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There are not any investments that you can make that will always go up. As with anything if it goes up it will come down. How much it goes down and how fast are what counts. Investments that are not as easy to liquidate will take a little longer for the value to decline. Since stocks are so easy to sell quickly you can see the value go down rapidly in just one day. If you are looking for alternative investments that may not be common or even a little strange here are some to consider so you can diversify.
Alternative Investment Ideas
1 Become a hard money lender
Here you have the opportunity to invest your money into someone who is investing in real estate. You can make anywhere from 7%-18%. Lend money from a self-directed IRA. You could use a company like Equity Trust to handle the transaction. They are a top name for handling these types of transactions. Real Estate transaction are not without risk. Furthermore be sure that you have a secured interest in case the investor runs into trouble.
2 MicroVentures
This is an interesting site to check out for investing in a startup company. The only problem is that you must be an accredited investor. This means that the government has rules stating that you need to make more than $200,000 a year for the last 2 years and expect to make it the coming year or have a net worth of $1 million or more. So you need have money to make money. I hate this since the government is saying that if you don’t make what they think you should then you can’t use this investment to make more.
If I inherited $100,000 and only made $40,000 a year I may want to invest that $100,000 but I can’t, since I didn’t make more than $200,000 for each of the last two years and don’t have over $1 million. This just isn’t right. It cuts too many people out of the investments that will really give them returns.
3 SharesPost and EquityZen
These are considered secondary markets. This means that you are buying securities or assets from other investors instead of the company directly. With these companies you are buying shares of a company that have provided liquidity to. You may need to be an accredited investor for these companies as well.
4 Craft beer, liquor and wine
There is currently a demand for these locally grown and made alcohols. For that reason it is also becoming a crowded field since everyone wants to get in on the market. So an easy way to get in on the fad is to invest in a locally growing small business. Or you could decide to go into the business with a partner that does the work and you invest the money. That makes it a hands off investment.
5 Guns
Old collectable guns are a huge market. If this is something that you are interested in it could be a huge investment for you without a lot of effort. Guns from the Civil War are very desirable. Start doing some research and see what they are selling for, how to verify their age, condition and if they are authentic. There are fakes out there. Be careful.
6 Feces
Probably feces isn’t the first thing that you would think of when it comes to investing. There really is an ability to make money from crap. This mostly comes from chicken and bat feces. Fertilizer is made from feces. Due to it not adding up to much if you don’t have a lot of chickens or bats it could be a little extra cash if you are raising them anyway. You may want to check with other local growers in your area to see if they are interested in buying them.
7 Christmas trees
This is perfect for those who have vacant agricultural land. It is an opportunity to make money off an asset that doesn’t do much else for you. Above all you will need to check with your local government to be sure that you can grow them on the property. If there are any different documents that you need to file with the state.
Some may be out of your price range now, keep it in mind and find a way to do it. It may be the one that really pays off.
