Wine: A BETTER Investment

When I was in high school, one of my classes had as a project that we would pick some stocks, buy $1,000 worth (with play money, of course), and chart our progress over the course of the year. It piqued my interest in corporate finance. Turns out, I was pretty good at picking stocks. That skill translated into real life when I started buying real stocks with actual US dollars. When I sold, my broker congratulated me on my keen ability to pick rising stars. I paid for my hobbies in college and law school in this manner (and loans and generous gifts from the family…)

Well, that interest has never ceased for me. I like to keep my finger on the pulse of the markets, but my field of investment options has increased. These days, I like to watch precious metals. So last week when my jeweler told me that he felt gold would be about $2,000 per ounce by Christmas, it wasn’t news to me. Most folks who have conversations like this run right out and buy some gold—it’s going up, right? Yes, it probably is. But my metal of choice is silver (Ag). (Did you know that you can eat silver? Its antibacterial properties work wonders when you’re coughing and sneezing….)

So today I was online browsing my favorite silver websites, reading various analyses and reports, when I came upon a little gem of an article from www.investinganswers.com. The article was about investments that perform better than stocks overall. Ho-hum, I wasn’t surprised when I read the first 3 items—gold, real estate, and bonds. Blah-blah-blah. Then the investment gods slapped me right upside the head…

Wine.

Wine?

Yes, Wine was number 4.

Buying and holding bottles of wine turns out not just to be good for sobriety, but also good for the pocketbook. According to www.wineprices.com, there are some wines that actually do better in the markets over time than does the overall stock market. There’s even an index of wines called, among others, the Fine Wine Index 250, which, when pit against the Dow for the past 15 years, seriously outperformed the Dow! (They even have an iPhone app!)

IFCPA has focused its powerful accounting talents and financial expertise on advising the wine and beer industry here in Oregon – sort of like Wine CPA’s. According to the Oregon Wine Board, the wine industry has doubled during the recession. And while www.wineprices.com doesn’t have an Oregon 100 index yet, given the growth of Oregon’s wine industry lately, there are some number crunchers down in the Bay Area who are going to need some educating in Oregon’s wine culture. And given our wine cpa services growth in Oregon’s wine and beer industry, Vinefolio’s teachers may just be our very own wine connoisseurs…Tyson and Dale, who—I’m told—also double as a dynamic duo of super-hero CPA’s!

Now I bought almost all of my silver coins at about $18/ounce. With silver selling at $41.50 an ounce, I’m feeling pretty good about my choice in investing in silver. Now I’m starting to be curious about some bottles of wine….. Cheers!