GOLD

February 25, 2011

I have a friend who came into a fair sum of money a few years ago. He sat down like a sensible soul and began to think about his options in terms of investments. He found himself somewhere in the middle of buying gold, or getting a mortgage: neither of which his bank manager liked the sound of.

After lengthy discussions with both sides of the coin: bank manager (who suggested a sensible option) and friends/family (frivalities rife, of course!) he decided in the end to go with some sort of bond. For me personally it would’ve been savings, but now that we’re smack bang in the middle of a recession (despite all the powers-that-be INSISTING we’re on our way out of it), it seems as though gold would’nt have been his best option! We did wonder though: would you be entitled to have a gold bar in your own property, or is it something you just “get the certificate” for?

Truth be told NOW is the time to be buying your gold. I’ve seen enough companies crawl out of the woodwork recently with an eye for buying your gold at knock-down prices whilst you’re scraping around for what money you can get. Whe the recession does finally appear from the mire it’s going to be up there with the best of them.

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The bottom line on this particular version of events was that trusting a bank manager is ultimately going to take you to a place that means a) you won’t see your money for a WHILE and b) he’s probably getting something out of it.

I’m still young when it comes to finances: and if you ask me, I’d have just done some more travelling!

What about you?

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Furniture market back on the rise

January 26, 2011

At last we’re starting to hear stories of companies smashing their way back onto the scene after the economic downturn – companies are finding their feet and turning more of a profit than they’ve been seeing for the best part of the last decade. One area that’s seeing a particular turnaround is the furniture industry.

It’s not like there’s a stream of platinum falling from the skies all of a sudden, but the furniture market was hit among the hardest of all during the recession. This Monday saw the opening for registration for the winter market at the World Market Center. It’s based in Las Vegas and it’s got a decent reputation for leading the way in fashionable furnishings around the year. Exhibitors saw an increase in numbers coming through the doors – nothing off the charts, but leap forward compared to recent times.

“The summer market was absolutely dead,” said Kelly Clenet, president of Ergomotion mattress products based in Santa Barbara, Calif. “This time, the traffic has been pretty consistent. We’re not feeling bad about it.”

From this article.

Dealers arrived to take the opportunity to see what was on offer and what the competition could be like. Big retailers were represented, but there was a worrying lack of independent companies.

The downturn in this particular market comes from the source – the banks. People, not just independent companies, are struggling to get credit to make bigger purchases like sofas – renowned for their ZERO interest! sales policies – and they’re not out of the woods just yet. The recession still hangs heavy in the air and companies are unwilling to put their proverbial eggs on the line, many testing the water.

Taken from this post at blog.styleestate.com.

The antique furniture side of life is suffering more than ever, however. Information from the Annual Furniture Index has shown a sharp decline over the past week: customers spending their money on more practical things whilst the purse strings are tight.

For reasons of fashion and function, prices fell by eight per cent during 2010, the largest ever 12-month drop in the AFI in four decades.

Source.

Hopefully the furniture markets temporary well being is a sign of things to come – if we can see one industry start to get back on it’s feet and moving again hopefully the rest will follow suit.

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Silly Money

December 14, 2010

How much would you pay for your ideal car? Ever dreamed of heading out to Los Angeles or Miami to get yourself a convertible and blast out some Will Smith? One of my teen-dreams was always to slide along the infamous route 66 (a lot more boring than I’d ever anticipated as a youngster – I’m told it’s just one long stretch with nothing much to see on one side or the other (then again, the dream was to go with friends, and this was experience from a singular expedition)).

Well, you can forget about going anywhere if you’re interested in the Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, which found its way into record books (probably not for the first time) with the biggest EVER price-tag for a single car sale. Reportedly somewhere between 30 and 40 million dollars, this piece of history will probably find a nice warm garage to spend another few years as it sits as pretty as a prizewinning thoroughbred.

The modern Bugatti’s still sell at some ridiculous amount, but this is just plain lunacy as far as I’m concerned! $30,000,000 would put shame to the fund-raising efforts of some of the major charities: this sort of money could probably cure a decent amount of any of the modern infections facing the poorer nations. Ah well, it’s good to see that people have hearts.

Just a shame to see that people’s hearts are made out of spark-plugs and nostalgia!

There are only a handful around the world and it’s speculated that the company loses money every time there is a sale – the Veyron is not so much a financial investment as it is an experiment. Car enthusiasts worry that it’ll never be matched again… that this is THE BEST road car that we are likely to see roaming around on our planet. It comes to the next air-headed, deep-pocketed fly boy to approach a company as reputable as Bugatti and lay down the challenge of beating the beast with free reign on his savings accounts.

For your enjoyment – here is one of just 304 of these beauties in existence being ploughed into a lake. What a fool!!!

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