Should we use our savings to acquire assets?

I myself have tried to diversify & protect my savings by transferring funds from Irish deposit guaranteed banks to non-Irish deposit guaranteed banks operating within Ireland (Rabo/Nationwide UK/Investec). It appeared in the past few months that security of Irish bank deposits was the main issue of concern. Recently there has been a shift to genuine concern for the stability of the Euro and we are now all investigating transferring deposits to banks operating outside the Euro (USD/Sterling etc.). Surely if the euro collapses it will have massive implications for Sterling/US$/AUS$ etc. too and there will be a domino effect throughout the "developed" world. Would it not be wiser at this stage not to have large deposits at all and at least have assets of some description (property/gold bars/jewellery) in our hands that does not hold the same risk of being either frozen/taken from us/being completely devalued.

Good question, gold is the best choice in my opinion at the moment.

Is gold the next bubble?
I expect many people will be rushing (or have rushed) to buy precious metals.

Over the last few months I have spent a large chunk on long term goods, while my money still has value.

umop3p!sdn said:

......Over the last few months I have spent a large chunk on long term goods, while my money still has value.

Click to expand...

What do you mean by "long term goods"?

long term goods - stuff we'll have to get eventually, but get early. For example, a car, or bulk buying etc.

umop3p!sdn said:

Is gold the next bubble?

Click to expand...

I think Gold has another year to run, but it is definitely a bubble. Costly to trade in gold too. But I can understand why people are rushing into it when national governments have shown little respect towards currencies.

What other physical assets or commodities can anybody think of that we could transfer our some of our deposits too? There is some "thinking outside the box" required here I think.

Outside the box.........Art, comics, wine...
However limited prospect of selling it on if everyone else is broke!

Long Term Goods

Your house?

Other property that is at the bottom

Your plot in the cemetry?

A bike and loads of tinned food...they'll be in demmand soon

I'm not sure of the point in spending your savings on a "long term good" like a car whihc depreciates in value the moment you drive it out of the garage. Likewise, isn't part of the reason some people got into a financial mess is because they bought a whole pile of consumer goods/holidays and had nothing to back up their spending.

There's a risk on any investment/saving, gold could collapse, your jewellry could be stole etc

I'm not sure of the point in spending your savings on a "long term good" like a car whihc depreciates in value the moment you drive it out of the garage. Likewise, isn't part of the reason some people got into a financial mess is because they bought a whole pile of consumer goods/holidays and had nothing to back up their spending.

Click to expand...

Well I wouldn't suggest buying a brand new car, unless you were getting a fantastic deal on it.
The reason people got into a mess was because they were spending on credit. Here we are talking about investing savings.

It's about converting money to a more secure store of wealth. Something of value. That's the point.

You could always purchase shares in a U.K. listed company through an Irish stockbroker. These are paid for in Sterling. However it is possible to open both a Sterling account and a Euro account with your broker.
Let's say you decide to purchase £50k of shares in Tesco. You lodge the equivalent of £50k in Euro in to your Euro account lets say €60k.
Your stockbroker then uses your sterling account to purchase the Tesco shares. You end up with a debit balance of £50k in your sterling account and a credit balance of €60k in your Euro account. The shares are bought and you are sent the share certificate.
The Sterling/Euro rate of exchange fluctuates so from time to time so you might have to add funds to your Euro account to balance both accounts. It can also work the other way.
For example, let's say that Sterling weakens against the Euro and you can purchase Sterling at a favourable rate. You can choose to convert a chunk of your Euro in to Sterling and reduce the debit balance in your sterling account.
You decide when the time is right to pay down your sterling balance.

You own the shares in Sterling and you get paid the dividends in Sterling.

Do you know if the stockbroker uses a favourable rate of exchange when converting part of your Euro account to reduce down your debit sterling balance? I also assume that you could purchase Sterling separately and pay down the debit Sterling balance.

Happy Girl said:

What other physical assets or commodities can anybody think of that we could transfer our some of our deposits too? There is some "thinking outside the box" required here I think.

Click to expand...

Poland went through a period of hyperinflation in the very early 1990s and many people lost their life savings as deposits became worthless. People who bought items of value escaped this. A Polish friend of mine bought a shipping container load of cigarrettes for approx $250k US dollars.

While that might be a bit extreme, I do think cigarettes meet the requirements of this thread. Anyone considering gold should think about this. After all what is the real value of a yellow bar that has no actual use.

Also cigarettes can be purchased in any amount you wish, they are not difficult to store and there will always be a demand.

I should point out that I have never been a smoker and it is a horrible habit, but everyone should make their own choices.

Do you have any debts outstanding, i.e. mortgage?

Do you have any debts outstanding, i.e. mortgage?

Click to expand...

I've considered just paying off chunks of the mortgage. However, I'm not going to because of these factors:
- There might be debt forgiveness of some form. No matter how slim the chance, I want a piece of the action.
- Cash (or at least stuff of value) will be king, and very hard to get hold of over the next few years. Might be prudent to hang onto as much as possible.
- Hyperinflation could also happen.

cremeegg said:

Poland went through a period of hyperinflation in the very early 1990s and many people lost their life savings as deposits became worthless. People who bought items of value escaped this. A Polish friend of mine bought a shipping container load of cigarrettes for approx $250k US dollars.

Click to expand...

Clever guy.

I remember reading something similar about a guy in Zimbabwe who put all his money into bricks.... his friends asked, why are you buying all these bricks, he said, well, people will always need bricks.

The obvious commodity is gold or silver... I haven't enough room to store a load of bricks or cigs.

I like the idea of investing in something like art, or song royaltys... THINKING CAP, ON!

I've been doing research on Irish Artists, one in particular who shall remain nameless and I am definitely warming to the idea of Art as a really good idea, now I know nothing about it but I know what I like and propose to treat it like any commodity, I'll try and ascertain values online and from galleries, assess how much is out there and how prolific the Artist is and base my offer on those factors but isn't Art now a vaiable option, I can hardly believe I'm at this point myself...the story about the shoe shine boy, the Kennedys and the 1929 crash comes to mind !

The cigarettes idea is really good, they're something that will always hold (or inrcrease) their value. Wonder how long cigarettes 'keep' for?!

Buying assets

Would coal not be something to invest in. I have solid fuel heating and notice the price is starting to go up. If stuck u can always sell it, especially if we have a winter like last year