Looking at alternative investment options

One thing that I never get bored of doing is looking at alternative ways that I can invest my money. In fact, it was through looking at different ways to invest that lead me to crypto currencies.

There are many, many ways that a person can invest their money. Some great, and many terrible.

Just today, I received an email via my brokerage platform about investing in fine art. My first reaction was to question why this came via my brokerage platform. My second question was “why would I buy fine art as an investment?”

_src

The email essentially said that I could buy some artwork and lease it out to corporates for a reasonable return. Something in the order of 6-9%/a apparently. Naturally the company sending the email would act as the middle man and take a cut of your earnings.

Would this be a good way to invest some spare cash? My immediate reaction is that I would rather buy real estate. Even buying a parking space could generate better returns with a lower amount of risk.

Buying art might be an interesting investment and I might even enjoy owning a nice piece of art work. But I would never get to see it assuming it is continually leased rather than gathering dust in secure storage.

Interestingly, the email advertising this investment “opportunity” claimed that investing in art is low risk. I really don’t agree with this claim:

• there is zero certainty that the art work will be leased;
• if it is leased, over what timeframe would it be leased for? 1 week? 6 months? In other words, the income is likely to be highly unreliable and inconsistent;
• there is no real way to understand whether or not the art work will increase in value over time; and
• your money could be locked up in the art work for many years, and selling the piece could take a very long time.

So no, this isn’t an investment option for me. I’ll stick to what I know for now.

What unique investment options have you encountered?

@mazzle