I asked a similar question before and I hope people will answer this time. I am sure a lot of us invest here and do cross-border investing in the US and so on. Particularly men with families who are investing for the future and their family. I am young and my husband and I are not having any children but will need the money for equally demanding purposes.
Anyway, I have a gift of a lot of money from my parents. For privacy concerns, I don’t want to mention it, but the amount is quite significant (XX,000). The reason I *am *mentioning it at all is because the choice of investments is different depending on how much you have to invest.
The cheque is in USD. The price of the USD has fallen, so I am going to lose some money when converting it to Canadian dollars. I haven’t cashed my cheque yet and I am not sure how to deal with this problem of currency difference. Should I open a USD account and then cash the cheque or bite the bullet and just cash it in a Canadian dollar account because supposedly the CAD will keep rising and I will keep losing money if I keep it in USD, particularly since Canadian investments will require me to invest in CAD?
Also, I need this money to increase significantly in about 4-5 years; after that point I will use most of it and invest the remaining amount more aggressively in high risk investments. I don’t have much free time and I can’t put effort into monitoring high risk investments right not, so I need a mixture of low and medium risk that will give me significant returns. I have some ideas but I need more from people who invest and know better than me about how to invest. I want to invest in both the US and Canada.
My father lost a lot of money in the stock market a few years ago so I am hesitant about going down that route, particularly since I am not knowledgeable about these things. Maybe he made a few mistakes. In that case, should I hire a stock broker?
With medium and low risk investments, by how much (speaking in percentages) should I expect to see my money increase? Should I keep it in USD?
Can I just sum it up in one line or you want me to wear my thinking cap and go through all why and why nots ?
Buy Gold , economic growth in China and India will drive demand for gold and the Production from gold mines is unlikely to increase dramatically.
So lets go back to the first lesson in economics; if demand is greater than supply, then the price of the product increases. Gold analysts believe that gold prices will remain high in the long-term. Demand is bound to increase from an emerging Chinese jewellery market while South African gold production has declined and a limited supply is being generated from new mines.
Couple of months ago a Merrill Lynch gold analyst had forecast that the price of gold could go up to $725 an ounce by 2010.
The current US thingy is also cause for concern. we will see interest rates going up and consumer spending slows down , which I say may lead to the global economy slowing down.
Where gold is safe. No matter what happens, gold is still an international currency.
I recently bought a lot of gold and also had experience in selling it, all of this in Pakistan within a time frame of a month. The amount I was paid for the gold I sold was negligible in comparison to its original selling cost. I lost a lot of money. This is standard, according to jewelers in Pakistan that I have spoken with.
As far as I know, it is also difficult to sell back gold in the west. My experience of it has not been particularly positive so I will not invest in something that will make me lose money.
I am not looking to invest in anything tangible. I am looking for shares, bonds, stocks, and so on. Advice regarding those please.
I'm no expert in investments so don't take it very seriously and consult an expert before you do anything.
In my opinion, from looking at the latest trends in the US stock market if I had spare $XX,000 laying around, I would invest all of it in Citibank today. Since their stock value is bound to go up, you will get a good ROI probably much sooner than 4-5 years. I would open a USD account because this high rise of CAD will likely be short lived.
The amount I was paid for the gold I sold was negligible in comparison to its original selling cost. I lost a lot of money. This is standard, according to jewelers in Pakistan that I have spoken with.
Jewelers nay aap ko topi pehna di.
they were probably giving you the whole deal on you bought retail while they buy whole sale so price is different. they pull that on everyone.
I would open a USD account because this high rise of CAD will likely be short lived.
Indeed as some one said : It's about productivity, productivity, productivity. Productivity is the short-term solution.
I say The loonie will likely rise a few more cents above the greenback, given its strong momentum that reflects surging commodity prices and the possibility of a recession south of the border but from a trading point of view the loonie still has momentum.
Jewelers nay aap ko topi pehna di.
they were probably giving you the whole deal on you bought retail while they buy whole sale so price is different. they pull that on everyone.
Probably so, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't force someone to give me the true price. They state the price, I can take it or leave it. Either way I lose. Wherever I went, the issue seemed to be the same.
Would you suggest investing in gold? It doesn't strike me as wise. If I buy a brick of gold for x amount, I doubt I will ever sell it for more than x+y, never x times y. I have never actually received this advice. And it seems rather, err, superficial to put everything into gold. GOLD, for god's sake.
Can people share their own experience? I though most people invested?
Canadian Dollar is bound to come down to 103 range.
