4 Investment Opportunities You Might Not Have Considered

While the economy and the world at large have seen some hard times recently, investors are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

In reality, there are many opportunities out there for making a lot of money. If you are looking for new investment ideas, there are probably many opportunities you have yet to even consider. Below are four.

A Fix and Flip Loan

You may have considered real estate as a possible investment choice. However, knowing what to do with real estate after you have purchased it is another thing entirely. 

One strategy you should consider is obtaining a "fix and flip loan." These are investment property loans that are used to purchase and remodel properties that are viewed as in decline. 

The flipped house can then be sold for a hefty profit. You may have even seen reality television shows based around this investment strategy.

Foreign Debt

While you may have considered buying government bonds from the United States as a strategy for receiving a steady return, you probably have not considered buying the national debt of foreign countries. 

If the country in question is on an upward trend regarding its expanding economy, you could make a lot of money. Government bonds from small European countries with emerging economies like Latvia and Lithuania could end up being an excellent deal in the long run.

Gold

Some of the oldest investments still in existence today are precious metals like gold. While modern currency no longer uses the gold standard, gold still holds an inherent value that is likely to increase over time. 

Gold's value also tends to increase as the value of other investments declines. As such, it's a good choice for adding some extra security to a well-rounded portfolio.

Collector's Items

Another possibility you may have not seriously considered before is investing in collector's items. It is true that you have to be careful about the kind of memorabilia, antiques, and other collectibles you invest in. 

Certain collector's markets have dissipated over the years due to waning interest in specific hobbies like stamp collecting. However, other collector's items, like ancient coins, for example, continue to increase in value. Do your research so you can be confident that a collectible will actually increase in value over time.

Overall, it's never wise to put all your eggs in one basket regarding investments. Be on the lookout for new opportunities that could give you a solid return over time. However, also be sure to build a well-rounded portfolio as you do so to lower the risk of new investments.

Decline of the US dollar and benefits of rolling over part of an IRA to gold and silver bullion

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Gold is perhaps the only worldwide standard for comparing the value of other currencies. Unlike any other type of monetary system, gold has withstood the test of time and it continues to defy market collapse, economic downturn, and unpredictable, catastrophic occurrences. In fact, all other currencies are based on some type of gold or silver bullion, and the currency itself is just a synthetic representation of the tangible metal.

Gold is seen as a safe-haven asset, one that investors pursue when there is trouble in the financial markets. As tensions between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea rose in the last weeks, gold price has increased. This happens over and over again in turbulent times.

Currencies, especially the US dollar, are at a higher risk for experiencing inflation because there is never a strict limitation put on the amount in circulation. Mints and other currency printing agencies around the world can essentially create more paper and coin currency than there is gold to back it up. Of course the systems do not usually intend to create a disproportionate amount of currency, but in a day’s time, currency is lost, destroyed, recollected by the mints, or put away in a collector’s safe. There really isn’t a very efficient way to maintain an accurate circulation of currency that is truly indicative of the gold reserve. In other words, there is no way to keep a running database of what currencies are actually floating around for future spending versus the currency that has been lost or destroyed.

Individual Retirement Accounts, or IRAs, are a great way to invest your savings to tap into the opportunity for interest growth. Although there are a myriad of different types of investment accounts, an IRA is either controlled by an administrator or the individual.

One way to guarantee a baseline of investment value is by transitioning your funds into the purchase of gold. Perhaps you’re curious on how to achieve a gold IRA rollover? Basically, you have to first consider whether your IRA contributions are self directed or controlled by a trustee. If they are self directed, you can make the decision, without gaining permission from anyone else, to make adjustments to your investment account. An overseer would have to approve and facilitate the rollover transaction if your account is traditional.

There are several different companies that specialize in gold transactions, and the most realistic suggestion is for individuals to research and pick a company that appears to have the assets and reputation that efficiently meet your needs. After all, this particular company that actually buys the gold will physically store it for you as well. If you were to have the gold directly disbursed to you personally, be expected to pay a hefty penalty for early withdrawal. The facilitating company is known as a gold custodian.

In order to rollover your IRA funds into gold, the gold itself must meet quality standards. There are also limitations on the time span of the process and the total amount that one can invest annually. Once you start the IRA rollover process, it should be complete in no more than 60 days. If the transaction is not expedited accordingly, the investor, or yours truly, risks having to pay a withdrawal penalty. IRA investments are limited to no more than $5000 each year, but rollovers do not have a cap. In order to buy a significant amount of gold, you must start out with a reasonably valuable IRA account.

Why should you consider investing in gold? Despite mild variations and small fluctuations in the stock value, gold tends to be one of the most stable entities that exists. Any financial expert will advise their clients to diversify their portfolio, and don’t put too many eggs in one basket. Gold is a very secure basket that maintains its value over time. Gold is an especially smart choice when the overall market itself has had a significantly varied performance. Gold is a great way to maintain your investment values over short term fluctuations. 

When Will Gold Be a Buy?

