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Gold is of course an attractive option! Not only does it have value but it also looks nice and impresses friends but ……..too many problems are associated with this metal. When
time comes to sell price maybe way down; actual appreciation is not a definite possibility and storage is a constant hassle. Storage boxes in banks are not cheap and money used for rental would be best invested elsewhere. Under bed is not safest or most secure of places, especially when friends are 'shown hoard' after a drunken night on town!
In reality there are only a limited number of ways for average wage earner to invest money for future! One way is to choose a couple of Investment Trusts - more than one just incase one of these institutes happens to go bust! These are companies that work with 'small' people's money by spreading risk over a variety of businesses that trade on a stock exchange of one nation or another! The other advantage of these companies is that government tends to be favorable towards them and so tax incentives and reductions often apply!
One could of course invest heavily on horse racing or into a casino in Las Vegas but gambling has never really provided long term returns. Lottery tickets and scratch cards remain an ever hopeful means to an end but, dream on!
Let's not live under false pretences. Be brutal and face fact that unless one has lots of money, chance of getting lots of money is well ……. best left unsaid! For example: 2000 pounds worth of bonds purchased from Post Office (National Savings - hahaha) yields 2475 pounds after five years of care. Now in anybodies calculations even after twenty years in servitude that amount is not going to keep 'cat in bag or 'pigeons in coop' (whatever best describes situation)! The security of investments even in most secure of environments is not secure and property bubble might explode at any moment, oh and should you be winning government will ruin it all by charging stamp duty or VAT, inheritance tax, capital gains tax or just tax to reduce final amount to what you first started with and plus a penny for luck!
What is answer?
One supermarket recently had on offer tins of baked bean; buy twelve and get one free! Another chain decided to offload hundreds of packets of pasta: spend a hundred and get a delightful packet of pasta twists for free. And another had loads of; two for price of one items around store! The answer is to buy these products, as much as one can get hold of and store them for future. Dig holes underground, fill cellars and attic's with non-perishable goods and so when retirement days sneak up unexpectedly you may not have money to go out but at least you will not go hungry!
Well, not quite a suitable answer but then options are very limited for those without a penny to spare! Selling oneself as a matured sex slave to some North Korean General will probably not appeal to many and suicide at age of 67 (after having spent 1,347 pounds saved over last forty years of hard work) is more difficult to achieve than previously planned for.
In fact only real answer is to move out of country, to buy a small property in south of France, in Romania or Spain where prices are half if not a quarter of those in UK, where value of life is far better and where air is clean. One pound will go a lot further so ………….. Maybe this is only way!
Ieuan Dolby is the Author and Webmaster of Seamania . As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.
