The Investments Thread

[Bri963]

My Father in law is Swedish and lived there his whole life. Sweden often seems to get put on a bit of a pedestal with regard quality of life but he paints quite a different picture, higher taxes overall and the dole office (or whatever equivalent is over there) flooded with Somalians who get plenty whilst having contributed nothing. I don't know what my point is really- either it's not always greener on the other side of perhaps that even a "good" system has cracks and it's easier to focus on them then the good stuff Personally speaking I don't feel too hard done by life in the UK (apart from the climate!) but get that it is probably quite location dependant too.

Times change as well. I went out to Sweden several times between 2010 and 2020 and up in the north things didn’t change much. The last time I was there I heard a lot of grumbling about what was happening in the south of the country. All told I’d rather be in the UK but there’s a lot could be better here if there was the political will to change what needs changing, rather than Starmer’s vanity projects.

Also about 2010, I went out to the former Cat factory at Gosselies, Belgium for a week. One of the guys told me that he would be taxed at 53% if he lived in Belgium, so he’d moved to France and travelled in every day and was paying somewhere around 25%. Two years later the factory had closed, the company blaming high operational costs, surprise. When it closed it was the biggest Cat facility outside the US.

 

[TiltyShaun]

As for the the NHS and ALL state services, there are all failing. More free state childcare, look at what is now entering the school system. Over 25% not toilet trained or able to feed themselves properly. The more the state intervenes the worse the outcomes. No socialist state ever survives. When you have over 50% of “working people” on some form of government tax credit or handout you have a problem.
Financial collapse of the western system is edging closer. When it will happen is just a matter of time.
When you have a party in power that floats the Government borrowed less in December than forecast you still have a problem. They are still adding to the debt and interest bill. Until someone makes a radical change we are still on a slow boat of doom.

 

[doobin]

As for the the NHS and ALL state services, there are all failing. More free state childcare, look at what is now entering the school system. Over 25% not toilet trained or able to feed themselves properly. The more the state intervenes the worse the outcomes. No socialist state ever survives. When you have over 50% of “working people” on some form of government tax credit or handout you have a problem.
Financial collapse of the western system is edging closer. When it will happen is just a matter of time.
When you have a party in power that floats the Government borrowed less in December than forecast you still have a problem. They are still adding to the debt and interest bill. Until someone makes a radical change we are still on a slow boat of doom.

I think all most Western governments are too far gone. They are all going to print money (starting with the Fed) and the rising gold price is just a symptom of that, along with geopolitical factors.

I can easily foresee a double whammy- Britain gets taken out to the woodshed by the bond markets, and then the Brics countries launch their own partially gold backed currency. Couple those with China invading Iran and it’ll be utter misery for all but the lucky few.

To reinforce my point of gold being insurance- one oz of gold (currently £3680, only £2500 ish a year ago) can feed a person who spends £10 a day on food for over a year.

It will still be able to do that when that food costs £30 of worthless debt tokens a day.

 

[Gecko]

No socialist state ever survives.

Do you remember Maggi's quote on that subject?

"the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"
MT

 

[Grahams]

If you want a decent level of state welfare, which I'm sure most people do, you can not keep importing large numbers of net takers from that welfare pool without running out of money - seems obvious to me, but maybe I'm missing something.
There needs to be a balance between the contributors and the takers that is acceptable to the contributors or at the minimum they will put more effort into avoidance and evasion or eventually just up and move to a lower tax regime.
It would also help considerably if the contibutors felt their taxes were being efficiently spent and they were getting value for money. Not demonising "rich" people for having made money wouldn't go amiss either. People don't seem to understand that there is no "government money", it is all tax payers money, either from current taxes or borrowed against future taxes.

 

[Jimoz]

It's a bit like all inclusive or food buffets. The only people who benefit are the piss takers.

 

[Lancs Lad]

If you want a decent level of state welfare, which I'm sure most people do, you can not keep importing large numbers of net takers from that welfare pool without running out of money - seems obvious to me, but maybe I'm missing something.
There needs to be a balance between the contributors and the takers that is acceptable to the contributors or at the minimum they will put more effort into avoidance and evasion or eventually just up and move to a lower tax regime.
It would also help considerably if the contibutors felt their taxes were being efficiently spent and they were getting value for money. Not demonising "rich" people for having made money wouldn't go amiss either. People don't seem to understand that there is no "government money", it is all tax payers money, either from current taxes or borrowed against future taxes.

This bang on...
And yet any mention of deportation or removal there's ww3 breaking out.

 

[doobin]

Sold the Prolock hitch off my E10 today, bloke came and picked it up from me on site.
Just found three hundred grams of silver coins on eBay for a tenner above spot price so treated myself to those.

 

[Jimoz]

Sold the Prolock hitch off my E10 today, bloke came and picked it up from me on site.
Just found three hundred grams of silver coins on eBay for a tenner above spot price so treated myself to those.

Your family will have to do an intervention with you soon. Next you'll be selling the family home.

