Portfolio (54% stocks, 36% bonds, 10% gold) · Average Annual Return since 1972

## What this measures

The arithmetic average of the annual returns of a portfolio holding 54% stocks, 36% bonds, 10% gold (stocks = the S&P 500 with dividends, bonds = 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds), rebalanced to those weights every January, over 1972 to the year shown. One value per year from 1981 (ten years of returns) to 2025: each is the statistic over the whole period to that year. A Palanor calculation.

## Why it matters

Plotting each mix's volatility against its average return draws the classic efficient-frontier picture: how much return each extra unit of risk has bought, and whether a small gold holding improved the trade-off.

## How to read it

Over 1972–2025 this portfolio returned 10.2% a year on average with a standard deviation of 9.9%. Higher is better; read the two together, mix against mix.

## What it does not say

History, not a forecast: the period starts in 1972, after the end of the dollar's convertibility into gold, and includes the bond bull market of 1981–2020, which flatters bonds. Nominal returns before inflation, fees and taxes; arithmetic averages run above compound growth when returns are volatile.

## Source

Palanor calculation (src/lib/damodaran/frontier.ts) from Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern (histretSP): https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/datafile/histret.html. Shown with Professor Damodaran's written permission (display only); not available as a data file.