The definition of "fiat" money is more complex than we will attempt at this point. In the context of money versus real capital we need not confuse the issue with money as force. Therefore our limited definition of money is that which is a token expressing one's contribution to the society in the form of labor or goods . When we labor at a job in this day and time we are normally awarded these tokens which will allow us to gather our actual wages from a market for goods and services. Our actual wages are what we will purchase with these tokens, or what we can purchase with these tokens. The tokens themselves are "money". If we purchase consumables, or durables (a car), or we pay a mechanic to fix our car, we spend the tokens and the market (the rest of the society) no longer owes us anything. If we place the tokens in our mattress or in a government insured bank or if we purchase some government insured bonds then we are "saving" these tokens for later redemption. Bonds are merely another form of money. Only when we convert the tokens to ownership (or a share of ownership) in some productive venture do we own or create "capital". And then, of course, the money has been spent and there is NO guarantee that any of the labor or goods we might have realized in the market will ever be attained. And if we ever receive a return to our investment it will be because the enterprise in which we have invested, or the machinery we have created is supplying something of value to the larger society and that the society is willing to purchase these goods or services. Any return to money itself such as "interest" paid to bonds or to insured savings is simply Economic Rent . Such is the distinction between "money" and "capital".