Should
I invest in real estate or the stock market with my
savings from working overseas?
What investment
strategy works best from overseas?
Caveat:
These are only the author's opinions, he is not a
financial consultant.
Invest in
what you know and in what you feel comfortable with.
Stocks, due to the Internet, are now easy to manage from
overseas. Real Estate is not.
Stocks can
fluctuate wildly, even from day to day. Real estate
tends to stay fairly stable over time.
Research
your Investments
There is
plenty of research on the Internet nowadays for just
about any type of investment. It may be more a matter
of how much time you want to spend from day to day
following the research. Because of the slowness of its
movement, real estate may be better for those of us who
want to spend our free time paying attention to other
things.
Keep your
Emotions in Check
I am an
emotional investor, so I tend to stay away from the
stock market. If I see the value of my investments move
dramatically from one day to the next, I tend to get
either excited or worried. So, I like to invest in real
estate.
Real Estate
We tend to
not know the real value of property until it is actually
sold. A few years ago, I sold a condo in Phoenix,
Arizona (USA) for a very nice gain. But, really, I had
no idea what it might sell for before I began the
process. I had owned it for ten years, so assumed a
nice gain - and was pleasantly surprised.
Real Estate
Bonus
When the
stock market falls 30 or 50 per cent - as they did at
the end of the "Tech Bubble" - real estate continues to
produce. My rents didn't go down - they just
continued. That's why I like real estate - I am
biased. See the section on managing real estate from
overseas, if you intend to invest. As I have done it
since about 1974, I have some strong opinions on the
issue.
BTW, I own
real estate for the INCOME that it provides for me. It
will be a big part of my income when I retire. I don't
own real estate to speculate whether it will go up or
down. It does - but my rents tend not to vary when it
goes up or down - so I don't care either way.
Stocks
Though I am
a big fan real estate, I do own stocks. I own them to
balance my portfolio and to not have all my eggs in one
basket. You might consider subscribing to a service
that will give you model portfolios and pick one that
fits your investment style. That's what I do and it
works well for me (so far!). I let them do the research
- they are the experts. I also pick a few stocks and
indexes that make since to me from an international
perspective.
