People boast about how much money they have, or which stocks they own, but seldom does one encounter a person who keeps his accounts safe, secure, private, and counts his assets in terms of weights, or age, or fineness, or location.

Over the past few centuries of central bank domination, people have become conditioned to assume that dollars, euros, yen, francs, or whatever currency is in vogue has value, and thus, they count their assets denominated in those currencies. That's not always been the most preferred measure of wealth. In ages past, kings had gold and silver by the tonne, which is today becoming the case for central banks.

Medieval times saw monarchs with large land holdings. animal husbandry, with large herds of goats, sheep, or cattle at some times - and still today in certain places - was a sign of being well-to-do. In extreme cultures, conch shells, giant rocks and other oddities signified a person's net worth. In ancient Rome, a fine toga and a cachet of gold coins signaled status and prosperity.

Let's take a look at assets and wealth from a different perspective than that of the Wall Street horde. The following are assets that consist of real things, not paper certificates or digits on a computer screen, like stocks, bonds, options, debentures, or even cash.

Precious Metals: Of course, precious metals are called that because they are, well, precious. Gold and silver will always have value, regardless of cultural norms. These metals, which are routinely cast into bars and coins and in days past were means of exchange as accepted currency, are making a huge come back thanks to the slimy dealings of central banks and their counterfeit fiat currencies that have been inflated beyond imagination.

It's an accepted fact that inflation - otherwise known as currency debasement - has destroyed the purchasing power of dollars, yen, francs, pounds and other national currencies. Gold especially, and to a lesser extent, silver, remain stores of value and are emerging, especially in Asia and Africa, as means of exchange, i.e., currency.

Gold and silver are easy to buy, either online or at local dealers far and wide. When you see the price of gold or silver going up, measured in US$, or other currencies, it's actually the purchasing power of the particular currency declining. Gold and silver is best measured in ounces, kilos, pounds, or tonnes. If you have tonnes of either, you are truly among the very wealthiest people in the world.

Jewelry or a nice set of sterling cutlery will maintain value, but when it comes to pure investment-grade metals, purity is the, excuse the pun, gold standard. .999 or .9999 purity is essential.

Real Estate: It's been said that land will always increase in value because they're not making any more of it.

While that's true to a large degree, what matters most about real estate are the three things stressed by real estate agents for generations: Location, Location, and Location. If you have a cow pasture in the middle of a big city, it isn't of much use or highly desired. But, a pasture in a rural setting, or, a high-rise building or industrial use facility in that urban setting would be worth plenty.

When America (the New World) was being explored and settled, prime real estate was generally considered to be alongside railroad routes or beside lakes and rivers, because those locations would be valuable in terms of access to trading and transportation routes.

As the country developed and turned from an agrarian society to the industrial age, locations in cities large and small, where burgeoning populations could live, work and shop became in high demand. As the auto industry transformed the nation again, locations in and around interstates and highways, and then suburbia prospered.

Today, in the information age, locations off the beaten path, outside of cities, are becoming more desirable. With the availability of remote work environments, homesteads in ex-urban locales are fetching high value. There are plenty of ways to make money with real estate, either by speculation, renting, leasing, or developing property. Donald Trump is a perfect example as he expanded from his early beginnings in New York apartment buildings to luxury high rises, office towers and gold courses.

Art, Antiques, Collectibles: These categories require knowledge and maybe some luck, but overall, persistence, in building wealth. It's hard to imagine somebody being an expert in antique furniture, pre-industrial pottery, comic books, and Renaissance art, but they are all areas in which wealth can be formed, held, transferred, or sold at multiples of purchase price.

When it comes to art especially, it comes down to long-standing traditions and recognition of the best painters, sculptors, and creators. Original paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and even contemporaries like De Kooning fetch millions at auctions while most of their works have become, over the years, property of museums and art galleries, rather than held in private hands. That's not to say that one with an eye for talent and beauty can't make headway in the art world. There are new expressions emerging daily. The wealth-building talent comes in recognizing the best and most marketable and buying at prices under retail, and then holding for as long as one wishes.

Similarly, collectibles like baseball cards and comic books usually need to be held for long periods of time. The most expensive and valuable cards and comics are from the 50s and 60s. Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays rookie cards and early editions of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and X-Men are prime examples of buy-and-hold strategies that are paying off generations later.

Collectibles run the gamut of human experience, from decorative arts to books to classic cars to model railroading. Finding solid, marketable collectibles takes time, but the thrill is in the journey, to second-hand stores, auctions, flea markets, garage sales, and online speculation.

Of course, all of these items require curation and safe-keeping. You wouldn't put a first edition Hemingway on your coffee table, unless that table was a Chippendale perhaps and you were looking to impress a client or potential love interest.

The possibilities for monetary gains on orders of magnitude are endless in art and collectibles. The interested observer with patience and perseverance will usually be richly rewarded.

In the long run, money truly isn't everything, but, rather, a means to an end, and that end is procuring and acquiring things of lasting value.