O/T Looking for "under the mattress" type investment

[Baulucky]

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www.google.com

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That is cheaper than my guide... till you get to spill a 5-gallon bottle of gold chlorides with $12,000 worth of metal disolved in it...or when your hands become purple-stained or you get emphysema in your lungs from the fumes...or whatever...

For whatever is worth, I was manager of a Gold Refinery that used to process up to 2 tons per month fine gold, and the associated silver and PGMs that came with it. And really, the guide would need to be written, as I don't have it, except as a sketch, in my mind.

The profit is all in the buying-it-cheap, not in the refining of it. You can always send it to a refiner for processing.

[LinusKS]

There are no good investments - well, except real estate, but you said you didn't want to mess with it.

Gold has no intrinsic value, and as somebody said, it hasn't done anything in years. It's purely speculative.

Stocks - despite having stagnated for almost five years now - are still overpriced. You should expect them to go down even more (in terms of P/E ratios) over the next decade or so.

Interest rates are going up, so any long-term non-liquid investment, is going to suffer.

Stay with short-term safe, interest bearing accounts.

Short-term CDs, money markets, that kind of thing.

[Nick-Zack]

Make sure that the Rolex doesn't go tick tick tick with the second hand. I had a girlfriend in college that bought me a Rolex that looked and felt good, unfortunately my wrist turned green.

[jokerthief]

I'm not going to read any of the other posts so if this is redundant, move on. That said, you could buy discounted promissary notes. They are usually 10K or more but it's possible to find smaller ones. The way they work is, basically, you find someone who has a promissary note for a future value of X and they need to liquidate for some reason so you come along and offer them it's present value Y minus a discount. For example, someone has a settlement from a lawsuit and has $10,000 coming to them over the next 5 years. They need money now so you offer to give them $6,500 for the note giving you a $3,500 return over five years or 10.77% per year. That is simple interest return not compound however.

I've never done this sort of investing because it's tough to find someone who is willing to sell their promissary note for a discount that's high enough to be worth your while (remember, simple interest < compound interest). It is possible however. I have a cousin who sued Target and the Gap (long story) and got a $500,000 dollar settlement that was annuitized over 10 years. A few weeks after the settlement, she got a call from some guy who offered to give her $170,000 up front for the note. She took the offer and gave the guy a note that gave him a 19.4% simple return. It's a bad deal for her but in her mind it was a lot of money because she was getting around $4200 paid to her monthly and $170,000 up front seemed huge in comparison. If you work the right deal, it's a perfect investment...large return, no risk.

[lunapark]

Mutual Funds. Or an index fund. Just pick an equity fund and let it grow over time. It's the safest for somebody that doesn't want to do a lot of research.

[Terry]

Wow. A lot of good “traditional” investment thinking here, and a lot fewer goofball replies than I expected. Thank you all for taking the time to answer.

Of the suggestions posted so far, Baulucky has come the closest to what I’m looking for with the old gold thing. I have a friend who did very well with that back in the 70's. He went out knocking on doors with his gram scale and acid test kit and bought up old eyeglasses, class rings, that sort of stuff. It’s more actual “work” than I want to get involved in, but it would probably be very good for some of you ambitious guys.

If anybody has any more ideas, let me repeat that I am not interested in stocks, bonds, or any sort of “paper” investment – I’m all set with that stuff. I had always planned to retire at 55 and managed to do it at 50 instead ... so I’m not looking for traditional major life-time retirement planning investments, but rather something to do with some of the “extra” money poker generates.

RE: Drugs. I haven’t had a gram scale since the 60's ... and I ingested or gave away more than I sold, anyway.

RE: Coins. I wasn’t thinking of a rare coin collection type thing. I’ve seen / heard of bags of (unsorted?) silver coins sold by weight, but know nothing about it. Viable? Worth looking into?

RE: Gold. I would disagree that gold has no intrinsic value ... it does have industrial uses, as does silver. I realize, though, that silver is very iffy and can actually cost more to mine than it can be sold for. That said, do you think gold coins, even if they are not spectacular investment performers, have the potential to beat inflation? How about a period of severe inflation, should that come to be?

RE: Real estate. Not for me. My brother owns dozens of rental properties ... can you say “work”? ... or “headaches”? I even hated owning a house. Let me just pay the rent and call the landlord when something goes wrong. That particular American dream has never been one of mine.

RE: Risk. I’m not at all adverse to risk. I’ve made my living in and around gambling for a long long time. Something very speculative would be just fine, so long as it doesn’t involve a lot of work, including paperwork.

RE: Should have posted in Stock Market Forum. Nah. I’m looking for non-traditional Zoo type thinking.

So there ya go ... It took me a while to figure out what I’m talking about, but it seems I’m looking for “items” that can be readily bought and sold that have some value that will probably increase at least at the rate of inflation. Now that’s the American dream.

[Mike Haven]

Krugerands make classy chips, too.

[Baulucky]

I also bought some tax-lien-certs when I lived in Texas, very nice % return, but illiquid. I read somewhere that many poeple are doing that these days and hence the % returns may have come down a lot.

[lil_o]

don't don't and don't buy TV jewelry!!! if you want to flip that quick for profit, a jeweler will look at that crap and laugh at you.

if you are going to invest in jewelry, try and get estate pieces or name brands with high appreciation value (e.g. tiffanys, van cleef & arpel, cartier).

diamonds are a tricky investment. a big rock can be sold to a speculator for a profit. if you don't sell the uncut stone, then you can have it carved. if it comes out nice you can easily make 5X more than selling a rough stone (but this is a gamble)

if you are going into cut diamonds, try and get diamonds with a high clarity/quality rating. also, try and get a GIA certification on your stones as a security measure to help sell and make sure your stones are real.





if that doesn't work, go sell snow like tony montana [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Terry]

Hiya Mike. That link led me to doing some research on British Sovereigns, a small, common gold coin whose value is related more to the gold market than to “collector” value – they sell for just a bit over $100, making it easy to buy with whatever spare cash a person might have. They are apparently easy to buy and sell, recognized world wide, they were even provided to soldiers in the Gulf War as emergency currency. Anybody know anything about these?

lil_o, I wasn’t considering the TV jewelry, rings and such. I was curious about the loose gemstones they are selling, particularly the tanzanite. I was wondering who buys those things – they sell gems for $10,000 and more on live late night TV, obviously not the trailer park / collector plate crowd buying them ... Then again, they sell $400 computers to ignorant buyers for $2500 on TV ... the loose gems just have me intrigued in a Scrooge McDuck money bin way, but I’m looking for info, not to dump my bankroll on marketing scam.