Don't bet the farm they say

[Tripacer]

I have the farm. Like a good boy it lives in a fund which I am assured is virtually unassailable because, like good boys, they spread the risk over a range of investment areas. Sleep peacefully at night and go and play with 5% on CFDs.

Fantastic! I can retire comfortably and even add to the fund or treat myself to nice things...

Who TF is this Mr Bernanke? WTF is this Chinese credit crunch? Emerging markets or receding markets? Japan? Greece? When the FTSE dives, the market gaps and all the stocks are sold (minutes before I get wind of it and the lines are red and drop much faster than the green lines ever went up. Where is that money now? In bank accounts? Whose? Oh-oh!

Gold? I wonder, can it go much lower? You can't eat it and, if the shops all close, it's mighty difficult to spend.

Nice men from Fleet St, Bristol and Truro write me letters by email explaining that my previously good old boys are betting with my farm. Judging by my jottings the last few weeks cost me something like 10% of the farm. I had a fab month on CFDs and then suddenly - Mr B of the Fed - all the advice I'd been given to go long should have been to go short. The mini CFD farm lost 50% - mustn't grumble, I never had it before, easy come easy go eh? Bah!

So, to the point. Without reading endless patronising drivel
(which ends with "Yes! For only £159 get a 60% reduction on the 'secrets of where to put your money when the solids hit the fan!')

is it to be premium bonds, the post office savings bank or under the mattress and live with inflation? Please tell me, someone...?
signed
Increasingly Risk Averse

 

[Martinghoul]

None of the above... A bit of everything and you'll be able to sleep at night. That's the way I would do it.

 

[rawrschach]

What I would do for hands off investment - put my money in a high interest fixed deposit account in some market with high interest rates while hedging my currency exposure with someone like Oanda.

I think rates have dropped recently but you could get 15% pa in Kenya. If you're scared of anything 'foreign' stick it in a branch of a British bank.

 

[Martinghoul]

15% pa in Kenya? Good luck hedging that ccy exposure on Oanda. And then you have the bank risk on top of that...

 

[rawrschach]

Oanda used to offer a hedging service, don't see it on their site anymore.

Decent upscale banks here are probably better capitalised than most western banks because of stricter capital controls but if you must have a western name you have Chase, Barclays, Std Chartered.

 

[Martinghoul]

Oanda used to offer a hedging service, don't see it on their site anymore.

Decent upscale banks here are probably better capitalised than most western banks because of stricter capital controls but if you must have a western name you have Chase, Barclays, Std Chartered.

Sure, but that's something only you as a local would know... A foreigner shouldn't really be taking risk with things of that sort without a lot of due diligence and/or some sort of a local connection.

 

[pboyles]

What I would do for hands off investment - put my money in a high interest fixed deposit account in some market with high interest rates while hedging my currency exposure with someone like Oanda.

I think rates have dropped recently but you could get 15% pa in Kenya. If you're scared of anything 'foreign' stick it in a branch of a British bank.

Iceland and Cyprus are great too.

 

[Tripacer]

Keep 'em coming - at the moment I'm looking at buying a smallholding surrounded by radar controlled automatic weapons. a. I won't starve b. Starving mobs from the financial industry -sic - will be put out of their misery. Kenya? I don't think so. Cyprus and Iceland? ha ha but - like gold - can they drop any further?

 

[FringFX]

I like putting a bit under the mattress. Just in case. You never know, ya know?

Further, get some land... and stay acres away from inflation by spending AND eating significantly less of those bad stuff... and grow your own (the good stuff, of course).