Greetings!
This week’s edition of “Advice for the Good Life” takes us from markets to meaning—and everything golden in between.
💰 Wealth Advisory: explores gold’s stunning climb past $4,300 an ounce and what it reveals about “the debasement trade,” balanced portfolios, and long-term perspective.
💗 Wellness Navigator: Christine Despres shares her Gentle Detox Series—a timely guide to midlife wellness, mindful prevention, and the quiet power of small daily shifts.
💍 Etcetera: reflects on love’s compounding dividends, as I write from North Carolina on the eve of my daughter’s wedding—a reminder that the right person multiplies everything.
Read, reflect, and share the good life forward.
Wealth Advisory: Understanding Gold’s Recent Surge and Currency Concerns
Gold prices have surged more than 60% this year, climbing above $4,300 per ounce, a milestone that has captured significant attention alongside new highs in various other asset classes. This remarkable ascent has led many investors to question whether this rally differs fundamentally from previous episodes.
The current phenomenon has been dubbed the “debasement trade,” reflecting concerns that governments may weaken their currencies through substantial deficit spending and supportive monetary policies. Combined with dollar weakness, these dynamics have driven some investors toward assets like gold, which are traditionally seen as stores of value, particularly as stock market volatility has increased.
While fiscal deficit concerns are valid, historical evidence demonstrates that forecasting gold price movements is challenging. Moreover, factors beyond currencies and interest rates are contributing to broader market strength. For investors with long-term horizons, the question isn’t whether to choose between stocks and bonds or gold, but rather determining the appropriate allocation to each within a balanced portfolio.
Crucially, investors must distinguish between short-term speculation and long-term financial priorities like income generation and capital appreciation, particularly when an asset has already experienced substantial gains.
Currency debasement through the ages.
Although currency debasement is an ancient concept spanning millennia, it remains a recurring concern that reemerges periodically. Historically, “debasement” described the practice of governments reducing the precious metal content in coinage. This enabled governments to produce more coins from the same quantity of precious metal, but simultaneously diminished each coin’s purchasing power.
Contemporary currencies are predominantly “fiat currencies,” meaning their value derives from confidence in the issuing governments rather than being supported by gold or other precious metals. Today’s debasement worries therefore focus on whether governments will tolerate elevated inflation and currency depreciation, as this would facilitate management of existing debt obligations.
These concerns connect to concepts that gained traction following the 2008 financial crisis. Economists Reinhart and Rogoff documented what they termed “financial repression” – policies maintaining artificially suppressed interest rates to reduce the real burden of government debt. Such policies disadvantage savers because cash loses value when interest rates fail to match inflation. Given the ongoing expansion of national debt, investor concerns about these dynamics and the resulting search for value-preserving assets are understandable.
Despite these long-term considerations, current evidence regarding whether debasement is occurring remains mixed. Inflation rates, while persistent, are not extreme. The Consumer Price Index, Personal Consumption Expenditures Index, and Producer Price Index all register at 3% or below. Additionally, bond markets are not signaling expectations of high inflation. The 10-year Treasury yield has recently declined to 4% or less, and Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) imply an inflation rate of just 2.3%.
Two additional factors merit consideration. Central banks globally have been accumulating gold to strengthen their reserves, a trend that has intensified amid geopolitical uncertainty and dollar weakness. Furthermore, while the dollar has depreciated approximately 10% this year, it remains near the upper end of its twenty-year range. From a historical perspective, the dollar maintains relative strength.
Forecasting gold rallies remains challenging.
Given its speculative nature, gold naturally attracts investor attention. Throughout recent decades, gold has experienced dramatic rallies with varying outcomes. During the late 1970s, gold soared as investors fretted about stagflation and Federal Reserve independence. Prices peaked above $800 in 1980 – a threshold not revisited until 2007.
A comparable pattern emerged following the 2008 financial crisis when central banks injected substantial stimulus into financial systems. Many investors reasonably feared runaway inflation and dollar collapse, neither of which materialized. Gold doubled between 2009 and 2011, reaching approximately $1,900 per ounce, before retreating toward $1,000 over subsequent years. This occurred despite the Fed not beginning to taper stimulus until 2013 or raising rates from zero until 2015.
The accompanying chart illustrates gold’s performance relative to the S&P 500 since the 2007 market peak. Although gold has delivered strong returns during certain periods, providing diversification advantages, the S&P 500 has outperformed across the full timeframe. For investors preoccupied with daily market fluctuations, this reality may seem counterintuitive. This underscores the importance of evaluating all asset classes from a portfolio perspective.
Diverse asset classes driving portfolio performance this year.
The present gold rally, which commenced in 2024, coincides with robust performance across numerous assets, including artificial intelligence stocks such as the Magnificent 7, international equities, fixed income, and cryptocurrencies. The accompanying chart demonstrates that multiple asset classes have enhanced portfolio returns this year. While gold has certainly delivered strong results, individual stocks and other assets consistently perform well in any given year.
For many investors, gold functions as part of a broader commodities allocation, potentially grouped with other alternative assets. The Bloomberg Commodity Index, for example, initiated the year with a 14.3% target allocation to gold. Combined with other commodities including silver, industrial metals, energy, grains, and additional categories, this index has advanced 10.6% year-to-date.
Additional considerations support maintaining diversified holdings across multiple asset classes aligned with long-term financial objectives. A fundamental challenge is that gold produces no income, unlike bonds or dividend-distributing stocks. Consequently, a portfolio disproportionately weighted toward gold foregoes the long-term appreciation potential of equities and the income generation of fixed income investments.
The bottom line? While some investors are troubled by dollar debasement concerns, particularly as gold continues its rally, gold should be viewed as one element within a diversified portfolio structured to support long-term financial objectives.