On a serious note how trustworthy are you of ebay sellers? Do you look for good reviews or only buy of dealers? Do you have a machine to test the quality of gold or silver? That dealer i visited had this xray thing i think it told him the carrots

 

[Jimoz]

Respectfully, you have it all totally backwards. You need to change the way you think about money.

Gold is money. Turn the gold chart over and that is the chart for the devaluation of fiat currency.

I hold mainly physical as the paper market is crazy leveraged- no better than fiat. I have an etf in my isa though.

The end game is simply to preserve the purchasing power of my money. When I started stacking four years ago a days work with the micro digger at £350 would purchase a good sovereign. Now a days work with the 9 tonner at £850 won’t even purchase the same sovereign.

An excellent book to read on the history of the modern monetary system and the role gold has played in it (and will very likely play again soon) is Currency Wars by James Rickards. PM me your address and I’ll send you a copy.

Might put this on my list. What did you think?

 

[doobin]

Might put this on my list. What did you think?

It's brilliant. Engaging and informative, without scaremongering.

Really lays it all out for you.

 

[Storrsy]

Might put this on my list. What did you think?

Ive just ordered a copy for my birthday!

 

[doobin]

Your family will have to do an intervention with you soon. Next you'll be selling the family home.

On a serious note how trustworthy are you of ebay sellers? Do you look for good reviews or only buy of dealers? Do you have a machine to test the quality of gold or silver? That dealer i visited had this xray thing i think it told him the carrots

I only buy British silver currency. It's never been worth making fakes of old shillings etc- until now, perhaps! Regardless, anything getting on for 100 years old or more will have plenty of patina. It's still CGT exempt too.

 

[Lancs Lad]

Your family will have to do an intervention with you soon. Next you'll be selling the family home.

On a serious note how trustworthy are you of ebay sellers? Do you look for good reviews or only buy of dealers? Do you have a machine to test the quality of gold or silver? That dealer i visited had this xray thing i think it told him the carrots

His kids will be along soon enough...taking a silver "penny" in for toast money at school.

 

[Jimoz]

The only thing with gold its not productive. I understand you want to preserve your purchasing power but isnt it better to invest? As long as we are all agreed capitalism will survive companies will always be earning? If not into trackers or shares what about ag or forestry land is there any return to be made in these? Most here will have the kit and transferable skills to maintain and improve the ground

 

[doobin]

The only thing with gold its not productive. I understand you want to preserve your purchasing power but isnt it better to invest? As long as we are all agreed capitalism will survive companies will always be earning? If not into trackers or shares what about ag or forestry land is there any return to be made in these? Most here will have the kit and transferable skills to maintain and improve the ground

When (not if) the s**t hits the fan, 10% a year return on what you might consider a good investment will seem like peanuts compared to the rate of inflation. Just ask anyone in Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, Venezuela- or Iran as recently as last week.

Gold is insurance. I’m not saying have all your savings in it. But for Pete’s sake have some in the current climate.

Land is overvalued in my eyes due to the tax benefits. I wouldn’t mind some, don’t get me wrong. But the returns from renting it out for farming are minuscule. The benefits have been in the capital appreciation, which is solely due to its inheritance tax status (hence why I support the reintroduction of some form of IHT on farms).

 

[Storrsy]

I think land only has value from an investment point of view if it has either commercial or development opportunities. There's 150acrea of Dartmoor for sale. Great but you'll never be allowed to build on it or in fact do anything other than grazing sheep. Prime agri land is the same. But I guess you could say like gold whilst it may not not earn an income it's probably likely to hold it's value at least in line with inflation.

 

[Storrsy]

The only thing with gold its not productive. I understand you want to preserve your purchasing power but isnt it better to invest? As long as we are all agreed capitalism will survive companies will always be earning? If not into trackers or shares what about ag or forestry land is there any return to be made in these? Most here will have the kit and transferable skills to maintain and improve the ground

This is I guess why I think Index funds are a pretty good bet because they're weighted to the best achieving companies. I put the majority of my money in the HSBC FTSE all world because whether AI bubble bursts or not there will always be another sector to step in be it USA, China Defense, AI, commodities. There has to be something doing well and where one drops off another will pick up. But I think thinks are gonna change quick over the next 20 years so quite honestly everything is a punt to a degree, much like life itself!

 

[Gecko]

18th century financial advice

“The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets, even if the blood is your own.”
​

― Baron Rothschild

 

[Smiffy]

This is I guess why I think Index funds are a pretty good bet because they're weighted to the best achieving companies. I put the majority of my money in the HSBC FTSE all world because whether AI bubble bursts or not there will always be another sector to step in be it USA, China Defense, AI, commodities. There has to be something doing well and where one drops off another will pick up. But I think thinks are gonna change quick over the next 20 years so quite honestly everything is a punt to a degree, much like life itself!

If things really go wrong in the world. I think a worthwhile investment is in yourself as much as anything. Veg patches or allotments will help whether the storm if things get bad. And personal skills are important. Most people on here are probably pretty safe in this respect.
But I always think being good with your hands will keep you in employment far longer than being a content creator or data analyst.