Yes but which property? There are many sorts of properties in many areas. Some have busted in Qld and Perth. Some have also invested overseas in jurisdictions like Italian and French countryside and those have also busted. Some commercials have stagnated. Some farms have busted. Even a bad neighborhoods and suburbs taken over by certain immigrant groups have busted.

And which stocks? There must be hundreds of thousands to choose from. Some companies have gone bankrupt too.

You might say indexes. The popular ETF's have only existed in their modern form from the 1990's. Nobody invested with kook Vogle in the 1970's. And which index? ishares? Vanguards? Betashares? SPDR? Each have a different fee structure and tax implication. And which ETF? The S&P 500? Currency ETFs? Bond ETFs? High growth 3rd world market ETFs?

And the Buffet myth that S&P can protect you even with the downturns is bunk. See the point/gain loss basis of the S&P here.

Let's talk about monies. Compound investing in monies sounds great until you realise your being taxed marginally higher on savings interest over a certain threshold. And which money, bank, and jurisdiction? If you saved your monies in any of the Euro countries that converted to Euros, you're stuck with whatever value those currency had vs the Euro at the time of the transition. Some monies have been wiped out like Mexican pesos in the 90s, the Argentinian in the 2000s, the Velenzuelan Bolivar recently. And some jurisdictions like Greece and Cyprus, your money would have been absorbed by the bank and converted to worthless shares.

And as can be seen gold has risen against many currencies in the last 10 years and will rise more with the debasement of these currencies with record government debts to be paid and being created.

Gold is gold is gold in whatever place in the last 30 years. Truly a passive investing option.