Best book or website about long-term investments / wealth preservation?

History always repeats itself. What works 100 years ago may work now. For example, we're experiencing currency debasement. This is nothing new.

VinBed said:
You think investment choices 100 years ago are just as valid now? Probably not.

The best way to preserve wealth is to use it to make a lot more money. Investing in startups could be a good way. Investing in certain metals (rare earth metals) could be really good too, considering limited supply and much greater demand.

The problem with metals is that they aren't nearly as rare as yo
u might think, not even gold. In the long term, you have to consider what asteroid mining will do to the metal markets. Companies like Planetary Resources will start mining asteroids within the next 20 years and will flood the market with metals like platinum, iron, cobalt, etc.

I think the most solid bets are:

-Medical Devices
-Human augmentations
-Software
-Intellectual property
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-joe- said:
My main point was, heavily long term investments, like what you're talking about, are a really bad idea. Invest short term, or in your business. (Or someone elses?)
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I'm already investing in my businesses as well as in domains and will continue to do that because I'm good at it. That's why, earlier in this thread, I explained that I'm not interested in becoming a trader and generally speaking, I'm not interested in methods which can generate higher returns but require a lot of personal involvement.

I do, however, want to diversify and invest more money offline than in the past. When it comes to offline investments, I'm interested in wealth preservation and am willing to accept lower returns than what I would have been able to generate by becoming a trader (for example).
 
charlie.simm said:
Nope, I agree with what cabezon said:



I'm getting ready to learn more and more about what worked in the past (and it's the main reason why I started this thread) because this knowledge will help me better assess our current situation.

By analyzing the past, by seeing what worked 10/20/50/100 years ago and taking context into consideration, you'll be in a far better position to determine which investment methods are likely to represent good choices in the future.
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Well, don't get me wrong - educating yourself on history is extremely valuable. All I am saying is that I wouldn't build an investment strategy that mimics strategies from 50-100 years ago. That's where your research and intuition kick in, and you have to come up with a new angle for the modern day. So, we probably agree on that point.

What I'm suggesting most of all is that you consider all of the factors and try to determine what will go up in value vs. what will decrease in value based on technological progression. I've already started buying domains for human augmentation niches and a few others I know will blow up in 5-10 years.
 
charlie.simm said:
I'm already investing in my businesses as well as in domains and will continue to do that because I'm good at it. That's why, earlier in this thread, I explained that I'm not interested in becoming a trader and generally speaking, I'm not interested in methods which can generate higher returns but require a lot of personal involvement.

I do, however, want to diversify and invest more money offline than in the past. When it comes to offline investments, I'm interested in wealth preservation and am willing to accept lower returns than what I would have been able to generate by becoming a trader (for example).
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Just keep investing in businesses then. Be an angel investor and invest in startups. It may cost a bunch to invest into 10 businesses, but 1 of them is probably going to turn to gold. I see no better way to preserve wealth.
 
Don't know books...but i love tv shows related to investments...shark tank & dragon zen, worth looking
 
charlie.simm said:
The Intelligent Investor and Fail Safe Investing are on my list, I'll update this thread with some personal conclusions after reading them.
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Quick update! Here are the books I sunk my teeth into so far:

1) David Chilton - The Wealthy Barber

2) Charles Mackay - Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Volume I

3) Harry Browne - Fail Safe Investing

4) Benjamin Graham - The Intelligent Investor

I also analyzed the links/documents you guys shared and I'll try to put Philip Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits under the microscope this weekend.

Three conclusions after analyzing #3 and #4:

1) both authors make it clear you can't predict the future

2) Browne's 25% - 25% - 25% - 25% approach makes sense (25% stocks, 25% long term government bonds, 25% cash, and 25% gold)

3) I tend to agree with Graham that for most people, an index fund is a better solution than picking stocks yourself; sure, you could try to become better at analyzing stocks but in my case, I'm already good at something (building online businesses + investing in domains) and by spending lots of time learning about stocks (for example), I'd be spreading myself too thin

So far, the 25% - 25% - 25% - 25% approach seems very interesting and as far as the stock component of the 25% - 25% - 25% - 25% portfolio is concerned, I'll probably end up going with an index fund.

Any other suggestions?
 
Moneysense magazine is Canadian, but really good, solid advice in my opinion. It may still be relevant to you.
 
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