Gold in the bank and in the kitchen

Patricia McCracken looks at why a precious-metals broker goes for gold (and why you should, too!), as well as a range of unique and exciting Ghanaian dishes, and the new Jack Reacher novel.

MY 5 KEY WORDS: ZOLTAN ERDEY

Broker Zoltan Erdey shares his top tips on why and how to invest in precious metals in GOING FOR GOLD (PENGUIN, R220).

He also shared some details of his personal life with Farmer’s Weekly, including his childhood fascination for the materials that would one day define his job. 1. Treasure

I used to be captivated by treasure chests filled with silver and gold when I was a little boy. I was instinctively aware of their value, even though I didn’t know anything about bank gold reserves or stuff like that.

As a teenager, I swapped my earnings from small jobs for silver coins. And from that hobby grew a business! 2. Silver

It’s called the poor man’s gold; it costs about R535 an ounce, while gold is almost R27 000 an ounce.

It’s my favourite precious metal, because the economic fundamentals for higher silver prices are stronger than any other metal. 3. Diversification

I believe that every truly broad-based, well-diversified portfolio should contain between 10% and 20% precious metals.

Silver and gold are longterm investments that mainly hold the value of the cash you’ve invested in them. They’re like an insurance policy against socio-economic turmoil. 4. Outdoors

My family is my wife, two children, my mother, two cats and one dog. I love spending time with them outdoors, walking the dog in a park, and so on. I make sure to keep weekends for them because my work calls can sometimes carry through to 9pm on weekdays. 5. Milk & honey

I was born in Romania, where my grandparents did some subsistence farming, growing wheat and maize, and raising chickens, ducks and pigs. We came to South Africa in 1990 when I was 12 years old. For my parents, it was a land of milk and honey.