If you’re like me (and let’s face it, you are not), then you’re constantly looking for new and creative ways to diversify your fantastic wealth. Especially in this environment of low yield, high priced bonds, globally over valued real estate and sky high stock valuations, what is a conservative to do to preserve wealth?
This article is about things/physical assets that hold their value over time (or at least they have somewhat historically). This is by no means fool proof and certainly not a comprehensive list, but we will try to go over a few of our favorites. We will also go over a few others that we would not advise you invest in.
Rare Collectibles
Coins
Rare Coins have historically maintained their value against inflation and have even seen appreciation. I personally collect ancient coins, but to a novice, I would not recommend this as they are much easier to counterfeit. Collecting historical US coins, such as the ever-popular Morgan Silver dollars, is a fairly certain way to preserve wealth in times of uncertainty. A further bonus is coins are small, easy to store and are mostly fairly resistant to damage. Other collectibles like comic books and stamps are much more fragile.
Stamps
Similar to coins, collectible and rare stamps have also maintained and/or increased in value against inflation historically. Extremely rare stamps have sold for very high sums at auctions.
comic Books
Similar to the above, but harder to preserve. Rare comics have seen renewed interest with the rise of Comic Book movies.
Video Games – Not Recommended
Rare and desirable Classic Arcade Cabinets and Game cartridges for the Nintendo and other such gaming systems have seen substantial price increases in recent years. additionally, they are electronic devices and/or storage, so there is a chance they will break through no fault of your own and ruin your investment.
Other Physical Items
Classic/Antique Cars
Classic Cars have been shown to keep pace with inflation and have proven to be a good investment historically. We would almost not recommend them for the reason that storage space is expensive. As you know, cars are large items, and you need to maintain and construct a space to store them. These hidden costs might make these assets less desirable.
Firearms & Ammo: Antique and Modern
Firearms and Ammunition have shown to be a good store of wealth. However, we only recommend antique firearms for the simple reason that modern arms are at risk of legislation. You do not want to see your wealth erode because it has been outlawed by legislators. Antique muzzleloaders, for instance and on the other hand, are very very unlikely to be outlawed. Most antique guns (that do not use centrefire ammo) are considered not even to be firearms.
Fine Art – not currently recommended
Personally, I believe fine art is also very overvalued at present as it seems to appreciate with booms in the stock market (as we are currently witnessing). For this reason, I can’t currently recommend it. Unless, however, you are skilled at identifying up and coming artists and buying them out. In this case, you could make a fortune buying fine art. I know an individual personally who did just that.
precious metals
The price of precious metals is historically quite high. I don’t recommend currently placing more than a quite small percentage of your portfolio here.