ADrunkenMarcus wrote:What's been your 'best' investment and why? (And yes, 'best' is whatever you want it to be!)
Buy-to-let. Before it became mainstream. Funded itself, and was then mid-90s yet to become mainstream. Accessibility of 75% leverage a big factor.
HYP shares. Several years into B2Ling^ with the cash-flows turning good, there were excess funds to invest. The choice was pay-off the portfolio interest-only mortgage which is at circa 0.6%, or earn materially more in a HYP. 20 years later I still have the same mortgage and will miss it when I have to pay it off, since I 'arbitrage' a profit from it.
Pop-Art. Just because I liked it and was spending a lot of time in in New York. Later the UK Saatchi/pop-art thing took off.
Late Medieval maps. Just because I find them fascinating; they reveal not only what was known, but how much was unknown. They were and are still considered rather fuddy-duddy, but they sure as heck aren't making any more of them
Some I bought say 20 years ago went for relative peanuts are now going for 20* what I paid.
Whitefriars glassware. Just because I like it's beauty and simplicity. Bought several good examples, then later there was a big Whitefriars exhibition in London and prices went off the scale.
Japanese antiques. I have a wonderful kaidan-tansu (staircase) chest, like this >
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... b9817c.jpg I saw it when living in Tokyo, in a local antique shop. Paid c.US$2500 for it and as an expat my employer has had to pay the freight to move me, it, and everything since every time I move. 20 years later I love it just as much, and it's certainly a errrr - point of interest in the home. Also it stores a huge amount of 'stuff', photo albums, DVDs etc, and lots of space for ornaments on the steps. No idea it's value now, but significantly more than I paid for it, since it's both original and rare, and a long way from home.
My own home in London. Bought a great proposition in what was then right on the edge of a 'fringe' area that came good, and increasingly good as the years pass by. Had researched the market, had my finances all lined up, so was ready to pounce immediately when a suitable deal crossed my radar.
The Jimmy Choo stock I bought my wife. Being taken over a/o this week +70% since purchase c18 months ago. Perhaps beats all of the above for rate of return
If there is a common thread it's perhaps areas that interest me, and/or that I enjoy. Then doing adequate research to understand the market such that I might have an edge in it and can 'buy well'. Then being patient. Not that the art/antiques were bought with a profit-motive, but narrow supply and broad/growing appeal does wonders.
Oh and taking up diving. Opened up a new world to me, continually presented me with personal goals to strive for (I've worked up the 'ranks' to the current certified Divemaster) and taken me to some amazing seriously off-piste places all around the world I'd otherwise never have considered visiting. Allowed me to do the unimaginable (diving
looking for tiger sharks, and finding them, and up really close off Fiji
), camping out on a converted oil rig off Borneo etc. and many more trips. Using my skills to formally assist teaching student divers on courses, for fun, rather than an income. Using my skills to participate in ecological marine surveys. The rewards of finding that hobby have been unexpectedly large.