Why Buy Karatbars?

Gold is more than a normal asset. Gold is a luxury and precious mineral that is scarce as well as
a safeguard for the future. Gold is always an asset and never a liability and is risk free. Buying gold is a very good idea and has many benefits. This is the reason why gold should be part of any persons saving for the future.

Not the way to build up your "Gold Cache"

Why gold and not only Fiat currencies?

To explain it the best is to use a quote from Wikipedia:

“Fiat money is a currency without intrinsic value that has been established as money, often by government regulation. Fiat money does not have use value, and has value only because a government maintains its value, or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value”

•  Gold as an asset is driven by many more factors such as jewelry and industrial use
• For many gold has a “prestige” value and that adds to the price
• Compared to other assets gold  it is a very good hedge against losing your buying power, the buying value of gold has remained stable through all the years.

According to WorldGold Council the average annual gold demand in the US Is 4,100 ton used as follows:

1. Jewelry 54%
2. Investment 30%
3. Technology 10%
4. Central Bank 6%

    

To stave my claim to its “prestige” value is the use of 54% for jewelry. People love to wear gold! The problem is, it is very expensive and not many of us can afford to buy a lot of gold jewelry, besides you can wear only so many and the rest normally sits in a safe somewhere. That begs the question of why buy only jewelry if you can buy pure gold. Now of course, you say you cannot afford to buy gold as you cannot possibly afford the big quantities you will have to buy.

This is where Karatbars comes in. Karatbars makes it possible to buy very small quantities of gold as and when you have a little spare cash. Building up your “Gold Cache” over time. To quote Harald Seiz founder of Karatbars International:

"My Mission is to produce the highest quality Gold available to the masses of honest people around the world at a price point everyone can afford. My goal is that Karabars helps millions find financial freedom from the current system of debt"  

 “Building Everyone’sGold Cache”

Have a look at the Gold price for the last 20 years and you will see that I am not exaggerating:

According to WorldGold Council the demand based on 10 years ending in 2016 was as follows:

• US and Canada 10%
• Europe (including Russia) 12%
• Middle East 12%
• Greater China 24%
• Indian subcontinent  24%
• S.E. Asia 8%
• Other 10%

 This makes it clear that the increasing demand for gold in Asia is driving gold more and more mainstream. Add to this the use of gold as an effective way of building your "cache" and you get a better picture of Gold You do not have to pay for the expensive manufacturing cost of Gold Jewelry!

Please bear in mind that the World Gold Council does not Offer investment advice and I quote them only as an example.

Have a look at my article: "Dirty Gold not Fake Gold"

The Fascinating History of Gold

The human race has been fascinated with gold for as long as human remembrance. We all love it, and so did everyone before us. Gold has been called the liquid of the gods. There is ample archaeological evidence that humanity has been impressed with gold for a very long time.

Everyone's Gold Cache

When bartering became too difficult people turned to gold as a universally excepted form of payment. History shows us that the first civilization to develop currency as a form of exchange was the Kingdom of Lydia. For the first time there was a standardized form of payment accepted by all with a set value that could be trusted.

The interest in gold persisted through the centuries as can be seen in lot of literature through the ages, you only have to think about the important role gold payed in the lives of the Israelites throughout their history and especially with the building of The Ark in the desert during their 40 year of wanderings.

Everyone loves gold and loved gold and it soon became a symbol class. We only have to think back to all the pictures we see of ancient civilizations with all the important people decked out in gold. Some of those jewelry must have been pretty heavy! Today gold jewelry is much more refined and delicate, though still heavy. If it does not seem heavy for its size it is not gold, that is for sure.

In 1792 the United States adopted the gold standard and in time all the governments followed suit. Now gold and silver coins became legal tender. Later paper money was adopted, but backed by gold.  It was known as the “gold standard” and you could actually go to the bank with your paper note and demand the value in gold. Smaller coins were still made of silver and it remained like that for many years.

During the years there were gold rushes in many countries and many towns mushroomed overnight. In South Africa we can thank our economical heart, Johannesburg, for gold. There were also gold rushes at Baberton and Pilgrims Rest, but they were not sustainable. Johannesburg is truly our “City of Gold” The United Kingdom’s interest in South Africa can mainly be attributed to our gold. The Anglo Boer War can mainly be attributed to gold and mining rights. For a brief history and Time Line of gold in South Africa you can have a look at this page.

