Is There Such Thing As A Safe Investment?

Not much in life can be guaranteed. Such is the way of the world, for better or for worse. Nothing is really – tied down and be guaranteed. There are facts, there are structures, but the world owes a lot of how it runs to the fluidity of the processes that we create. Laws get changed, rules get bent, things happen that we don’t have, as people, a great deal of control over. In a way, that worries us. For the spontaneous, it represents opportunity – but for the grounded, it gives a lot of cause to worry. If we cannot guarantee things, we look elsewhere.

That goes for money, too.

You can get a dollar bill or a five pound note, you can feel it in your hand, you can smell it, scratch it, bend it, fold it and even taste it, if you’re into that. A dollar bill or a five pound note is a real thing – but it’s value isn’t guaranteed. The dollar/pound is always going to be a dollar/pound, a single note and $1, but as to its worth – that changes. Thanks to the structures and processes we have constructed – money is fluid in its worth. A dollar will always be a dollar – but it could get you two cans of Cola one day, but only one on another. Things change. That goes for a currency’s buying power in the market, and it goes for everything we know. While we can guarantee that dollar is going to be a dollar, we don’t know how much bang we will get for it in ten years time. Could be more or it could be less.

So, if you ask anyone in finance about a safe investment? Chances are – if they have their wits about them – that they’ll give you an unsure look. We can’t guarantee a safe investment for a number of reasons.

For one – look at what happened in the late 00’s. Yeah, things got bad around the world, but you only need to look at Iceland to see evidence of a ‘safe investment’ fall through. Savings accounts with banks are considered to be super safe – hence the name. However, when the financial crisis hit the world, Iceland’s banks were worth more than the country! They couldn’t be bailed out, and they collapsed. The world pushed too hard for cash and couldn’t deal with the consequences, and in many cases, those with savings were out of luck – they couldn’t get their cash back.

So, no – no investment should be sold to you as a safe bet, because we don’t know if the world will push too hard towards cash once more. However, you can do one thing to make investing safer for you – do your research. No matter if you’re buying real estate for sale or buying into stocks, read up – make a smart choice.

If you’re frugal and conservative with smart investment choices, you can stand to gain a lot and you can make a lot of safe investments – but that relies on your hard work and nothing else.