I am based in the UK but recently I spoke to one of my US friends and mentioned my investment plans, interested in what happens ‘over the water’ I asked him what he is doing. This is part of a transcript from his conversation with me.
investing
Investing
I’m interested in investing, especially for my future. Much as a I like creating blogs and having my own businesses I do want to retire and put my feet up and enjoy my retirement.
There are many ways of investing and you should have a diverse portfolio, personally I have several P2P lending accounts that pay from 5% to 8% returns, a couple of REIT accounts that pay nice returns and several other sources.
In this article I am just taking a little look at 2 sources that sometimes get a bad name – cryptocurrency and precious metals like good
Investing in Cryptocurrencies
I like crypto and I think that the technology behind it, if allowed can change the world for the better but I also realize that its a long game and not a short game, sure you can buy on a dip and hope that the particular cryptocurrency goes through the roof but the volatility makes this a risky game and you tend to spend all day looking at charts to earn small gains if you are lucky.
Saying that I have got some crypto in my portfolio, in particular I was interested in Bitcoin for obvious reasons and also Ethereum. There are other altcoins that are interesting but I’ll be honest here and say that a lot of them are absolute trash and I wouldn’t overly waste my time and don’t get me started on the large amount of ICO scams that are out there.
You can keep an eye on these altcoins and if you want to invest in them you can but this is my opinion and I would not. There are some scams out here and ways of earning crypto that are a waste of time.
Also I do not fall for the ‘double you bitcoin’ scams that are out there – if the offer sounds too good to be true it is. These scams tend to lure you in, you keep having to add more bitcoin or transfer funds and then you end up never seeing any of the gains.
Other crypto ways of earning – faucets, clicking on ads are all a complete and utter waste of time. I want a return on my money, not tiny amounts of crypto that’s not even worth a few cents
Crypto mining – lots of scam artists and the time to get a ROI if you can find a reputable company can be over 1 year – Nah I’ll pass on that.
So I thought crypto was maybe a waste of time when you are planning for retirement but I was then stunned to see that you can actually open a crypto IRA.
A Crypto IRA is a self-directed IRA that can hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and many other cryptocurrencies ( As I said I’m only interested in Ethereum and Bitcoin). When opening a Crypto IRA, one can either fund it by rolling over an existing retirement account (e.g. a SEP, 401k, 403b or others) or you can transfer funds from another retirement vehicle. You can also write a check or transfer money from a bank account to fund their Bitcoin IRA and/or Ethereum IRA.
Converting part of your retirement savings to Bitcoin or Ethereum can reduce the volatility of your overall retirement portfolio. One of the major benefits of having a crypto is the fact that if you open a Bitcoin IRA or Ethereum IRA then you have now invested in a non-correlated asset. So why is this important? Because Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s values cannot be dragged down by economic forces that affect more traditional assets.
Don’t believe just me though, check out this link where you can get a free kit that explains this in more detail than I could ever – http://www.easywaytomakemoney.net/crypto
Investing in Gold
Yep, I have dabbled in Gold and other precious metals like silver, palladium and platinum and these form a chunk of my portfolio as well. Why, well if there is an economic crash and lets face it the artificially inflated stock market has all the signs of another bubble that is being created then precious metals tend to remain stable but at the same time you can get a decent gain on the investment. If I had a choice between investing $1000 I would choose a precious metal rather than some tech stock that can we wiped out
Gold is perceived as a risky investment that is because like everything in life there a lot of scammers after your hard earned money that you wish to invest, this is such an obvious statement but use a known, reputable source for you gold investments.
I was on the lookout for a company that had good, solid and importantly free information to help guide me and I visited – http://www.easywaytomakemoney.net/freegold
I believe the stock market will crash and I greatly reduced my share portfolio over the last year and I also do not put much money in any savings accounts as I believe its a waste.
Summary
I though this was interesting, same ideas as me, same investment ideas although using different US based companies. I do not have any stocks at all and I moved money out of my banks dismal savings account years ago.
I had not considered precious metals as I had believed the bad hype about them, I think I’ll check them out soon.
I just wish the company he used had a UK presence but alas not, oh well I am envious of you US folks on this one.
I’ll discuss my investment sources either on here or my passive income site