Wellness Navigator and Holistic Health Coach, Christine Despres, RN, NBC-HWC, CDP
Gentle Detox & Midlife Wellness
October reminds us to slow down and check in with ourselves. It’s a month that honors both Breast Cancer Awareness and Menopause Awareness — two deeply important aspects of women’s health that touch nearly all of us, either personally or through someone we love. 💗
This season, I encourage you to pause, breathe, and remember: caring for your health doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. Every small, mindful choice adds up — from nourishing your body to managing stress, rest, prevention, and connection. Make the appointments, do the screenings, and remind your friends to as well.
That’s why this fall, I’m sharing a Gentle Detox Series — a simple, supportive approach to reducing the hidden (or not-so-hidden) toxins that can weigh us down in midlife.
Why Gentle Detox Matters
Our bodies are wise — they already know how to detox through the liver, kidneys, skin, brain, and lymphatic system. Modern life, however, adds extra layers of work: chemicals, plastics, processed foods, technology, and daily stress. During midlife, metabolic systems can become overloaded, compounded by natural hormone changes and years of environmental exposures.
Genes may load the gun, but your environment pulls the trigger. In fact, research shows that only about 5–10% of breast cancers are linked to inherited genetic mutations (like BRCA1 or BRCA2). The other 90–95% are influenced by environmental, hormonal, and lifestyle factors — things we can often change or improve through mindful daily habits. Gentle detoxing helps lighten that load so your body can do what it’s designed to do: utilize what it needs and release what it does not. (Sources: American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute, and BreastCancer.org)
🌼 Simple Daily Shifts
- Drink filtered water upon waking (add lemon or chlorophyll) and throughout the day
- Add leafy greens, fiber, and cruciferous veggies to meals to support digestion
- Avoid processed foods, sugar, artificial dyes, and sweeteners
- Move daily, sweat weekly, to support circulation and lymph flow
- Reduce plastics wherever possible — start in the kitchen and with your water
- Be mindful of synthetic chemicals in your home and beauty products
- Switch to natural clothing and bedding: Organic cotton, bamboo, linen, hemp, Tencel
- Synthetic fabrics (polyester, nylon, spandex) are often treated with PFAS, flame retardants, and dyes that can be absorbed through sweat or friction
- Prioritize quality sleep — that’s when your body “takes out the trash”
- Download the Yuka app (www.yuka.io) to scan food and beauty products for quality ratings
💛 Join the Gentle Detox Series
Follow along on Instagram @thewellnessnavigator for weekly tips, toxin swaps, and gentle reminders to support your body holistically — without extremes or guilt.
Every month should be about caring for your whole self — body, brain, and heart — with kindness and intention. Small shifts truly lead to big benefits, and it’s the quality of your years that matters most.
We continually honor the strength, resilience, and spirit of every woman impacted by breast cancer. We have your back — and we’re here to speak the truth: Breast cancer sucks.
With love and respect,
Christine Despres, RN, NBC-HWC, CDP
Holistic Brain Health Coach | The Wellness Navigator
www.thewellnessnavigator.com
For those who might not know, I post everyday in my Skool Community called millionaireME, a site devoted to living your best happy, healthy, wealthy, wise life.
What follows is yesterday’s post that marks the occasion for being in North Carolina presently, but also the importance of marrying the right person if you are to marry at all.
To join the free community or invite your friends or family, click here or simply forward this newsletter as an email.
💍 millionaireME Minute | The Right Person Multiplies Everything
Greetings from North Carolina!
It’s Monday, October 20th, 2025.
There are 72 days left in the year.
Among the decisions that matter most for those seeking a happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise life, it’s this one: if you marry at all, marry the right person.
I’ve made a myriad of other mistakes—some costly, some comical—but marrying the wrong person wasn’t one of them. And the dividends of that decision continue to compound.
I met Ceci on August 11th—a date seared into my memory—and married her exactly one year later, also in North Carolina.
Sounds crazy now, but I was so confident in what we might build that I canceled my plans to move to Japan. I had been ready to go—passport, job prospects, the works—but something deeper told me to stay.
It was that Fall, with its cooling air and turning leaves, that sealed the certainty of it all.
Which makes this next chapter feel like divine symmetry: I’m back in North Carolina, under the same walnut trees, sycamores, elms, magnolias, and pines, preparing this time for the wedding of my youngest daughter to the youngest son of my best friend from college.
The odds of that happening? Astronomical.
The beauty of it? Beyond measure.
And though the colors this year are a little more muted than in others, they’re no less magnificent—like a stunning woman without makeup, or as Charles Frazier described his beloved May:
“Too pretty to be real.”
Life’s funny that way. It circles back, rhymes with itself, and if you’re lucky, you get to witness love—pure, promising, enduring—take flight again.
Because here’s the truth: The right person isn’t just someone you can love.
They’re someone you can carry, hold, and enjoy a lifelong conversation with.
Houses change. Jobs end. Friends move. Even children grow up and go.
But if God wills it, the one you love will still be there, talking and laughing beside you through every season.
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💬 A few reflections to ponder:
• Are you cultivating the kind of love that will last through all your seasons?
• Are you looking for depth or distraction?
• Are you patient enough to wait for a love worth keeping—and confident enough to stand whole until it finds you?
To those preparing for marriage, may your joy overflow.
To those in the middle of it, may your roots deepen.
To those hoping to find it again, remember—you are enough, even alone.
Sometimes, that’s where the truest love begins. ❤️
millionaireME | Happy • Healthy • Wealthy • Wise
🐷🪽
That’s all for today.
Delighting in wisdom, wealth, and the work of becoming whole,
