Investing In The Current Financial Climate

[bust 466]

Personally I steered well clear of all the "Cryptocurrencies’" hype. Won't invest in anything unregulated. Personally think it's all 21st Century Pyramid Trading.

 

I have been investing since last year in green energy companies and following Elon Musk's moves.

Right direction? Only time will tell.

 

Very curious to hear others thought on this.

[Stickman 65]

I'm in a holding pattern at the moment and mainly in cash. Low return, of course, but I just see so many black clouds around at the moment. It all comes back to one's risk profile, doesn't it?

[Mekong 702]

Stick

 

I have been in a holding pattern most of my life mate, and I don’t do risk hehe little scarey cat am I

 

In 13 moons time I will be 55 can cash my private pension in, I won’t, let it sit there and work for me, still making a few bob / month from working.

 

There does come a stage in life when one asks oneself “How Muchâ€, How old will one be when pops this mortal coil, I wanna die in debt haha

 

I could put my feet up and be comfortable until I hit 85,what happens if I make 86 I’d be fucked to be honest, Mrs Kong tells me to retire now, no way, keep head down nose to the stone and keep earring as I know one day soon I will be deemed too old to work, wheel out the old fart

[Stickman 65]

I could put my feet up and be comfortable until I hit 85,what happens if I make 86 I’d be fucked to be honest, Mrs Kong tells me to retire now, no way, keep head down nose to the stone and keep earring as I know one day soon I will be deemed too old to work, wheel out the old fart

 

Wouldn't it be nice to know the exact date we were going to check out, even if that date was much sooner than we'd like? At least that way we'd be able to plan from a finances point of view.

 

But it's not just finances, is it? There are so many things to consider when we pull the plug. The world is changing so fast that the things we once thought we'd like to do in retirement might no longer be possible or might not be nearly as enjoyable as they would have been had we done them earlier. Case in point: I backpacked around continental Europe for 3.5 months when I was 20. Even the really popular places weren't that busy back then and it wasn't hard to escape the crowds at all. I see videos of St Mark's Square in Venice these days and simply don't think I would enjoy visiting with it getting many tens of thousands of visitors every day.

 

Knowing just when to pull the plug and retire and once and for all is one helluva tough decision.

[My Penis is hungry 311]

i've been using "Acorns" to do my savings, smat idea, every time you buy something with any plastic card, they round it up to next $.

 

i.e. coffee is $4.50, they put 50c into the Acorns account.

 

I find if I don't "See" the money I can save, once I can see it, it gets spent.

 

Doesn't take long to make a nice savings.

 

Additionally you can volunteer to contribute a set amount each day.

 

I've chosen $40, as I have two school bills twice a year and that will more than cover it.

 

The money is invested in a choice of 5 different investments, from very safe, to speculative, and last one is "Green"

 

So far even with melt down, I'm only down 1.4% on funds invested (and that I hope will come back as ASX etc rise again)

 

All in all its a good system

[Mekong 702]

Stick

 

Haha I was in Thailand pre-internet / pre Stickman era I blame you and your ilk for screwing things up you twat you made it accessible, and I mean that in a lighthearted way, since you went offline I have to find others to fire my pseudo angst at, Bollox you were a great target Monday mornings will never be the same for me without giving ya shite, yes sad bastard with nothing better to do.

 

I don’t wish to be told the exact tiime and date of my demise just plus or minus a couple of years will suit me, our lass is probably better off financial if I was dead, yes laugh and joke about present but secure future, bollox I have oft thought about faking my own death, I am not joking

[Coss 929]

[Coss 929]

 Banking The sub-prime timebomb is back – this time companies are lighting the fuse.

When an expert in financial risk at one of the world’s most powerful private equity outfits tells investors to scale down their exposure to a specific corner of the debt market, it is worth taking notice.  

Henry McVey, who sits on the risk committee at KKR, said last week that the leveraged loan market – a $1.3tn (£1tn) pile of risky corporate loans – had been on a “great run in recent years” but the firm was now cutting its exposure to the asset class to zero...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/12/subprime-timebomb-back-companies-lighting-the-fuse

[chocolat steve 390]

I got into cryptos in 2015 well before the run up. I didn't bet the house..haha...only money I could afford to lose comfortably. So, despite the drop I'm still showing a gain but not enough to retire on.