Once the things stablize in US, the real value should be around 87c to 94c.
So you'd suggest putting it in a USD account? I still want to invest some money in Canada, preferably soon rather than waiting for things to stabilize, since who knows when that will be. Since Canadian investments would requite national currency, wouldn't it be safer to invest now rather than see the CAD rise and I thus lose even more money? My husband is estimating that I have lost a couple thousand.
you dont have a lot of time,
you dont want to go the stocks route,
real estate is bad in US,
people’s own experiences, may nto be relevant to what your needs/situations are.
I would say go for aggressive mutual funds some with international flavour. after all teh fund managers will ahve more time to focus on what stocks are in teh fund. thats what I am doing. aside from some stocks.
consequently, you can opt to invest in real estate in Canada, last time i checked it ws till doing pretty good, but have not looked into it myself.
Can I just sum it up in one line or you want me to wear my thinking cap and go through all why and why nots ?
Buy Gold , economic growth in China and India will drive demand for gold and the Production from gold mines is unlikely to increase dramatically.
So lets go back to the first lesson in economics; if demand is greater than supply, then the price of the product increases. Gold analysts believe that gold prices will remain high in the long-term. Demand is bound to increase from an emerging Chinese jewellery market while South African gold production has declined and a limited supply is being generated from new mines.
Couple of months ago a Merrill Lynch gold analyst had forecast that the price of gold could go up to $725 an ounce by 2010.
The current US thingy is also cause for concern. we will see interest rates going up and consumer spending slows down , which I say may lead to the global economy slowing down.
Where gold is safe. No matter what happens, gold is still an international currency.
err...dont waste money on gold. current scene of gold suggests that it is not a healthy bizness.
buy googles share :biggthumb or invest in property.
but my honest suggestion will be invest money in pharmaceutical companies. cuz even if you lose, still you will gain a lot of experience :D
K Bahi check the amount she stated , i dont think she has enough to invest in any kind of property thingy , neither US nor canada !
Pakistan could be an option :D
she did not state a number we just know its XX,000 so not in 6 digits. froma prperty investment perspective if she can get a condo with that money i.e. downpayemnt, and the rent would be enough to cover mortgage pmts and taxes ..and if it can even give some proceeds each month, it can work.
and if canadian real estate market is healthy, wchih i dont know, ione can always invest in REITs.
Pakistan, not right now..anything can happen, things can get back on track or go really bad. and if they go bad, u can kiss real estate market there goodbye for some time and stocks will get hit bad also.
Canadian Dollar is bound to come down to 103 range.
Once the things stablize in US, the real value should be around 87c to 94c.
and how much time you think this recovery gonna take?
Existentialist- i say wait atleast till Christmas. and if you want to get a better picture, then wait till Feb-march. and then decide wat u wana do with ur loonies :D
p.s. for property in Pakistan, i think every one should watch an indian movie "Kholsa Ka Ghosla" (as a crash course)
K bahi :) Well my hunch is that she has some where around 50 to 80 Grand . ( that’s what my faal wala toota told me) and yes indeed she can go down to the route of acquiring a property on mortgage but as interest rate are going up every quarter , will she be able to cover it from rent ? from me peanut knowledge , I don’t think so . Then she wants to make a short term investment for 4-5 years .
Anyway Femme could give a better professional advice on it . But I say it is not a good time to step property ladder , specially not for buy to let thingy .
On Pakistan thing , you know I was just messing !
And if I got this much money , I will go for some oil and gas exploration company and the rest ya know it yourself better then I do !
K bahi :) Well my hunch is that she has some where around 50 to 80 Grand . ( that’s what my faal wala toota told me) and yes indeed she can go down to the route of acquiring a property on mortgage but as interest rate are going up every quarter , will she be able to cover it from rent ? from me peanut knowledge , I don’t think so . Then she wants to make a short term investment for 4-5 years .
we have fixed interests here as well as adjustable rates. one can go for a fixed interest rate
lets say she has 80K and she buys a 150K codo and has a 30 year mortgage on it at 5 5/8%.
her mortgage pmt would be about 400 bucks a month, tack on lets say a couple of hundred for property tax and lets say its 700/month.
if she rents it out at 1000/month then she has
1)$300 cashflow each month that she can just not touch and invest in mutual funds
2) increase in her equity in the house
3) apprciation in property value
now of course this depends on real estate market conditions.
plus I suggested REITs as well, you can move in and out of them easily and if the real estate market is doing well u get the benefits without the risk of being in a situation where you are stuck with a physical property