When leafing through the regional or national newspapers or surfing the internet, wherever you look you find advertisements of businesses who want to exchange your gold for hard cash. Be it coins, jewelry, whatever you have to offer, you can get cash right away. Now why is gold so “hot” these days? What is it that gold has that people are willing to buy from you, no questions asked?

There are several reasons for this high demand of gold. Firstly there have always been traders who take your gold for a reasonable price – although not the actual market price – just because that is their business. They buy gold and they sell gold. And the difference in the two prices is their profit. That is their living.

Secondly with the current world economy crisis gold has become a valuable asset. While the world currencies are losing their worth day after day, gold is a stable commodity. Look at the dollar, the pound and even the euro these days… once stable and reliable, now the victim of the economic downfall of nation after nation, bad management by bankers who fill their own pockets with nice bonuses while going bankrupt at the same time and even governments working the books like the one in Greece which is now looking for a solution for their enormous deficit. And the IMF and the EU are supposed to solve that problem, created by the Greek themselves.

Gold has always been a valuable asset. Mind you, not so much gold jewelry and coins as the gold in bars or smaller quantities; the 999,99 fine, solid gold, to be put away in safes, never to come out but in times of need. This gold was always only available to the rich and very rich, worldwide about 1 percent of the population. People like you and me could only dream of a bar or two…

Now there is some good news for you and me. We can also own gold albeit not the bars you see in the movies and you imagine in Fort Knox – if they are still there. Ever since a year and a half it is possible to own very small quantities of gold, exchanged for your currency, stashed away for you in a safe in Switzerland until you want it exchanged back into the current currency. And when I say ’small quantities’ I do mean small quantities, like 1, 2.5 and 5 grams. These quantities you can always exchange everywhere in the world; every bank has to accept them. That is not the case with a gold bar. The bank manager probably would call Interpol right away…

Now why would you exchange your money into gold? Let me give you a few examples, all on the mid long or long term scale. Because if you want to save until your next summer vacation, exchanging money for gold is not a good idea. Gold is going to double in value in 7 to 10 years, not months. So here are a few examples: your pension supplement; college fees for your children; paying off your mortgage once you are a senior – well, you get the picture.

So if those advertisements of gold dealers look tempting to you think twice: jewelry and gold coins are not as much worth as the pure, solid gold. Plus you lose jewelry you might have emotional connections with, heirlooms even or golden coins from a long time collection… On the other hand, exchanging small amounts of money into small quantities of gold is pure ‘business’ and more profitable in the end as well. Over the years you build up a nice quantity of solid, fine gold which by the time you want money for it, may be doubled in worth, or even more than that. No crisis, government or fraudulent bank manager is ruining that for you… Your gold is, well, your gold.