Gold Is Not An Investment.

I am challenged by the title of this thread and my inner pedant has surfaced. Gold is an investment, just one with a fairly poor ROI depending on the period of evaluation you select.

Everything you purchase falls into one of three categories...
1) Consumables... Things you buy and use... Think Gasoline/Petrol, Food, Clothing.
2) Raw Materials... Things you buy and use to make other things... e.g. Wood to make houses, Steel to make cars and yes gold for jewelry.
3) Investments... Things you buy and store until you or your heirs sell. Stocks, bonds, Precious metals, Doulton Figurines and most collectables.

If you do nothing to add value to an item and don't consume it... it will be sold (or disposed of) in essentially the same condition you purchased it and in that case, it is an investment or collectible. You may invest for enjoyment (collecting) or for income/growth (stocks) but your treatment of the item is little different. A collection is an investment regardless of the ROI on that investment. Whether the collection is beanie babies, gold/silver coins, Doulton figurines, silver teaspoons or horse brasses it represents an investment. It will be in essentially the same condition (storage specifics being adequate) when it is either sold or disposed of.

If the question is whether Gold is a good investment then that is a different question that many of the responses above have addressed. Gold is not a consumable though depending on your trade/craft, it can be a raw material however most gold sold in coin or bar format is for investment purposes.

Vonigohcr
Sometimes pedantry is necessary, helpful and focusing.
I am no economist, and your three category explanation seemed oversimplified, so I gave it some thought and ultimately found myself circling back to your three categories. Business expenses: Start up capital—investment, operating expenses— consumables; burying a brick in the back yard—unused raw materials; things bought to save money (say an electric car) that are expected to be sold or traded in for a lower price—consumables with salvage value and lower costs of operation which are also consumables.
The best I could do were some head of pin arguments that were really pretty silly.
So I have to accept your conclusion that gold is an investment.
Why all the mental gymnastics? I wanted you to be wrong because I had a strong personal opinion that gold would be a bad investment for me that I improperly projected on others with different circumstances and risk tolerance. You are correct that I and others used the reasons why gold would be a bad investment for ourselves, that I, at least, found myself treating as universal truths.
The best discussions cause people to change their minds. I'm glad I've been part of this one.

I thought I would mention the India gold play. The people and the temples are each holding 20 thousand+ tons each. Their relationship with gold goes back a long time, it's cultural too, they like to wear it. They've had periods of harsh inflation, and likely had problems with banker corruption. A gold transaction would be like .. anti-taxman. They want us to just forget about gold, and most have, we have life so easy.

The India central bank recently started buying gold, for years they were hoping the people would lease them the gold, why I do not know, but the people had no interest.

I went panning for gold for the first time last weekend. It was dusty, uncomfortable, muddy in areas and very hard work. I found some tiny pieces that my scales wouldn't even weigh. But I can't describe how exciting it was to see the yellow! I am going back. This is a totally irrational financial decision I could earn vastly more driving an Uber but... it isn't about being an investment. People want gold because it is quite literally in our DNA, after trading it for thousands of years. It is also very rare. These are the properties that make Gold at the very least, a very transportable desirable store of value.

A price over $1400 gives me an urge to sell, not buy.

Gold's taking off!

Quote, 2012. 2013. 2014. 2015. 2016...you get the picture.

@cuzzx I somewhat agree with the land investment, although, unfortunately, unlike coins that one owns, even bought and paid for property will always have two owners. Always.