Four Unusual Places To Invest Money During a Bear Market
If you’re like many stock market investors right now, your heart may be sinking as rapidly as the S&P 500 as you watch your fortune dwindle away. And if you’ve been considering getting into investing for the first time, you might be leery to jump in during a bear market.
Experts and savvy investors alike have come up with some unusual ways to invest your money, hedge against inflation and even relish in the joy of shopping for assets that have a solid chance of appreciating while you wait for the Dow to recover.
Wine Can Make Your Wallet Feel Fine
As long as you don’t drink away your assets after a tough week at work, fine wine can actually be a solid investment. According to the Liv-Ex Investables Index, which tracks the price of wine, the adult beverage gained more than 10% in value between January and June, CNN Business reported. That’s marginally better than the current inflation rate and a lot better than the S&P 500, which lost 13% in that time.
There is no correlation between wine and the stock market, and investment-grade wine is currently in high demand. “There’s only a finite amount of investment-grade wine produced every year and through consumption, that amount decreases over time,” Atul Tiwari, CEO of Cult Wines Americas, told CNN Business.
It May Be Time To Invest in Watches
The experts at CNN Business recommended investing in high-end men’s watches during a bear market. Between 2007 and 2008, when the U.S. was facing the Great Recession, total sales at watch auctions jumped from $55 million to $87 million.
Entrepreneur reported an increase in market demand for luxury men’s watches and a scarcity due to supply chain issues and other factors. In March 2022, Entrepreneur called luxury watches “collectible, highly portable, and scarce considering market demand.”
You can appreciate them for their beauty, engineering and functionality while having a relatively safe, appreciating asset. Entrepreneur noted that older Rolex watches in particular are undervalued and represent “a tremendous opportunity in price appreciation.”
Sports Cards Could Mean a Home Run for Your Pocket
Baseball cards and other sports cards have long been a favorite investment for many people. Trading card sale in general increased by 142% between 2019 and 2020, according to figures from eBay in the 2021 “State of Trading Cards” report.
Not into sports? Since it’s wise to at least know something about the assets you’re investing in, you may want to skip baseball cards and consider Pokemon. EBay reported that Pokemon card sales grew by more than 500% in 2020.
See the (Fiscal) Beauty in Art
Fine art doesn’t just beautify your home, it can also help your portfolio shine. Art has slightly more connection to the stock market than wine or any of the other assets mentioned in this article, CNN Business reported, but the correlation is still very small.
In a paper titled The Global Art Market and COVID-19: Innovating and Adapting, Citi® pinpointed a correlation coefficient of just 0.12 between “developed equities” and fine art. Also, art prices tend to drop later than stocks in a bear market, according to CNN Business. That gives you time to invest, and just as your stock portfolio begins to rebound, the price of fine art may dip.
How To Choose Assets That Could Appreciate
When you’re investing in tangible assets, it’s especially important to consider items that won’t just appreciate but will give you joy while you own them. It is still, of course, important to assess the fundamentals of any investment and never spend more than you can afford. It’s also a good idea to only purchase jewelry, art or collectibles you want to have in your home.
If the asset depreciates, you will lose money as you would with any investment. But you will still have the inherent value of owning an object (or beverage, in the case of wine) that you can enjoy. And that feeling, in a bear market and a stressful world, can be priceless.
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