For Indian investors, gold and real estate often feel like the safest bets. They are tangible, culturally ingrained, and seen as reliable stores of value. But according to Vijai Mantri, Co-Founder & Chief Investment Strategist of JRL Money, this emotional preference often clouds financial judgment. True wealth creation, he says, comes from understanding the difference between productive assets and those that simply sit idle.
“Equity is the most predictable asset class in the long run,” Mantri explained in a recent podcast. “The volatility looks scary, but it’s backed by earnings growth. Gold and real estate, despite their appeal, lack that engine of compounding.”
Gold vs. Titan
To drive the point home, Mantri highlighted one of India’s most compelling investment stories: Titan Company vs. gold.
“Gold prices have gone up around 20 times in the last 20 years. But Titan’s share price has multiplied nearly 500 times in the same period,” he pointed out. “The fascinating part is—both are based on the same gold.”
What explains the difference?
“Gold just sits in your locker. It has no earnings, no interest, no dividend. Titan, on the other hand, buys that same gold, manufactures jewellery, retails it, and makes a 6–8% profit margin every quarter. And it doesn’t stop there — Titan can rotate the same gold stock three to four times a year. That’s compounding at work. That’s why Titan created 500x wealth while gold delivered only 20x,” Mantri explained.
He added that investors often compare gold to equity unfairly — ignoring jewellery making charges, GST, or resale discounts for gold, while ignoring dividends and total return indices for equity. “The reality is, gold has gone through decades of zero returns, such as 1966–1986 and 2011–2017. Equity, despite crashes, has always bounced back because underlying earnings keep growing.”
Real Estate investment
Mantri acknowledged that real estate feels “real” in the Indian context, but warned about its hidden pitfalls.
“Real estate is illiquid, requires huge transaction sizes, and is plagued with legal disputes and lack of transparent pricing. For most families, it becomes an emotional investment rather than a financial one. Unlike equity, it doesn’t give you quarterly compounding or professional management,” he explains.
Why equity wins in the long run
Equity’s volatility, Mantri argued, is its only real drawback—and that too is manageable through Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs).
“If you had kept investing through the 1992 or 2008 crashes, you’d have recovered within months, not years. The problem is not equity — it’s our inability to stay disciplined during volatile times,” he said.
According to him, equity remains the only asset that compounds earnings consistently while fighting inflation. Fixed deposits lose to rising prices, gold stagnates for decades, and real estate remains illiquid. “Equity looks risky daily, but over decades, it’s the safest bet,” he said.
“Investing is about choosing productive assets,” Mantri concluded. “Gold and real estate will give you emotional satisfaction, but if you want true wealth creation, equity is the only sustainable path.”