Johannesburg very quickly became a city as the population grew rapidly. The rich became very wealthy at the expense of the rest of the population. Gold mining took a toll on the health of many miners as the mines had to go deeper and deeper. For a more detailed article have a look at this page
As you can imagine the interest in gold kept on growing and even today it is considered very valuable. Gold is a very good hedge against inflation that plagues FIAT money (paper money backed only by a promise of value by the Government)

Money, Money, Money

I think we all agree that money rules our life. I read a post on Facebook the other day where someone said they know love is more important than money, but have you ever tried paying an account with a hug?😕

Unfortunately we live in a world where money is important.

As I said before the story of money is very interesting and I have to admit quite confusing at times. For me it was very difficult to understand how banks "create" money. Only when I studied economics did I get an understanding of how how it works.

I am sure you do not want an Economics lesson here, but I think realising that banks only need to keep 20% of the money deposited and the rest can be lent to other customers, meaning the same money keeps going around in what the economists call the "multiplier"

This all sounds very good until we realise that all that lending and borrowing happens only in the books and is not backed by real money, so the Government simply prints more money. I know this is very simplified and the Economists will crucify me for all the inaccuracies in this post, but I just want to give you an idea of how money is crated out of "nothing" and thus inflation is a given.

Now once again the Economists will tell an economy cannot grow without inflation, and it is true, but what is also true is that inflation erodes your savings. This is why many people seek a save haven for their money. There re many ways it can be done, paintings, diamond jewelry, gold and silver. For paintings you really have be knowledgeable about art or you will waste your money. Not very many people can afford diamond jewelry or large quantities of gold and silver, so it is not always that easy.

So, I think we all have a lot to think about if we want to ensure a better future for our children. Have a look at what FIAT money is and the dangers.

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I am still grappling with this, I do not know about you. Is FIAT money a good thing or a bad thing? All I know is a little Gold cannot harm.

Gold As Money

The very first economies functioned by way of bartering, long before Gold was used as money. I have milk and you have eggs that I need

so we agree on a fair exchange. As you can think this was not very convenient because what of a situation where I need something and cannot find a person that a re willing to exchange it for what I need. Thus arose the need for a method of payment that is universally acceptable, enter money.

At first all money consisted of coins in either Gold or Silver and there value was the value of the precious metal it was made of. This may seem like a good way of solving the problem, but of course the value of the metal could change. It is also difficult to carry around a lot of heavy metal. This gave rise to printed money.

At first all money was backed by gold and the value of the money was guaranteed by the issuing entity, the Government. So the printed money was taken at face value as guaranteed by the Reserve Bank.

During the Great Depression of the 1930's Roosevelt cut the Dollar's ties with Gold in order to pump money into the economy to relieve the financial problems. It is said it is the reason the US overcame the depression. The US Government never the less still allowed foreign governments to exchange Dollars for Gold. In 1971 Nixon stopped this practice to stop countries with a big cache of dollars from depleting the US from Gold.

This all sounds very good, but the problem is that Governments could now just print money as needed, thus "creating" money. Of course that led to inflation with the value of money going down all the time. Inflation is eating away at all your savings and you need something to protect yourself from this corrosion!

The Fascinating History Of Gold

Once again, gold enter into the picture. Through all time gold has kept it's buying power. In the short time the price of gold may fluctuate but over time you can still buy with gold what you could buy with it thirty years ago.

There must be more people of the same mind as lately the price of gold has steadily increase. More and more people are looking for a way to save for the future without inflation taking such a big toll. On Moneyweb there is an interesting article that is well worth a read. You can get it here.

Awesome Gold

I have been looking at Gold and found a lot of interesting information. As the time goes I will share this information with you, but do not worry! I will really try and keep it interesting 😏

Gold is so much more than the jewelry that comes to mind and is a very good way to save your money, for the future, in a way that is not affected by inflation. We all know inflation gnaws away at our savings. Of course, your gold jewelry is one of the ways you can save with gold. You save and in the mean time you can enjoy wearing it, a win, win in my eyes. 

Later on I will tell you more about Gold as money and the history of Gold, but for now I thought I will just tell you a little more about this blog. Together we will explore the wonderful world of gold.

Enjoy your gold and remember there is so much more to gold that we all knew.