As far as the market, I am a firm believer there will be a massive crash. The stock market in America at least, has been propped up since the 2008 'Great Recession'. QE, Quantitative Easing, is just a made up word for the Federal Reserve using our tax dollars to keep the economy propped up. America has never had boom years last longer than 6 or 7 years. The Roaring 20s really started around 1923 or 24 and ended with the crash in '29. The '50s years weren't the whole 50s. We had a war for the first 3 years of it where we spent a mint in Korea. The '80s boom started in around 83-84 depending on what stats you go with and culminated with the '87 crash. The '90s started out as a recession and didn't get going until about 93-94 and ended late 90s with the dot com crash. We have had a so called economic expansion since 2009. Longest in history. But unlike the other expansions, it doesn't feel like one. In the '90s it felt like a boom period. This doesn't because it isn't. 

The great pre 2008 jobs never really came back. We are also nursing a few huge bubbles. 2008 was a housing bubble. This time around we have the same housing bubble because the government gave in to its corporate overlords and let the banks do the same things it did before. So, there is a housing bubble again. There is also a student loan bubble, roughly 1.5 trillion give or take. Many college grads have either stopped paying on their loan or are one check away from being insolvent. 

There is a car loan bubble that is over a trillion dollars. The average car loan is now over 5 years and the cost of new cars can be over 30k so you have loans as much as 7 years with a value of 30k or 40k in many instances from people living paycheck to paycheck. The companies with the paper are going to be bankrupt. 

There is a corporate loan bubble, this goes into the trillions as well. Companies have been using the next to 0 percent interest rate to buy back its own stock. CEOs have the lions share of their money in company stock and have been using the company's own money to buy back shares and keeping the stock high instead of investing in the company itself. 

We also have a credit card bubble that is well over a trillion. Most people are a paycheck away from not being able to make the minimum of their credit card payments. 

All this will culminate in a crash. The stock market didn't end well in 2018 and I doubt it will end higher than it started in 2019. Being debt free, and cash rich is going to be huge when the crash happens  Assets will be on the cheap and just like the last recession those with cash made out like bandits. 

A new component is China. They are sitting on a massive housing bubble. As well as a couple other bubbles. So we have the world's two largest economies that will face a massive crash and take the rest of the world with it. China and America combined are just under 50 percent of the world's GNP depending on what figures you agree with. Anywhere from 40 to 45 percent at a minimum. 

Yeah, I sound pessimistic but I prefer realist or pragmatist. I think precious metals are going to do well because the dollar will crash and I have serious doubts the American dollar will remain the world's reserve currency. China, Russia and Iran are certainly working to end that monopoly. 

A few countries currencies may hold its value a bit more than others such as the Singapore dollar. Maybe the Swiss franc as well. Countries that are relatively debt free especially in emerging markets will fare decently but everyone will be hurt. No one will be spared.

Finally, I think cryptos or certain ones will emerge and attain new highs, higher than December of 2017. I may sound like a nut..lol..but I can see bitcoin hitting 25k a piece or more. Or Ethereum going to 5k a coin. Cryptos are not going to be insolvent. There is way too much money trading it now. It's expanding in terms of adoption not retreating. It trades in the billions weekly. People say its only a blip on a screen. Yes, and so is everything in Forex trading. I trade forex and when you buy or sell gold, the stock market, oil or whatever, there is no underlying commodity. You can't take receipt of the oil or gold you trade, its all blips on a screen. But no one thinks that is fake either. If enough people believe in something it is real. If enough people treat anything as a valuable commodity it is a valuable commodity as long as there is a willing buyer or seller. 

[Mekong 702]

People are shying away from Car Loans in the UK now and tend to go for PCP,  no not Angeldust but Personal Contract Purchase. 

The second P is a misdemeanor since the person with th Personl Contact is not actually purchasing anything, basically just. Lease hire scam.

All aimed at the”Must have now” self entitled generation, FFS when I was their age I drove around a 15 years old Red Motor with one Blue door and a yellow Bonnet (Hood), I wasn’t proud, it got me from A to B and served its purpose. 

Its been well over 10 years now since I last owned a car, for a start only in Thailand 20% of the time past 5 yers or so, so when here either grab a taxi or a limo for local trips or hire a rental for long distance / days away 

As for the “Current Ecomomic Climate” well it is what one makes it, there are numerous well paying positions to be had as long as one is prepared to put up with a bit of a few years along the way, i could handle another 5 years of this and still only be 60 when I could put my feet up and twiddle my thumbs.