Retirees could be Sitting on Gold Mines

Hi, my name is Adam Maher. Welcome to my new column, The Golden Rule!

A New England mutt who spent the last decade in LA, I moved to Naples this year to be closer to family.

I have been selling gold every day for the past three years, and every day it gets more interesting. Before gold, I enjoyed a successful sports marketing career working with the NFL and Oakley. In that career, I skied Aspen with gold medalists, partied with Super Bowl champions, and even surfed Hawaii on the company dime, but I didn’t find my “purpose” until I met a friend in the Gold IRA industry during the pandemic.

In 1912, it was J.P. Morgan who famously said, “Gold is money. Everything else is credit.”

Today, the demand for gold is higher than ever.

A top economist at Morgan Stanley recently said, “central bank demand is a primary driver of the sustained gold rally” (the spot price of gold is up over 150% in the past five years; source: COMEX), noting that “for the first time since 1996, gold represents a larger share of reserve assets than U.S. Treasuries.”

Trivia question: What country’s central bank bought the most gold per capita in 2025? Hint: Who was invaded first in WWII?

I was talking to my dad about starting this column the other day and he said to me, “Adam, you’ll probably have to do a monthly column and not a weekly column.”

I responded with the classic question I’ve been asking my dad since I was a toddler, “Why?”

“Because there isn’t much to say about gold, is there?”

I simply said nothing and let him think for a few seconds…

He then proceeded to talk for 15 minutes about the Iran war and ended by saying, “and that’s what’s probably driving the price of gold up right now, right?”

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Dad!

As a former political science and U.S. history student (University of Vermont, BA 2010), I am deeply interested in geopolitics, as well as the many idioms and money systems that remain relevant today, which stem from gold’s rich history (which predates the dinosaurs). Stories of King Midas bathing his golden curse off in the shallow riverbeds of Turkey, to ancient Chinese cultures using cowrie shells as some of the world’s first currencies, to fake Olympic Gold medals getting handed out just a few weeks ago in Italy - these tales pave way for an endless lore that inspires our imaginations like Naples’ New Years fireworks twinkling in the eye of a snowbird who just got off the plane for the season.

Nobody has a crystal ball, but everybody has a relationship with gold. The haves. The have nots. The just curious. The liquidators. The never sellers. Whatever your relationship with gold is, there is no denying that gold is making headlines these days. But can anyone get in on the action? Maybe.

I mentioned the term “Gold IRA” earlier in the column. You might have seen ads on TV with recognizable faces encouraging folks at home to “protect their retirement accounts” from falling markets with real, physical, tax-free precious metals inside their IRA. Well, after meeting that friend I mentioned during the pandemic - the one who was selling Gold IRAs - I left my dream sports marketing job to get in on the action. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was intrigued.

I spent the past three years working for the largest Gold IRA companies in the country. I helped a lot of people and learned the business, but over time, I realized there was a bit of a scam happening. I was conflicted: I loved helping people buy gold, but I didn’t feel right working for these big, bloated, greedy gold companies. So, I started my own company right here in Naples.

I decided to call this column “The Golden Rule” in the literal sense. I know there is a lot of new interest in gold right now, and I am here to dispel some myths, tell some stories, and hopefully, if you read my column, you’ll feel a little more knowledgeable about the world’s most historic mineral (Au).