around $13, and you bought worth $1k which is also almost equal to 1 lac PKR of that time.

You could have had 75 BTC, and if you convert it with the current price of $79k almost, you could have made 1.6 billion PKR, now compare that to the mutual fund, back then mutual funds were not a choice due to less number of managers, only a few banks were there, not even trusted by most. Gold was the first choice of everyone.

Oh, I forgot about the ATH in 2025, the profit would have been 2.7 billion PKR. haha. So bro, tell me who wins?