4 ms·

What market investment is not speculative? Commodities? Forex? Stock market? Bonds? Rare art? Investing is a horrible idea for laypeople

dadoge 4y ago
Housing costs are increasing faster than inflation Hence, sad to say, it is becoming more the case that they key to homeownership in many cities is investing in something that grows faster than inflation as well It’s (sadly) largely the reason why I think Robinhood became so popular
semicolon_storm 4y ago
There's plenty of investments that aren't speculative. Speculative investments are high risk investments, not investments involving any degree of uncertainty. Bonds and broad market index funds are considered to not be speculative despite some degree of uncertainty about their future growth.
- oarabbus_ 4y ago
  Broad market index funds are also speculative and high-risk, as many who lost 30-50%+ of their portfolio value when they needed it most during the 2008 GFC (or those who panic liquidated during the 2020 COVID crash) can attest to. Government bonds are one of the few "safe" low-yield investments.
  - whatever1 4y ago
    That is if the issuing gov does not also print a ton of cash to repay you, or default
dymk 4y ago
Index funds are speculative, and yet safe enough for lay-people to invest in.
- sillyfleece 4y ago
  What am I missing? S&P is down 10% yearly, 17% YTD, no? When "safe" investments are looking worse than keeping your money in the bank getting hit with inflation, rational people start getting desperate and scams explode. Anyone who has lived in emerging markets knows the sentence soon becomes "Don't invest in <previous safe investment> more than you can afford to lose." And the last stage in such countries ends up being: "Don't put more dollars in your bank than you can afford to lose" (because your failing bank or country will confiscate it). Until you reach this stage the number of scams increases exponentially.
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
    Was the S&P 500 up or down and how much in 2021?
    - sillyfleece 4y ago
      Is this really the line you are going to use to convince people to avoid scams? I'd like you to meet Sam the Scammer: "If you would have bought bitcoin on this date in 2019 you would have been up 200% by now. You would have doubled your money in 3 years. literally."
      - dymk 4y ago
        Long term investment in the S&P500 has proven to be a good idea over decades. Things go up and down, but S&P generally has gone up on average for at least the last 50 years.
        sillyfleece 4y ago
        dymk 4y ago
        If you think people only care about the next 3-5 years, unequivocally, then your knowledge on how people invest is questionable. Long term investing (10+ years) is an absolutely massive industry. The market works in approximately 10 year cycles. Invest long term, ignore short term sideshows. It's simple, even a layperson can do it.

dadoge 4y ago

Housing costs are increasing faster than inflation Hence, sad to say, it is becoming more the case that they key to homeownership in many cities is investing in something that grows faster than inflation as well It’s (sadly) largely the reason why I think Robinhood became so popular

semicolon_storm 4y ago

There's plenty of investments that aren't speculative. Speculative investments are high risk investments, not investments involving any degree of uncertainty. Bonds and broad market index funds are considered to not be speculative despite some degree of uncertainty about their future growth.

oarabbus_ 4y ago
Broad market index funds are also speculative and high-risk, as many who lost 30-50%+ of their portfolio value when they needed it most during the 2008 GFC (or those who panic liquidated during the 2020 COVID crash) can attest to. Government bonds are one of the few "safe" low-yield investments.
- whatever1 4y ago
  That is if the issuing gov does not also print a ton of cash to repay you, or default

dymk 4y ago

Index funds are speculative, and yet safe enough for lay-people to invest in.

sillyfleece 4y ago
What am I missing? S&P is down 10% yearly, 17% YTD, no? When "safe" investments are looking worse than keeping your money in the bank getting hit with inflation, rational people start getting desperate and scams explode. Anyone who has lived in emerging markets knows the sentence soon becomes "Don't invest in <previous safe investment> more than you can afford to lose." And the last stage in such countries ends up being: "Don't put more dollars in your bank than you can afford to lose" (because your failing bank or country will confiscate it). Until you reach this stage the number of scams increases exponentially.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y ago
  Was the S&P 500 up or down and how much in 2021?
  - sillyfleece 4y ago
    Is this really the line you are going to use to convince people to avoid scams? I'd like you to meet Sam the Scammer: "If you would have bought bitcoin on this date in 2019 you would have been up 200% by now. You would have doubled your money in 3 years. literally."
    - dymk 4y ago
      Long term investment in the S&P500 has proven to be a good idea over decades. Things go up and down, but S&P generally has gone up on average for at least the last 50 years.
      - sillyfleece 4y ago
        dymk 4y ago
        If you think people only care about the next 3-5 years, unequivocally, then your knowledge on how people invest is questionable. Long term investing (10+ years) is an absolutely massive industry. The market works in approximately 10 year cycles. Invest long term, ignore short term sideshows. It's simple, even a layperson can do it.