Already a subscriber?Finance executive Tung Nguyen, who fled Vietnam by boat as a child, says he will retire at age 50 next year after stuffing his family’s self-managed superannuation fund with gold and bitcoin.
Nguyen and wife Sylvia have no investment or finance qualifications, but Nguyen says they were fed up with paying for “average financial advice” from a planner in 2015.and started accumulating the assets as fast as they could inside and outside their SMSF. They now plan to take profits on much of their gold holdings to fund an early retirement at the end of 2025.
“And with Ukraine and Gaza, we’re moving into a period of heightened geopolitical risk. I’m attracted to gold as a hedge against uncertainty. The biggest buyers of gold are Indians and Chinese, and I’m not surprised.”Meanwhile, bitcoin’s stunning bull run since 2015 has propelled it more than 230 times higher. Cryptocurrencies now account for around 20 per cent of the Nguyen family’s net worth, which also includes residential properties in Sydney’s inner west.
“Because all these US government bonds are being thrust down people’s throats and the US is growing its deficit at more than $US1 trillion a year,” he says. “The US is spending like a drunken sailor, so investors want a more tangible asset.
Eliseo says he sees three core drivers of gold’s rise this year. “The main one is the market’s increasing realisation that central bankers are likely to begin cutting interest rates even with inflation above their targets, so people want gold as a hedge to preserve wealth,” he says.