investing

[Absolutely!]

okay just because we preppers don't mean we don't love money.

What little we have, we either squirrel away (paranoia) or invest (avarice). And that suits me fine. i have a bit squirreled in cash, and I have a bit invested in Harmoney, an online peer-to-peer lending site that gives me an aggregate interest at the mo of 14%

But now I want to invest a little lump into something else. You know: diversify my investments. Put my eggs in more than one basket.

And that 14% is so attractive. Right now, NZ bank accounts are getting 2.5% interest. That's appalling. The rate of inflation is currently something like 1.5% so you can see anyone putting their money in the bank is absolutely STREAKING AHEAD. Not.

Ideas? Guaranteed stocks? I want stocks that pay dividends, not just stocks that go up in price. I'm in this for the long term.

[Night]

2.5% sounds good. Over here is .025%. That's right, one quarter of one percent and CDs are not much higher.

I know nothing that pays dividends that are enough to live on (which I'm assuming is what you want). I remember my grandparents buying a CD for as little as $10,000 and having quarterly interest payments of two to three thousand to live on. Now you get less than $10.

[Sock]

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[rokitman]

The higher the return the higher the risk. In 2003 I invested a substantial amount in mutual funds. Some bond funds and some stock funds. My investment was growing like gangbusters. By 2007 I was up 12% on the bond funds and 25% on the stocks. Hell I even pulled some cash out to buy a commuter car and was still way ahead. In 2008 within a span of 4 months I lost everything I gained so I sold them all at the break even point and invested in a cd paying 4% and PMs.. I made a good chunk on the cd but didn't roll it over because the rate dropped to 0.8%. Took that cash and bought more gold. In 2012 I sold some of the gold for a $600 an ounce profit. But now gold is down and the stock funds I had before are way over the highest level I had with them. It's all a crap shoot depending on the economy. I have no faith in the stock market or any paper investment. Too many variables for my taste. Now I just have cash and PMs ( and some valuable hardware).

[Admin]

There is a phone app called Acorns. You connect it to your bank account and everytime you make a purchase it will automatically round up to the nearest dollar and invest the difference in to a little investment account.

I've been using it for about a year and it's nice. Takes a few days to transfer balances back to your bank, but it's pretty painless and easy. I do not believe there are fees, but your balance does fluctuate with the market. I think I've lost $0.03 this month.

It only works with a handful of banks.

[Tracker]

Mutual funds are crap. You're buying into a jointly held fractional interest of a fractional interest. Of a fractional interest. Of a fractional interest. There's not much risk, true. But there's virtually no reward, either.

Penny stocks are the junk food of finance. Not a means of stability in turbulent times.

[Admin]

I'm not really doing it for the gain, ,its just another way to save. I dont really lose much, and I'll empty it every few months in to savings.

[Sock]

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[Admin]

Just posting, dont mind me.

[Necio]

I've invested in REIT's for years, and has worked out well for me. Low risk with a steady return rate.

[Absolutely!]

Thanks everyone for these ideas. REITs might be good looking although there are a few new rental property laws coming into force in NZ that may have an effect on it.

PM's seem to be slowly declining if you go onto kitco and look at the trends. CD's are a form of government bond aren't they. I don't know much about them. Managed funds are as good as the rich entitled dork sitting in his flash office making the choices of what to buy/sell, so I'm less than interested in them. Mum lost a lot of money in a managed fund a while ago.

Term deposits are crap, I wanted to buy a property and become a landlord but nothing is cheap enough for me so not sure where to go with that.

All in all, not a lot of upward action that I see. And one of my tiny investments on Harmoney is already in arrears. Having said that, I've already earned more interest than the bank would give me for the whole month and I'm only a week in to the first payment cycle.