Where to safely park funds these days is a big question. The world situation is in termoil with China creating rumblings and Covid creating havoc.
I see bitcoin as a big con, a ponzi scheme or a house of cards ready for a collapse. Its only value is based on desperate people conned into to making a fortune overnight without actually having anything material to back the value. Pyramid selling ???. For me that's out. That leaves cash, gold, property or shares.
Cash has never been tops as inflation over the years has shown it to be only a short term hedge. Take my lifetime. An adult wage for someone seventy years ago (I was18) was around $20 a week. Now it is close to 100 times that. Had I put a weeks wage under the mattress then it wouldn't even buy me a meal at the local chinese restaurant.
So we have property. I never like to buy in a boom. I've done well out of property over the years. Is the market saturated and over priced right now. There is a risk that commercial property will take a long time to recover and in some places it may take a very long time. Without immigration there could be reduced demand for residential. Is there a short term boost because of the low interest rates ?. Those interest rates are boosting the demand for home ownership but those moving to owning a home are vacating a rental one. What is the long term effect there.
The share market can be risky. After most booms there has been a bust. We are having a boom now but remember the ASX can be a gambling casino where the odds are stacked against the smaller investor. It is necessary to know how to play the game.
So then there is gold. Gold used to be the backing for notes issued by the government. It was a case of "as good as gold". That stopped a long time ago. It only partly backs the value of issued notes. At least it "partly" backs currency. Unlike bitcoin it does have a physical presence to back value and not an 'inferred' value.
To spread my risk I hold some cash (in case of a "disaster". I have some held in property via a nice place to live with good resale value, a speculative share portfolio which includes a fair percentage of gold through investing in one company that pays good dividends and had a good hedge position.
So I rate them as 1 Gold. 2 Shares. 3 Property. 4 Cash and Bitcoin that far down the list that it isn't worth a mention.
