I think of assets as tiles on a grid, all bobbing up and down against each other. There's no fixed floor. "Is this asset holding its value?" is like asking how fast a tile is moving without saying relative to what. So "steady" only means steady against the thing you're going to buy. If you're saving for retirement, that's the cost of living. If you're buying a house, the safest tile is one that tracks house prices. Additionally, some tiles can produce (a business, a farm) and some only rise if more people crowd onto them (gold, bitcoin).