Does having more precious metals, currency mean you are wealthy, do politicians with stacks of billions wealthy? Spains example

Think and act on the way to riches/millions

Spain gold horde, caused its downfall

If you think in terms of accounting and balance sheet means you have more assets.  But such assets such as fiat currency means they are liabilities of the Central Bank to the holder. It is just fiat money and medium of exchange and should not be treated as an end in itself.  Nothing belong to us.  We are just shepherd. of such assets.   Cash in hoard can be eaten by insects, or can rot.

The real wealth is productivity ie production:   construction, manufacturing , raising cooking food, not the money in itself.  It can be only made productive by investing this in farm land, seeds, labor to plant crops machinery that makes job easier

It was shown that even precious metals are not wealth.  As shown by the Spanish and Japanese example in the 16th century For Spain it was even the cause of its downfall.

Spain (and Japan too) acquired huge deposits of gold and silver.  And when ships come home to Spain it was cause of festivity because the silver and gold brought home was symbol of wealth.  But lo and behold they did not.  Say purchase of shoes.  Since economy of Spain was inflated (more currency vs goods) the shoe let us say sell for 10 pesetas in Spain but only 2 in France.  Thus money did not flow into Spanish economy but in France.  The Spanish nobility being used to the thought of being wealthy did not work and did not do anything productive  Thus Spain's economy fell into decline despite having precious metal.  Working and being productive is being wealthy;   not having more precious metal is.  In a way, gold like bitcoin is not wealth.  They do nothing productive

The tibs politicians despite having stacks of cash are not really worthy.  The hard working farmers and fishermen construction workers factory workers are..

AI says:

Productivity is crucial for wealth, but it's not just about being busy; it's about strategic, meaningful productivity that builds assets, generates leverage, and focuses on high-impact activities like investing and creating systems that work for you, not just working harder

How too much silver improverished Japan in 1600