Gold is a timeless asset that is often considered to be a store of value. We know this because it has held its value through time. For example the cost of a lunch for two at the Savoy has approximately followed the value of a sovereign over the twentieth century. However, that lunch would have included a mighty fine bottle or two of claret in 1980, whereas in 1999, you may have had had to drink tap water. That’s because whilst gold holds its value over the long-term, the intermediate periods can be highly volatile. If you returned to the Savoy with your sovereign again in 2011, the maître d’ would have been far more receptive.

That point about gold’s cyclicality is fundamental. Had you invested in gold at the beginning of the 1970s, gold would have returned 27 times your original stake. However, the price fell up until 1999, which meant you had to endure two decades of pain. Then from 1999, or more specifically 2001, gold rose from $255 to $1,900 up until 2011. So knowing when to focus on gold is powerful, but it’s also vital to understand what is happening elsewhere.

For example, inflation averaged 7% in the USA in the 1970s, when equities only returned 1.5% per annum; a negative return in real terms. Thereafter, from 1980 to 2000, equities returned 14% per annum, whilst gold lost 3.5%. That’s the difference between halving your money in gold or multiplying it 14 times in equities, and that’s not including dividends. More recently, from 2000 to gold’s peak in 2011, equities returned more or less nothing whilst gold multiplied seven fold.

So you can buy gold and hold it forever and that’s not a terrible idea if you want a long-term store of value. But if you want your wealth to work harder, you can make that occasional and gargantuan decision when to focus on gold or equities. Of course, you don’t have to see it in quite such a binary manner. When gold isn’t working a 5% to 10% position won’t cause much harm whilst the remainder of your portfolio is focused on more productive investments. When gold turns, it’s time to reduce equities and increase your position in gold.

Atlas Pulse recognises that gold has had a great run since 2001 and the bull market is over. We downgraded gold in January from ‘strong bull market’ to ‘bull market’, then to ‘neutral’ in February and to ‘bear market’ in April. Each downgrade is an indication that you should consider reducing exposure to gold.

So the bad news is that gold is in a bear market and that has some way to go. However, and given the experiments carried out by our over-confident central bankers, that won’t last forever and we believe the final low for gold is likely to occur sometime in 2014 at a materially lower price than we currently see.

We analyse everything. We look at long-term trends, relationships with other assets, investor behavior, central bank purchases and sales, the price of options, sentiment surveys, time projections, price projections, volatility and seasonality. All of these, in aggregate, help us to build a picture or the risks and rewards that lie ahead.

We cannot say exactly when or at what price gold will be at any given time in the future, because we are not charlatans, but we can make an informed decision about the state of the ground that lies ahead.

When gold makes it’s low, sometime later in 2014, no one will call you and say buy now. The papers will have forgotten about gold altogether and the perma bulls who have been shouting about gold going to the moon will, thankfully, fall silent. The end of this gold bear market will be a rare opportunity to buy gold cheaply. As the market improves, Atlas Pulse will upgrade to neutral and then bull market and so on. Each upgrade will be a good opportunity to buy more gold with confidence.

A subscription to Atlas Pulse is a modest outlay. It provides you with an informed round-up of the gold market. Timely updates are also provided when there is a change to the outlook, so you don’t have to wait until the month end when something important is happening. By reading Atlas Pulse, you will learn more about the asset you own.

Atlas Pulse is the voice of reason in the gold market, and by god, it needs one.

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Why Business Is Booming In The Gold Industry

You are probably wondering how any industry is going to do well with the current economic hardship that we, the United Kingdom, and many other countries all other the world are facing at the moment.However, there is one industry that is booming in this time of economic crisis, and that is the gold industry, especially many metal commodity specialists that are providing their customers with tax free gold, such as Physical Gold.

What is tax free gold?

The clue is in the name, you do not pay tax when investing in this type of gold.
There are also a large amount of benefits that come attached with investing in tax free gold, for example, these gold coins are low gold price with a high buyback price. The small coins also allow for easy, cheap and secure storage. This is a main concern of many gold investors, as there are storage options available but they do some at a price.

Uncertain times

In this climate, no one knows what is coming around the corner. This is where gold comes in as a sensible option for many who are looking to keep their money safe and secure. This is why gold is often referred to as an insurance policy in terms of money as well as protection for your wealth.

This uncertainty refers to governmental uncertainty, financial uncertainty and foreign issues / war uncertainty. When your money is invested in tax free gold, it is essentially locked and therefore no one a part from you can touch it.

Future proof

Gold is seen as a future proof investment. This is because the demand for gold is always going to be there. Gold is so widely used within many industries at this current time, including technology, space exploration, medicine and dentistry.

With growing technological and medical advances, the need and demand for gold will only go up and will not diminish.

This is why gold is doing so well in terms of an investment choice, as the demand will always be there and so it will be hard to lose any more, providing you do everything correctly of course.

Great for pension security

Pension gold is doing great at the moment. This is mainly due to the fact that prices are so low for pension gold at the moment that many people are choosing to put their money into gold to secure it for the future.

Coupled with the fact that gold is now considered a SIPP (Self Invested Pension Plan), many are now turning to this means of making sure they can enjoy retirement with no worry about financial hardship.
Altogether, the gold industry is doing so well at the moment due to a number of factors which make gold a desirable investment choice for many. The fact that tax free gold has a high buyback rate, it is future proof and it is great for pension schemes makes it a favourite commodity to invest in.