Best Investments For 2011
What the best investments are for 2011 is not that easy to decide, but first let’s look back at 2010 to see what happened there.
On the whole and broadly speaking, people who invested in smaller companies did better. Those who chose to invest in Asia also tended to make gains. A UK Smaller Companies Fund run by Standard Life made more than 40%.
My favourite most of the year was gold and latterly in the year, silver. As of writing, silver is now at $46 approximately and I personally believe it has a long way to go, albeit with probable bumps on the way.
So what is happening now globally and how will investments be affected. Last week’s big financial news for the US was Standard and Poor’s announcement that they revise the outlook on the fiscal health from stable to negative within the next 2 years. In reality it is just more of a surprise to many that this happened sooner.
This doesn’t mean that there is no hope for investors. Let’s look first at the rapidly falling US dollar. Well, if you can still find manufacturing companies in the US their prices will be come more competitive worldwide helping to boost the value of the stocks. Australians are flocking to the US and coming home laden with ‘cheap’ goods. The same applies to online shopping. There is always money to be made somewhere in just about very situation. The US technology companies should do well with the expanding Asian market alone. There is opportunity there to find the best investments for 2011.
Whilst many investors are nervous about the share market and currencies, globally there has been a surge in the buying of gold and silver, including the buying of precious metals by China and India. Some investors took their gains as silver has often been volatile and this caused the price to retreat a little. In the past 12 months it climbed almost 150%. There is widely differing opinion amongst seasoned traders at present as to how far silver will go up and how often it will dip and by how far. Personally I hold silver but not for short term gain. If it was for short term, I might consider partially cashing up at present. Silver is widely used in industry and for that reason alone I personally feel that its long term prospects are good.
What about property? There comes a point sometimes when property prices can be so low that renting becomes too expensive an option in contrast. There is property worldwide that would not have been easily accessible at one time – but with the advent of the internet and specialised companies dealing in overseas property it is viable to find bargains somewhere. I believe that very thorough due diligence is required in any investment but particularly so with property, whether local to you or international.
If you are looking for cheap homes to live in or as an investment in the US there are bargains to be found – some areas worth looking at are mentioned here at http://www.cheapesthomesinamerica.com/ and at the time of writing, one was at a ridiculously low price of $15,000. On the whole the areas to look at include indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
Internationally, Bulgaria has some of the best cheap property that can be found worldwide. France has some stunning property bargains but the legalities are somewhat complicated regarding property ownership and French inheritance law. There are ownership options and it is vital to get good advice.
As the old saying goes, in every adversity lies the seed of an equal or greater benefit, and this is the case in finding the best investments for 2011. It is worth researching options that turn the difficult situations many worldwide are facing into benefits. As always, do your due diligence carefully and find the good investments that are out there, if you turn over enough stones.